Is there anyway to not wreck every paintbrush i use when i paint por-15? i tried soaking it in paint thinner when done and everything and nothing seems to get it off the brush. Everytime i paint a section of my engine compartment i have to throw away the brush and buy new ones.

And can i wetsand the paint when it's fully dried to make it more smooth? My paint seems kinda gritty in some areas.

thanks for any help!!!

 

No way to avoid the brush thing...I just buy the cheapest ones I can find, and keep some on hand. Once that stuff starts to attract moisture, it's gonna harden.
And because it dries so hard, it's difficult to sand, and slick enough that paint applied over it (once dried) will not stick; however you can apply a topcoat of paint after it sits for a while and before completely hardening - I forget offhand what that length of time is, it might be 30 minutes or maybe 3 hours.
It might seem gritty if there were air bubbles or dirt particles in the paint when it dried.
Here's the engine bay of my Formula after I had done it; the crossmember was done in semi-gloss , and the fenderwells were done in gloss black.

 

that looks great man just another reason why por 15 rules

 

I buy brushes at harbor freight for applying POR-15. They're dirt cheap there. I topcoated my POR-15 with black enamel because after it dried you could see brush strokes. They didn't have any texture, but you could see lines in the paint and could tell it was put on with a brush. The black enamel topcoat made it look perfect.

 

How did you prep for the enamel topcoat? just sand the por-15? What did you sand it with? thanks for the help

 

hi all por-15 that company makes top coats now that wil cover the rust stuff or they have a special primer u put on then paint on any type of paint u want liek even auto paint

its in a book i got fomr em that has all their products in it

 

my floorpan is starting to get rust, no spots of rust through but it is getting to the point where attention is needed. SHould i por15 or get a new underbelly?

 

I would just sand it then cover it with por-15. No more attention needed will be needed. Becuase its under the car I don't think your worried about matching the other colors.

 

It's been a while since I did it. The can says you can paint over it after it dries for so long (but there's a window, if you wait too long you have to sand it first). I let it flatten out (so no brush marks) and I shot it with black Krylon without sanding it.

Basically, I just followed the directions on the can.

 

POR 15 Engine Bay

Link above.. I still need to pull the K member and powdercoat it and the a-arms etc.. get some alloy adjustable shock mounts and coat my break booster etc..

I'm also gona use the por 15 primmer and paint the bay to match the car. FIgued WTF mise well laydown some por 15 befor hand. I thinned and shot mine out of a gun.

I also did the complete int. since It was Gutted.

 

Yeah i think the can says you can apply another coat when the paint feels tacky to the touch, and it also that if the paint's been sitting for over 2 weeks then you can sand and apply another coat. My paint's been on for about 2 days, do i have to wait before i can sand it or what? When should it be fully dried? I want to get this right because i have not had the best results with spray cans in the past. thanks for the help

 

Well here is the deal. I have extensive use with por-15. Check out my web page for some samples. First go with the other suggestions in getting the cheap brushes. No way around it. Spraying it with a cheap spray gun is even better, but you will need a respirator. It's alright if the paint dries brfore putting on the second coat. It still works pretty good. Using the por-15 primer sucks. It is really runny and takes forever to dry. Mine took almost 5 days to dry completely. I really didn't like it so I didn't use it any more. What i did was use PPG epoxy primer over it IF I was going to paint over it with something elese other than the por-15 top coat. It works really good in fact I think it works better than the por-15 primer. I did use some Krylon over some small peices that I used por-15 on, but those were pieces that I knew would never get any ware on them. If you choose to paint over the por-15 with something other than the top coat then all you need to do is scuff it up with a scotch pad and sqirt it. I recomend 2 layers of normal por-15 and 2 layers of the top coat for durable coverage. You can use Laquer thinner to dilute the por-15 while spraying and for clean up, but once it dries you are stuck with it. Oh the person with the rusty floor. Asa long as the floor feels solid then go ahead and wire brush the area and degrease it. Let the dry then put a couple of coats on and you will be good to go. Por-15 does not like oily/greasey surfaces.

 

that cleared it up a bit. Thanks guys

 

Since all you guys seem to know about POR-15, I was wondering if you could give me a few answers..

I am going to paint a rear end with it. I Cleaned the entire rear end up, got all the oil off it. I noticed that there's a few spots that are not rusted... will POR-15 have trouble sticking to clean bare metal? I knocked all the loose dirt and rust off, and I plan on going over the whole thing with acetone before painting it with the POR-15, this should be fine for the rust correct? but should I sand and scuff up the bare metal before I paint it?

I understand that POR-15 will stick to rust very well, as long as there's no oil present... so I am hoping it covers this rear end well, and doesn't peel or chip off.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

I just cleaned up my rear end and painted it with POR-15. It will stick to bare metal fine. They basically only tell you not to paint over paint, because it wont help prevent rust unless its on the bare metal or the rust itself. It wouldnt hurt to scuff up the bare metal before painting either.

As far as top coating goes, you can prime it when the paint is tacky, or go back later and give the paint a light sanding to scuff the pain. I think on the website they recommend 400 grit sand paper but im not positive.

 

Good, then I will scuff it up with some 150 grit sand paper before I rub it down with acetone and paint it... I was told by a friend that it had trouble sticking to bare metal, but I have read everywhere else that it sticks, just not as well... I guess i'll have to see.

Do you HAVE to top coat it? I know UV breaks it down, but it's on the rear end, under the car.. so I didn't think I had to top coat it.

 

You only HAVE to topcoat POR-15 if it will be exposed to sunlight. So I wouldnt worry about your rear end.

 

Holy crap!!

What did you do to prep the bay?
Did you strip the paint off?
How does the engine bay look now?
Was there any color fade?

 

Oh yeah, TPI383, you posted that you shot yours with a gun.
Did the POR15 gum up the gun at all?
What did you use to clean it?
Did you thin out the POR15 before spraying?

 

i find putting my brush in a can of laquer thinner keeps the brush soft and takes the paint off it too...

 

Looks awesome... did u strip it, or just coat over the original paint? How did you prep the surface?

 

Please help, I never understood it all and still don't :

1.
*ok, when you say scuff paint, DO YOU MEAN scuff POR15 ITSELF? So is it PAINT or POR15? Inconcise, I need verification (to scuff por 15 could mean to apply primer on por15 SO THAT you can then apply paint over it) Do I make sense here?

2.
*DO you have to get ALL rust out prior to applying POR15 OR just apply it ON rust? (I would think get rust out first)

3. (Maybe I am dumb and don't understand the whole concept or maybe I am just confused)
*PRIMER, Why do you use primer? Do you prime the cleaned area BEFORE applying POR15 or do you only need the PRIMER IF and ONLY IF you want to apply paint (topcoat?) OVER POR15?
Why do I question this one? Okay, I can see that NOT ALL people on here put paint over por15, because it isn't really necessary in some areas like underneath vehicle (where UV rays don't make it there to disintegrate por15), SO WHY PRIME IT? Or scuff por15?

 

2. It says you don't need to get all of the rust off, but it's not a bad idea to get rid of all it. It can't hurt to get rid of it.

3. You don't put POR-15 on top of primer. You use primer so the paint will stick to the POR-15.

http://www.por15.com/

 

I bought a starter kit and used it on several places. Seems to work fine by following directions. The marine degreaser will etch paint a bit so don't get it where you don't want it. The acid rust remover doesn't really remove much rust, not as good as naval jelly, but it does leave the rust black and the company says this is a good base for the paint. Won't know how good this system is for a couple years though.

 

I use either cheap brushes or sponges from the dollar store to apply it, then just throw em away. POR-15 sells a product to dilute it if you want to shoot it with a gun. I bought some recently, but have yet to shoot POR-15 with a paint gun. I don't plan on using a really nice gun w/ the POR-15.

 

Walmart laquer thinner seems to work fine cleaning the brush, about six bucks a gallon and handy for other stuff too.

 

No
POR15 thiner
Yes.

 

i sand blasted and used a cookie wheel on most of it, so basically i took the entire underneath down to bare metal to get rid of all rust. the underneath is a little dusty in that pic from sandblastin i should have wiped it all off so u guys could see how it really looks.

 

por15 sprays great! You need to use the por15 thinner to thin it but you can use laquer thinner for clean up. I sprayed it with my new finishline gun and had no problems getting it clean. I've found that bare metal needs to be scuffed up by either sanding, grinding, or sandblasting for the por15 to grab it well. I've had problems with it not sticking to smooth metal. For rusted parts just wirebrush the loose stuff off and coat it with the por15.