Hello Everyone,

I am a complete novice when it comes to autobody and am in a bit of a spot on my project.

I am converting a 2002 Bluebird school bus to an RV. We have removed all of the side windows, raised the roof 10" and re-sided the openings with 18 gauge sheet metal.

I wanted to get primer on the bare metal before Winter sets in. I ordered a gallon of SEM self-etching primer. The primer shipped and.....

Primer is "out for delivery", the sun is shining and the wind is still....

I went out to finish the last bit of prep before I shoot the primer on the bare metal and found the bus COVERED in aphids. I brushed them all off with a broom. Five minutes later and it was covered again.

I contacted the local Farmers Extension Agent and asked about them. Apparently conditions were ideal over the last couple days for them to hatch and they will be around until temps drop below freezing. Too cold to paint.

The options that I see are:

1- Go ahead and prime the metal to protect it over the Winter and accept that, in the Spring, I am going to have to sand all of their little corpses down and spray it again.

2- Leave the metal unprotected and hope for a weather window that will be warm enough to spray but cool enough to avoid the bugs. That would likely have me spraying primer in 40F-50F weather if I am lucky enough to get that. When we see milder temps in the Winter here it is usually damp/rainy.

3- Can't think of another option at the moment.... Suggestions?

I am leaning towards spraying & sanding later but I really have no idea how difficult that will be and if I would need to take it back down to bare metal .

If I have to sand it down to bare metal then I probably don't want to use the $100+ gallon of self etching primer that I bought. Better to find something cheap?

Any suggestions are appreciated as ..... This is really bugging me...

Thanks.
S.

PS: I am located in SE Washington State. Aka: "the dry side"

yep, you need to get that bare metal covered. that primer will probably dry tack free quite fast and low temps 40- 50 aren't going to be a real problem in your case. if you were using epoxy that would be a no no as it doesn't like temps below 55 or so. just try and put it on med wet and go for it, and don't let it bug ya.
Jay D.

if you had someone to help you could go in sections- have the helper go ahead of ya and sweep away the aphid,then spray that section. but dont let it sit in bare metal all winter.