Paint questions / to primer or not to primer??
 

Well my old black dash is sanded and ready for it new white up-dated look. Is it nessary to primer all the old gell or just the areas that had to be repaired (holes filled). I think I am going the autmotive paint route, I do have a gell dump gun from when I was making fiberglass body panels. But that was used with molds and from what I remember it sprays vary lumpy. Also I have a ton of surfice that I don't whant to re-sand and buff.

Re: Paint questions / to primer or not to primer??
 

Its ok to just primer the fixed areas. But blend them out. Don't mask small squares around the fixed area because that will make hard edges that will show up in the finish. On the other hand if you primer the whole panel it will make painting your base color that much easier. You can even tint the primer cloose to the finished color. You must use a good quality Automotive paint gun. The smoother you lay that primer down the easier it is to sand. And go for good urathane primer. The laquar primer will shrink and show sand scatches down the road. Hope this helps.

Russ

Re: Paint questions / to primer or not to primer??
 

I have found that PPG DP epoxy primers have great adhesion charteristics. If you prime it all you will have a uniform base color and you can apply the primer, let it flash, and paint right over top of it with no sanding. You will probably want to use an acrylic urethane top coat. The top coat can be a standard color or a base coat clear coat system just depending on the time and money you want to spend. A PPG automotive paint dealer can give you the info and sypply the materials that you will need.

Re: Paint questions / to primer or not to primer??
 

I would prime the entire thing, let it cure, wet sand and paint. You will get shrink lines eventually if you do not prime the entire area. If you are going white that is not so important as the white is so bright that stuff like that is hard to see, If you plan to go with a perl or cany or flake paint then you will DEFINATLY need to prime the entire surface.

Jon