tm9-801.com

Just finished priming the frame. First coat is Rustoluem Metal primer. You have to watch what you buy as there ARE different types of primer and they all do something different. The 'best' is in the 'silver-ish' can:



This is an primer for heavy rust (well, I consider anything not just sandblasted rusted). There are other 'rusty metal primers' but they are in white cans. Not what you what. I then went to TSC and got the pint of hardener to speed up the drying and make the primer that much harder. I used 2 quarts of paint and 1/2 pint of hardener:




My next coat will be with this (well, the semi gloss version.. this is a stock photo from Lowes.com):


Also with a hardener. I have one quart, need another (I though I could get away with one quart.. silly me).

I realize that this is not 'factory correct' (a single black lacquer primer coat with OD on top) but short of paying a couple hundred dollars to get the frame 100% clean I needed to set the rust in some sort of 'encapsulator' so it doesn't spread. I know.. I'm such a poser. But what I DO like is that I will have a nice, durable hardened enamel primer to paint on... that's going to last A WHILE.

Here's my paint mask after two quarts of primer:



My lungs are thanking me

Here's the best thing you can buy for $50 (less with 20% off) for painting:

64 oz. Professional High Volume Low Pressure Spray Gun Kit Central Pneumatic - item#93305



The one and two star reviews on the HF site are by idiots... this is my second one and its great.. holds a LOT of paint, and you can paint upside down if you need to.

Amazon link for mask ($8)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BX ... UTF8&psc=1

And filter ($5)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XB ... UTF8&psc=1

I also got the P100 particulate filters that interchange ($15):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ST ... UTF8&psc=1

Retail this is almost $70 worth of filters for $30... and free shipping. The mask and filter alone is $30 at Lowes. The only difference is that the Lowes mask has P95 particulate filters snapped on to the top of the organic filters. I don't see that as a big selling point as you are not really worried about particulate matter, just VOCs. I smelled nothing when painting.