My old mentor was right about not skipping the primer step

My first boss, Greg, always told me to never skimp on primer even for a quick color change. I thought I knew better on a Ford Explorer last month, figured I could save 30 minutes. Ended up with fish-eye all over the hood and had to sand it down and start over. Took me an extra 2 hours to fix, so I guess he was right all along. Has anyone else learned a hard lesson from ignoring an old-timer's advice?

3 comments

3 Comments

val_williams2mo ago

Oh man, have you ever had one of those moments where you can almost hear the old timer laughing in your head while you're fixing your own mistake? I did the same thing on a Mustang last year, thought I could skip the high-build primer on a tricky metallic silver. Ended up with the paint lifting in sheets during the final buff, had to strip the whole quarter panel back to bare metal. Now I keep a can of good primer in my booth at all times and don't even think about skipping it, no matter how much of a rush I'm in.

sarah8182mo ago

sounds exactly like my experience with a ford focus back in the day. thought i could skip the etch primer on bare metal cause i was in a hurry, and the whole thing flaked off like dead skin a week later. now i always do the full prep no matter what, learned the hard way too lol.

shanelee2mo ago

Greg taught you a lesson that only costs time and paint. Fish-eye is a nightmare to fix and always bites you when you try to cut corners. Old dudes like him have been doing this long enough to know exactly where the shortcuts fail. I learned the same way on a Chevy Silverado bumper. Tried to skip the primer on a black to white change and ended up with a dusty mess that wouldn't stick. Now I follow every step they taught me no matter how small it seems.