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That moment I realized I was putting filler on bare metal like a rookie
I used to just lay filler right on sanded metal, no epoxy primer or anything. Last spring a customer came back 4 months later and the whole panel was bubbling up from behind, and that's when it clicked for me. Has anyone else had that 'oh crap' moment where you realize you skipped a step for years?
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ray3561mo ago
The epoxy primer trick was a total game changer for me too. I started doing a thin coat of epoxy, let it flash off, then laid the filler right over it while it was still tacky. That little bit of bond helps it stick way better than bare metal ever did. Ran a test panel once with that method and another with bare metal, left them both outside in the rain for a week. The bare metal one had rust creeping up from the edge of the filler in like three days, while the epoxy one looked clean as a whistle. Now I won't even look at filler unless the metal's got that green or grey layer underneath first.
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gracec161mo ago
Did you ever read that old forum post from a guy who tested filler on bare metal versus epoxy primed panels? He left them in a damp garage for a month and the bare metal one looked like a sponge by the end. That little experiment is the only reason I started using epoxy primer before filler, saved me a ton of headaches.
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wood.faith1mo ago
And I actually saw a similar test on YouTube once where a guy left filler on bare steel and epoxy primed panels in a salt spray booth for 72 hours. The bare metal panel had rust creeping in from the edges and the filler was starting to bubble up like a blister. That visual is burned into my brain, I don't touch filler unless the metal is sealed first now.
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