primer

[elks]

What is the best brand of primer to use.

[68X426]

Depends.

What are you going to paint, how are you going to paint it, and with what final result do you expect/want?

As a brand, Eastwood is well regarded.  Probably 50 types to pick from.

http://www.eastwood.com/paints/primers.html

[Laowho]

Give SPI a look and see whether you like its comparison w/ PPG and other popular brands. After reading lotsa forum threads about it, specially at hot rodders, we're probly going this way. OTOH, if there are any differences, I'm sure I wouldn't know.

edit: Sorry, I was assuming the epoxy primer. And for that, SPI seems to have advantages, cost being only one.

[elks]

painting a 69 Charger T5 copper in color.

[green69rt]

What is the best brand of primer to use.

I've always been told that you should use the same brand primer that you are going to use for the top coats.  You can probably get away with mixing manufacturers but why take a chance?

If you are going to paint it yourself then use one brand.  If you're just wanting to keep the car protected till you ship it off for paint then it doesn't matter as much.  Any painter worth his money is going to sand the car down and use his own primer, anyway, before final color coats.

Oh, and if you think the primer is going to protect the car against anything then probably not.  Primer is somewhat porous.  If you prime the car and leave it outside it will still rust after a while.   It'll probably last for many months inside a garage but only a few months or weeks outside (depending on how good the prime job is, quality of primer, etc.)

[Canadian1968]

that is a very open ended question .  Green69 is correct, in that I would recommend using the same brand primer as the top coat you will spray with. IF that is not possible, then honestly it comes down to personal opinion.  Are you spraying onto bare metal?  If so then you need to look at an epoxy or etch primer first.  Almost all primers have DTM properties, but that does not mean that they offer actual corrosion protection.  You need to seal your bare metal with either a good Epoxy ( I like SPI)  Or an etch primer or wipe . I use Sikkens every day they use an Etch WIPE that is next to none. I also like their Grey HIGH BUILD surfacer. It has a ton of build , sand very nice and dries very quick, Its a 3:1 ratio with no reducer.

Avoid Hybrid Epoxy / Polyurethane primers, they are hard to sand. 

[sardillim]

Good results with Clausen's  "all You need "    very high build   minimum 8 hr dry time

[elks]

thanks for the info

[alfaitalia]

Like said....you need the primer to match the paint. I won't use anything other than either Glasurit or Deltron on my cars.....yes it's expensive paint but anything else is just "paint" imo. I no longer have the facilities to paint cars myself but always insist on those brands at the body shop...and they like to use it. I just get the recommended primer (and colour of primer) to match the paint. Hopefully is still as good as it was..not painted a car in about 6 years!

[Dreamcar]

IMO, it depends on how much of the overall job you're doing yourself...

On my project, I'm doing very minimal body work and sealing the worked on areas with Eastwood epoxy. I find it easy to use as a hobbiest in my home garage. The trunk, inside the cabin, and engine bay will be coated with epoxy. The outside will have some epoxied areas that I've worked on, but I'm leaving some areas in the edp coating ADM has on their panels. Then, I'm having professionals finish the job...strip the edp coating if necessary, do all the block sanding with whatever high-build primer they want to use , and spray the top coat. I checked with the pro shop and they didn't care what 2-part epoxy I used. I wouldn't be surprised if they scuff and apply a sealer coat of their choosing before doing any work. Furthermore, whatever epoxy I apply will be well cured before I bring the car to the shop.

If I was doing all phases myself, then I would certainly do my best to stick with one brand.