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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?
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val_williams1mo agoMost Upvoted
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.
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sarah8181mo 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.
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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.
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