How to Apply a Final Coat of Primer & Finish Sand it to Prepare for Paint 

People have no idea how much work and sanding it takes to get to that point. Great video

Total respect for all those in the automotive body trade, artisans with patience. Great video.

Great video as usual Jerry. Thank you for sharing with us mortals. Have great week AL

Well done Bud!! It's all in the prep work!! Have a great weekend!!☺

GREAT VIDEO...IT TAKES A LOT OF PREP FOR A GREAT FINISH, I BEEN PAINTING FOR A FEW YEARS 👍🤝💯

Excellent presentation by an expert! Many thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Thanks. I'm at this stage of my project and I was really worried about the last sanding before applying base coat. But this was really clear and well explained. Subscribing for more :)

Nice detailing around the finish areas of the body work 👍

Thanx for the reduced primer tip I asked numerous people and they told me nothing. I do fine finishing on wood work for a living in my shop and just started doing automotive because I enjoy it the principles are pretty much the same just the wood side gloss is hardly something that's wanted but auto gloss shows everything . Doing my personal truck and trying to get perfection

Another great video! This older one just popped up! That was great timing as I am at this stage on my Ford Flex rocker panels. (one nice thing about my project is that these panels will not get the scrutiny that a hood or other panels seen all the time will. (And that is good because my skill level is closer to a 1 than it is to a 10! I give you a 10 out of 10 for this video for sure.

Excellent info!

Great video Jerry as always thank you for the video

I appreciate the time and effort you put into your videos. Great stuff, sir!

Man, you sure are fast with that gun!!! I always enjoy your videos

love your work!

Great job bud ! I always used 360 or 400 for my last sanding. But i might be wrong. Your work looks great!

I wouldn't have thought 240 on a DA would be fine enough. You rock Jerry!

Jerry. You da Man !!!

Well done. Nice instruction as always. I have tried painting over unsanded primer. I was thinking that the paint would stick better. It probably did but ended up with a rough finish.

Great video

Very helpful, thank you.

Great video Jerry I use these same techniques!

Awesome. I just caught this before I finish priming and painting my 01 Ram 1500 inner fenders and the inside of the regular fenders. My spot weld's that attach the inner fender to outter fender look like crap but they are solid. I made the spot weld holes to big, and they are 3/4 welded and used my grinder to make almost flush. I then just hit the lip with spot weld's on each fender with body filler, sanded and primed once. I borrowed a flux core off a kid I know and let's just say it was splatter city, and a lot different then arc welding in middle/ high school. I since have purchased a lincoln electric 140 and purchased a small cylinder with 14 lbs of argon/co2. This is the way to go if a person has the means. Anyway per your instruction on another video, you were painting a hood matte black I think. I'm gonna prime and sand twice more, use my hand as a dust feeler and hit it with the air hose and tack cloth them. Unfortunately I only have an 8 gallon compressor. So I'm gonna be a spray can man. Hit it three times with paint, and twice, maybe three times with the gloss clear coat. This is practice btw and I guess a paint test all in one untill I get a 20 gal compressor and paint sprayer/s. One plus is there is an automotive paint outlet in the town over from me. If anyone has any tips or thinking I'm going about this the wrong way, please do respond..Almost forgot, yes the Mig welding is coming along, I get better with each session. About four sessions in all,(I took my time), to weld on new passenger inner and outer rockers and a cab corner that I only used the lower half. Any tips on body mounts. I have new left and right for the front of my cab and six new rubbers from energy suspension.. I feel confident enough to do them and have watched the two not very informative RU-vid videos on my year and style truck. I'm gonna hit the Dodge info threads on the web. The tricks of the trade I'm looking for are for the floating nut plate. My thought was dry mount the cab mount, vice grip the mount to the rocker where there are three spot weld's let the cab down then throw the bolt threw frame mount and rubbers, thread into nut that is welded to the float plate, threading the bolt should correctly align the float plate. make sure everything lines up then mark plate to mount with a sharpie. I have a decent access on the front of mount and also an access in the cab floor. So mark both, jack up cab, remove mounts and then weld float plates to inside bottom of mounts making sure to keep them aligned to my marks. If I'm wrong about this, could someone please correct me. Thank you. Your channel really is awesome. The best is when you have an accordioned rear quarter panel and you have the puller and are using body hammer and stretching the metal out at the same time so you don't oil can it and such. You do make it look so easy. Thanks for your knowledge threw the videos you post. I've learned a lot and have definitely applied some threw hands on and understand the theory behind all the rest.

Thanks Jerry for giving me the confidence to reduce the primer. I reduced mine with 2 parts reducer, 4:1:2. It worked out perfect for a nice smooth final prime and reduced my final sanding time considerably. Very little to no orange peel. I also used a 1.8 tip on my large gun from the $50 2 piece harbor freight kit. Thats actually a nice kit and plenty good for applying primer. I also used that small detail gun to spray the door jambs out with base and clear and they came out great with just a 1.0 tip on that small gun. Did you do a review on the black widow HTE gun? That's what I'll be using to spray the entire truck base/clear.

I put on 2 coats of can primer and 400 wet scratched it up bad. Needed at least 4 coats.

Excellent concise video. One question: when a sealer is used over the sanded primer is it necessary to sand the sealer before spraying the top coat?

I liked the info! But I didn't see the mixture ratio. Thank you!

Good video, Jerry! So, is this acting like a sealer too? Thanks👍

Jerry, if you were instead spraying that hood with a metallic base/clear topcoat what grit sandpaper would you have used instead of 240? I'm comfortable using 600 for metallic but am curious if one can get by with only 400.

well done good show, what type respirator are you using?

Hi. I have built a small cupholder/console out of wood and it handled the rattle can primer just fine. Then I touched it up with the old Nitrostan(yellow tube) spot putty and found the primer to check or leave jagged lines. So I sanded all off(by hand) sprayed some rustoleum filler primer, sanded that(220) and applied the primer again-lot less checks. I reapplied and reapplied sanding each time. I then put a coat of color on and found the jagged lines-so I repeated with the filler primer. Now, when I applied the color, I am getting very small little bubbles that I have to sand off(400) and reapply the color. It had some smaller bubbles-waited a bit and then resanded and applied more color. We'll see how it is tomorrow. Question can you tell me what causes the very tiny bubbles-lots of them and what causes the small crakes/checks? I am running out of color!! Thanks and I really enjoyed your sanding details.

Does sanding the primer help the paint grab or is it more just to make sure you're getting a perfectly flat surface?

Question: am I supposed to use urethane primer or I see others using 2K high build sealer. I’m confused. Can you help me? Some painters after laying on the sealer, don’t sand it. They just paint right over it. And also, when you put the primer, aren’t you supposed to sand it before putting on the second coat cause I noticed it gets dusty sometimes

Question, so as you stated since it’s not a show car, you’re using 240 or 320. Would you then just go ahead and base over this? Or are you still going to guide coat and go up to 400 prior to base coat?

Hey, I’m repainting my old camper van, inside and out. I’ve sanded entire interior, door jambs etc… with 240g. Do you think it’s worth priming with an epoxy or 2k to ensure proper adhesion? Especially in hard to sand areas like jambs.

Hey Jerry , It's been a while, hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.. Did you sand between 1st & 2nd coat primer. Keep up the good work, best wishes to you. Al.

What do you think about top coating wet on wet over the urethane primer instead of letting it dry and sanding before top coat?

What are your thoughts of using a coarse scotchbrite pad to sand the evercoat primer?

Thanks Jerry, are you painting over the 220 grit or going to 320 next?

Nce job, newbie question though, why did you use urethane primer instead of say poly primer? Thanks

What brand of Clears Coat do you like for a show car ? I like your informative videos .

Gm, I'm using 2k primer and if I burn thru a spot sanding do i have to mix up 2k primer or Is it ok to use a good spray lacquer can primer

I'm becoming that kid always raising his hand. I applied 4 light- medium coats of canned 2n1 rustoleum sandable primer.... it covered well but has some texture to it....so much that I may consider a light sanding before I start with my block and guide coat. What canned primer will be smoother with less build for the top after blocking and addressing imperfections? What would it be called...surfacer? Finishing primer? Do they put something like this in a can? ooooooohhhh I think I found it. "Primer Sealer" The primer I used is a "filler" type...very thick.

How many much time do you give the solvents in the primer time to flash off before sanding?

???For a show car quality paint job what steps would you recommend doing and what products should be used, Sorry I'm new to all this and need all the help I can get, I want to use the best products on the market to get the best show car finish I can.. Thx..

Question, is it ok to use rattle can filler primer (rustoleum) for a small spot repair under urethane base coat?

How long would you say it takes to dry oil based rustoleum primer before drysanding with like 320 grit

Hey I have my 68 Shelby GT500KR in final prime and getting ready to sand it for base/clear paint. Can I guide coat the primer and sand it with 220 grit and then guide coat it again then sand it with 400 grit final for paint? If there were sand scratches still left over then the guide coat when sanding with 400 would show correct?

Just a quick question... When priming the body work for block sanding did you use a lacquer primer/sealer... Basically what I'm asking is can you use lacquer primer during the initial body work stages then cover with a urethane primer and finish with a urethane paint... thx... M

So 320 grit for final sanding…what’s a good grit for sanding the first primer application?

How do u tell if u are moving to fast on movements I know to slow would show really wet with runs

How would the result be if one used a primer spray can, sand down & paint spray can that one can buy at store? With your years of doing it can you use spray cans and get the same result like using compress air & air gun?

Jerry I am using Nason Fullbase If Quality paint. I’m running low on Nason activator. Spec sheet calls out 483-30 and I can’t find any locally. Can I mix brands as far as activator? Any suggestions? Thanks again!!

You said to use 320 or 400... Then proceeded to use 240? May I ask why the contradiction? Is it because you're not wet sanding and don't want the material to block up the 320?

So I'm a student of auto body collision repair and I'm still learning. I'm painting a 97 Honda Civic I've had 2K urethane primer on it since April. Do I have to seal this or can I just 3:20 or 400 wet blocks and the whole car and base and clear it? I appreciate any help or advice you could offer me I fixed all the dents on it and the body is really flat ready for paint but I don't want to have to put sealer if I don't have to.

Can I prime with Rustoleum oil base primer and paint over with urethane paint?

How do you get the dust off after sanding?

My shop uses wet sanding. I did not know that you are able to sand the primer with a DA. I thought that it was easy to sand through the primer with anything below 400 grit.

I make the same mistake , keep the Hose of the car 😮

Can u show a close up on a peice of sheet metal close

Quick question. So after sanding the primer, if I find a place that needs some glazing putty, will I have to primer putty again?

my rockers are shot on my 2005 chevy van and i better off with rocker slip ons or fiber glassing them?>>>>>>>>>>>i dont weld iam a roofer

Dont forget to clean the masked areas also

So what do you recommend for show car finish Jerry , 400?