When to paint, now or later?

[wsurf4me]

Short story is I've got a bare cab on frame right now, I repaired all of the rust and welded up all the firewall holes and spray bombed it in primer. I really want to get this back together and on the road, plus I don't have a trailer or the funds to take it somewhere to get painted right now. I was thinking if I spray bomb some duplicolor under the dash I could get it back together, leave the rest in primer and then get it finish painted later. This isn't a show truck, I'm just trying to have a mechanically sound daily driver. What would you do?

[dubie]

I would not drive a truck with rattle can primer on it. Primer a very porous material that will suck up every bit of moisture it will come in contact with and start the rusting process. If you want to leave it in primer, you should be shooting epoxy primer to seal the meal. That will protect the metal and buy you some time on the painting process
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[Rude Dude]

Get it running first if your not going for show, rustoleum is good under dash can't be seen once carpet is in. Most good paint shops charge an arm & leg for rust repairs so that's where you saved money. The prep work can be done at your convenience like block sanding and body work. Remember the regular paint shops work at get them in and out as fast possible mostly for insurance jobs and don't really care about the walk inns. Custom shops will have a build sheet and keep track of time @$60 plus an hour on the low end. They normally charge 50 percent up front and pay as they progress on the remainder which adds up fast. The prep work is the key to a nice build, my neighbor took a body & paint class at a community college and painted his corvette and it came out beautiful. Materials cost money I buy my sand paper by the yard on egay or craigslist beats buying it in sheet packs at hardware store. good luck on your build

[mknittle]

What Tim said.

[OrrieG]

Rattle can is not water proof and will actually trap moisture. If you are on a tight budget, get a cheap HF gun, some epoxy primer and shoot away. If its bare metal get an etch primer then the epoxy. It will say you time in the long run. Most paint store will tint the primer if you do not want regular grey, red oxide or black. I rattle canned mine (stripped, rattled canned and basically stored indoors for 7 years) and ended up taking it all back to metal when I started doing the real body work, and I live in the high desert, little rain and low humidity.

[wsurf4me]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

One more question regarding the rattle can paint. I've painted some of the truck with rattle can primer followed by rattle can epoxy top coat, is that safe or will it absorb moisture also. From what you're saying I'm assuming that the epoxy top coat will not absorb water and should protect the metal, just want to make sure the rattle can stuff is good enough. I'm in moisture central here in Florida so if it's questionable I will have to take care of it.

[_Ogre]

i can't move well enough to paint, but i can prime and prime i did and a lot of sanding of primer after that
most shops will recommend removal of any spray bomb primer as it is the first of many layers of paint and if it lets loose everything lets loose.
buy a harbor freight spray gun and spray some good epoxy primer on your truck
spraying primer is a good way to learn to spray paint

i modified my truk extensively, it's been together 3 times
once for fab, once for fit and finish and a final time with paint
i sand blasted everything after fab and immediately hit it with epoxy primer

after fabricating the cab i painted the firewall and dash, it sat like this for a couple years while the rest of the fab and bodywork was completed

[_Ogre]

you can accomplish a lot of work with a painted firewall and dash, i have line-x bedliner on the bottom of the cab and firewall
here is a pic where i've started wiring, the column is in, the motor runs, the ac works and my interior fiberglass was mostly done at this stage