My TA has been peeling paint for a while. It has several other needs including a new interior, so it is up on blocks until I can afford to fully restore it. In the mean time, I am stripping the entire car before the eventual paint job. I am doing the stripping (using aircraft remover and sandpaper) as I get time this summer. Question is spay gun primer would be best, but as I am working a panel at a time, am I ok to spray can it with an etching primer for now? Or am I just going to have to sand that down later to get a better primer when I am ready to paint. I am going to be putting a lot of time into this and want it right when I get done. Any advice would be appreciated.

Im not a fan of etching primer; 2 reasons. 1 its lacquer based and 2 it can cause some problems if its not sealed correctly. Use the correct sandpaper for the paint/primer youre using. There ARE 2 part (hardened) primers in spraycans. Theres a way you open a valve which released the hardener into the can, you shake for 2 minutes and then paint. Eventually the paint turns into a brick in the can so dont crack it open untill youre damn good and ready though. Wear a respirator for this stuff.

Any unhardened primer is just junk and absorbs water, so its actually almost worse that just light surface rust. I had to leave my car in bare steel under a tarp for a month due to a death in he family. a couple hours with a DA sander, wipe down, tack-rag and epoxy primer. She sat in epoxy primer for 3mos with no problems. Epoxy primer is the best way to go for primer.

You COULD wipe the panel down with something like WD40 on a rag to keep the parts from rusting, just make sure you dont SPRAY the stuff on the panel...ALWAYS ON A RAG, and use a degreaser followed by a tackrag before you paint.

I had one of my fenders in bare steel hanging in the garage for a year...with only light oxidizing. If you can keep the parts up off the floor and DRY you'll be fine for a while.

Nate

Buy your local body guy a lunch or somethin and ask him what his recomendations are. Pro's know quite a bit lol

Spray can primer is a mistake. I've used it a few times, and depending on the heat of your paint, you can melt it and cause a mess.. I've had runs on previous paint jobs from using it.. For a quick touch up, it's fine, but for serious body work.. Run the other way.. Get a cheap spray gun, you can get them at Princess Auto for 19.95, and a can of laquer primer w/ thinner from $20-30

Thanks,
I appreciate all the input.

I despise it when I see this suggestion;
It's not the paint gun that breaks the budget, it's wiring your garage for 220V (contractor/electrician), a couple thousand dollars there (assuming you want to meet local building codes...), buying an air compressor that will run said gun ($1000 or so), air dryers, ventilation in the garage that won't explode, more lighting - etc etc. If you already have that stuff, then you'd be retarded to not just go out and buy a gun, and the $50-$100 worth of paint. Paint and a gun is cheap. The rest is expensive...
Tremclad starts to look better now eh?