Looking For Reno / Norcal Sandblaster Recommendations

That DPLF epoxy primer is likely comperable as the SPI epoxy primer I suggested. That would serve as a base primer over freshly blasted bare metal. The DP402 catylist sounds like what you would want to use with this product.
-Donny

 

Thanks Donny. I wrote SPI and got some good info from Andy. He said (in case anyone else wants to know pricing)

It mixes 1 to 1, so a gallon of primer plus a gallon of the activator is $207.80 with free shipping.

A quart plus a quart of the activator is $82.64. Shipping is free.​

 

Spending today doing some crack repair in the floor pans. Interesting to note the wrinkles evident from when these were stamped:


These were all painted black from the factory, right?

 

How do SPI's prices compare to PPG with the 402 catylist?
Your blaster did a nice job it looks like. That bare metal would already be turning brown with rust with my humidity.
-Donny

 

Yep painted a "gloss" black that's really closer to a modern semi-gloss than a gloss.

 

Martin Auto Color in Sparks NV Quoted me $242.93/gallon of the PPG DP50LF. O'Reilly has it for $300.99/gallon (Catalyst separate for $285.99; and they won't ship to CA - shocking!)

 

Do I want to clean out the bondo from the seams before this gets primed?


what about the soft top snaps?

 

look at KBS products. good stuff.

 

I can't tell from the picture, are your sure it's bondo and not seam sealer? Look at this, post #4.

What material did they use in the joints between body panels?

There's also some more info about seam sealers further down in the post.

 

I would scratch and pick all the remaining seam sealer out of the joints, and re-seam seal the joints. I typically use the 3M brand seam sealer.
As far as the snaps, remove them and weld up all the holes. Somehow, every new top has the snaps in a different location than the previous top, as you can see from all your holes. When you get a new top, drill new holes where needed.
-Donny

 

Some joints are seam sealer (which is flexible and that I can pick out) and some (like in the pic above) are hardened bondo.

I actually have the top in storage, it was only a year old Bestop when the PO sold me the Jeep! so I guess I need to fill all the other holes around them then.

@Keys5a I wanted to ask a follow up question just to make sure I completely understand you about procedure. Since Arron blasted this with ground glass, the metal has a rough-ish texture. Since I'm going with the non-sandable DP50LF PPG 2-Part Epoxy primer as a bare-metal sealant, the texture will still be there, right? But that's OK because the next step (after surgery) will be another layer of high-build primer (VPLF?) that's sanded, plus body filler / blocking as needed, and then finally top coat. Do I have this right?