Painting Plywood to Automotive Grade Finish

General Discussion. Make yourself at home...read, ask and answer!

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 6672
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: central Ohio
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 6:57 pm
And see, we keep coming back to plastics....... :allgood:
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!

User avatar

No Turning Back
Posts: 774
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:06 pm
Location: I live in a house
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2022 7:43 pm
DarrelK wrote:And see, we keep coming back to plastics.......


That bedliner idea is a great one also. Use a primer gun, thin it down with acetone and get a fine bullet proof finish.
Sent by the random thoughts from the voices in my head...



Non-Lurker
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 11:06 pm

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 3:12 am
Update: I didn't mention it but this is a bit of a passion project for my 65 year old dad and I'm helping along as much as I can.

He's set on the 1/4" plywood sheets he already has, and the white single stage he already has. We also have good amounts of epoxy primer, and body filler.

I understand its not ideal, or maybe even rational at all. If it goes all wrong, I'll sand my heart off and tintable truckbed liner it in a year.

My main question now is.. what combination and/or order of epoxy primer, body filler, and high build primer should I use?

My dad is pretty set on epoxy primering all wood first. If this is a huge problem I can probably skip it with justification but hed like to do it if possible.

Then body filler? Or if I have more time to do more coats, would high build primer work better?

And then a final coat of epoxy primer. Then single stage white.

It seems comical to say this after all the advice..... but... my main concert is adhesion and durability. So if I can choose a process that is more work but will give better results, I'd prefer that method if the alternative is superior only in reduced labor.

I apologize for ignoring the recommendations, but hopefully there is still some advice left to make the best of it!

Thank you.



Top Contributor
Posts: 1396
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:16 pm
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 4:53 am
i understand being set in his ways. "kind of" resembles me. :lol:
i have way more experience working with wood than metal. projects of all shapes and sizes from kitchen cabinets to speaker enclosures to play houses to houses, trim work, blahblanblah to make it sound like i know what im doing but in reality i just do what works for me.
myself- ive never used epoxy primer on wood. when using ply that is going to be painted and i want a dam nice finish, i use birch ply. typically no voids and easy to finish. primer. sand with 400. paint. depending on project, might need to do primer/sand again.
if the ply is just the builders grade crap with voids, first quick sand with 120 grit before anything. then filler on voids. sand smooth. primer. inspect and determine if i need/want a smoother finish. if so- sand with 180 and spray more primer. if not, sand with 400. paint.

if hes dead set on epoxy- that first. then filler, then primer. then paint.

justa suggestion- ya might want to look into some C channel and H channel for edges and joints of the ply. 1/4 is pretty flimsy. the channel will help stiffen it up a bit at any joints that dont have solid backing.

User avatar

No Turning Back
Posts: 774
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:06 pm
Location: I live in a house
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 12:13 pm
If he wants to shoot epoxy first, why not? I did the same thing, it seems to work.

If you are not using birch, I would shoot the epoxy, then shoot some poly, then sand and evaluate what you have.

You can add filler at that point if it is needed. If the wood has existing big ol voids, then maybe add some filler after the epoxy.

Sounds like one of my projects where the time/labor is not really an issue.

Don't overthink it, go for it. Hell, I am the king of sanding off my previous work and taking way longer than anyone else, so at least you will be doing better than me!! Post photos!!
Sent by the random thoughts from the voices in my head...
Previous

Return to Body and Paint

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: badsix, Google [Bot] and 140 guests