NotDaZ

Okay, I got the engine bay sandblasted on Thursday. Today (Friday) I prepped the engine bay with metal-ready and then painted the engine bay with POR-15. It looks great!! As it dried, it is not as shiny and not as smooth to the touch as I would like it. I understand that it will not be perfectly smooth as the body, but I would like somewhat smoothness. I plan on leaving POR-15 (Semi-Gloss Black) as the final finish. What can I do to get a shine and or smoothness? Would I need to sand it? Buff it? Or just leave it, because it is an engine bay. I have attached a picture. It looks shiny because I took it just after painting it..

posbird87

looks so shiny i cant see it at all!

NotDaZ

I'll try again...I saw how bad the last guy got it for not posting a picture.. Please be nice to me, I breathed in a few paint fumes today.

lane

I'd suggest getting it out of the sun. POR15 cannot handle any sort of UV and will dull really fast when exposed to direct sunlight.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

I did my complete engine bay in POR15 also...

I thined it and shoot it outa a gravity feed hvlp gun. Only ****ty thing when I was done I had to leave so I closed the garage door and dust went everywhere.

got in the finish befor it way dry... So now it looks like a speckly finish. Oh well I plan to prime and paint it when I paint the car anyways..

http://www.cecoatings.com/images/92Z/POR15/

ZFORCE

Would this stuff work well on the K-member and A-frames as well?

Even if you could not get them blasted first?

I hate having those rusted pieces under my car.

tj

NotDaZ

I have seen where others have posted pictures of their cross member and A-Frames painted with POR15. I don't recall if they got them sandblasted first, though.

TPI383 - it looks like you have some windshield damage..

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

I didnt por 15 my k-member cuz Im powdercoating another setup I have.. and droping that in.

Yes I need a new windshield. but good hting its broke so I can paint the car while its out.

I have the complete int. out. EVERYTHING but the dash. It got POR15ed and Im having a 8point cage put in.

Trans Am#5

You could have gone over it as it was drying with a chassis black gloss or semi-gloss spray can. That would have been probably what you are lokking for. I did it this way once and it came out great.

NotDaZ

It's been 24 hours now, is it too late to spray it with gloss black can spray? I wouldn't be able to do anything until tomorrow afternoon at this point. If not, that's okay, it doesn't look bad at all..

Petes 84Z28

A little bit late; they recommend topcoating within 3 to 5 hours of applying the paint.
I did the inner fenders of the Formula with gloss black, and the top half (so far) of the crossmember with semi-gloss chassis black.

Pete

Mathius

Por-15 will not prevent rust unless A. You apply it to bare metal (rusted counts as bare metal, obviously, but it can't be a painted surface) and B. you make sure all sides of the metal are coated. This meaning, it's great that you guys did your engine bay, but if you didn't do the inside of the firewall, or the bottom side of the inner fender wells, then you could rust from the inside out.

You can certainly apply por-15 over paint, but you're wasting your time. In order to get the benefits of the rust prevention, you need to apply it to bare metal.

If that means sandblasting it, so be it, you could also sand it down, grind it, use a chemical remover, but in all these cases, make sure you have a clean bare metal surface when you're done.

The por-15 web site alludes to a way to use bondo to give a smooth finish over your rusty pitted chassis, but I don't remember exactly what step it's used in. I believe you have to apply it just as por-15 starts to set. It's nice that por-15 stops rust, but the rusted piece you just painted can have surface distortions from the rust if you didn't bead blast it down smooth. Bondo can fill in small parts, while your metal will still not rust.

Mathius

NotDaZ

Petes 84Z28 - I noticed that you have A/C delete. That must be nice..
Mathius - You are correct with everything you said. I was lucky enough to have friends that own a sandblaster. They brought the whole engine bay down to metal...They also hit the inside of the wheel wells (where the rubber undercoding was gone.) I sprayed the POR15 on, so I could get all the tough spots...
Thank you for all the advice everyone. The people on this board are great!

Time to decide on what header to go with!!
Scott

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

Striped the complete car down and did it. INSIDE and OUT.

Nate86

So does POR-15 just prevent rust from happening again or does it actually remove the rust from metal?

Also, why should you use MetalReady before applying POR-15?

Mathius

I'm not 100% sure you even NEED Metal Ready. I'm thinking it's just an extra product by the Por-15 people to make money.

Metal Ready is a prep product used to make the bare metal surface ready for Por-15 to be applied, but I'm fairly certain it's probably just a cleaning agent, i.e. mineral spirits or such. To be on the safe side and do things "by the book", Metal Ready is recommended. You can check the Por-15 Web site (http://www.por-15.com) and they have a FAQ that answers most of your questions.

As for how it works with rust, it prevents future rust, and converts exhisting rust to a paintable surface. It doesn't remove rust. Actually what is happening, is it's creating a hard shell over your metal and rust. Here's the punchline. Por-15 is moisture activated, so if moisture attacks your car it won't make rust. If it does anything to your exhisting por-15 surface, it would just make it stronger.

The big downside to Por-15 is it IS UV sensative, which is why they recommend it for engine bay's and undercoating, however, there is a way to paint over por-15 and of course they have their own products for that too So you could essentially do your whole car, like TPI383 has done.

This is my goal down the road. I have emissions tests to worry about here where I live. I want to snag an '82 sometime in the next couple of years, and by 2007 it'll be 25 yrs old and emissions exempt! I can por-15 the whole chassis inside and out, and essentially the car could last forever, no more rust!

Another downside is due to the way it hardens, por-15 is very difficult to remove.

Mathius

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

I did my engine bay with POR-15 semi-gloss.
Looks pretty good to me.
Before,


after,

Nate86

So just to make sure I have all this straight:

POR-15 does not remove rust, only prevents it
Metal-Ready is not essential to apply prior to applying POR-15
If I was to apply POR-15 to the outside of my car, it would weaken due to sunlight UV radiation

I still have more questions and I checked the FAQ a couple of times, but it doesn't answer everything I want to know.

It says POR-15 comes in different colors, but I thought it was supposed to be a rust preventitive, not paint? What's the deal?
What would happen to the surface of a rusty peice of metal if I applied POR-15 to it?
Is it recommended that I sand all of the rust off the metal before applying POR-15 or can I just apply it directly to the rusty metal?

Sorry for sounding like such a newbie I just don't understand a lot of this stuff.

GTA-SPD

They say that you can apply it to exterior surfaces, but it loses its finish quality. The protection properties are not effected by sunlight. Sounds just like GM paint, it covers metal and protects it from the elements, it just looks like ****. I used it on my battery tray and on my subframes and on both it looks like the day I did it, 1.5 years ago.

Nate86

Ohhhh, so what you're saying is that it may be able to add a nice finish to your metal while protecting it from rust, but the finish dulls if exposed to sunlight (not the protective properties, though)?

That's what I got out of that.

NotDaZ

I decided to use it only in my engine bay based on the fact that the UV rays dull the finish. Since the compartment will be exposed to the sun very little it is not a problem. I’m glad to hear that the battery tray looks the same as the day you painted it! That part of my car had the most rust. Although, the sandblasting took all the rust away, I wanted to prevent it from coming back.
I don’t think I would recommend using POR15 on the exterior of the car. It only comes in these basic colors; Black, Clear, Gray, Semi-Gloss Black and Silver. Not to mention the UV aspect.
As I think about it, I did use the semi-gloss and that is what I got. By all means, it looks great and I feel that, from what I have read from others, it will last!!
I have a little left over just incase I discover any rust on the interior of the car (floor boards, trunk or behind the dash) not that I expect any. I have attached a picture that is the same as the one above before the POR-15.

GTA-SPD

That is what I took from the literature that came with my order of the stuff when I bought it. I can't say for sure, because mine is under my car or under my hood and never sees the light of day.

War_Eagle

Back to the original question, you sound like you want a more gloss finish? Dosen't Por-15 comes in a nice gloss black?.....

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

it comes in SEMI-GLOSS BLACK but belive me i fyou get a nice finish its glossy enough.

Petes 84Z28

Yes it does; that's what I used on the inner fenders in the pic I posted above....the crossmember was done in semigloss for contrast.
If you're interested, they will send you a free catalog by filling out a form on their site.
Some of the literature enclosed with the catalog states:
"POR-15 is UV sensitive. The chemical that gives paint it's ultra-violet protection causes a slight weakness in paint and it is for this reason it is not present in POR-15. If the painted surface is in direct exposure to the sun it must be topcoated to retain it's finish. You may use any type or solvent base of paint or fillers, except a clear to acheive this. The usual result of an unprotested finish exposed to the sun is a complete loss of color with no return of oxidation. Ask your POR-15 distributor or dealer for information on our extensive line of incredibly tough, UV protected finish coatings."
They also offer a body filler designed to work over POR-15, as well as a sandable primer which can be applied if you desire to paint over a cured surface.

Yep....get any on your skin, and you'll be wearing it for the better part of a week

As long as there are no flakes of rust, it shouldn't be a problem.

Mathius

It does not remove rust, true. It prevents it, also true. However, while it does not remove rust, it does keep the rusted metal from corroding further.
I don't want to tell you yes on this. This is merely my personal speculation. I do not believe it is necessary. It's just a prep agent. I believe mineral spirits would work just as well. The fact is, I've never tried it, I don't know. It may be that Metal-Ready has certain properties to make Por-15 bond to the rust initially, so it may be necessary. I don't know on this one.

This is correct

This is what we're here for! Just make sure you do a search first, so you don't ask redundant questions.

Some people do areas such as their engine bay, or undercarriage in Por-15 and then choose not to paint over it. These areas aren't touched by sunlight much, so Por-15 still tends to stand up well there. This gives them other options than just black.

Basically here's the deal. If you apply Por-15 it will conform to the contour of the piece you're working on, and create a hard shell over it. So.... whether or not you want to sand the rust first is up to you, it isn't necessary, however, if your piece isn't smooth and the rust has bubbled up, it's going to make your finished piece have those bubbles as well.

Mathius

Nate86

Thanks, Mathius! :hail:

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Sorry if I sound like a newbie ('cause basically I am hehe), but I just wanted to get all the facts before I started believing a product would do something that it does not.

Thanks again.