I wouldn't use the new lead free ppg epoxy. It's non sanding and it pretty much sucks because of that... same with omni, nason etc. Maybe as a sealer, but not on bare metal.

If you want good epoxy you can sand, use SPI.

That's because its designed as a NON SANDING EPOXY PRIMER. Its only purpose is to protect the base metal from corrosion and give a solid base for top coat materials. It was never designed to be sprayed down heavy, or to fill.

If you're looking for a sand-able primer, there's fantastic primers on the market for sanding. But they don't work as well as top end Epoxy primers when it comes to protecting from rust. V Prime DPS3051 is one of the best sanding primers for holdout and gloss retention that I've found. You'll crap yourself when you see the price per gallon, but don't clean that crap off yourself as you'll just be crapping yourself again when you see how fast and easy it sands.

I think what he meant is that SPI works well as a sanding primer. Also, for those that think SPI is a cheap product, several multi-million dollar Pebble Beach cars are 100% SPI from start to finish. This car is 100% SPI

This is not a comment specifically about any brand, but I've found really talented painters can pretty much make any product look good. But for people like me who some would call average, using really high end quality materials makes it much easier to get a beautiful result.

SPI hands down.

I'm sure they call it non sanding because of how crappy it is!

I do epoxy then put the fillers on and then high build primers... so what do I do with non sanding when I try and do body work over it? I know I end up with clogged sandpaper.

You can buy and use all you want, but I won't use it if it's free!

Epoxy , fill primer , then filler.

*Start with a Sandblasted surface that is clean- or D.A. sand with 80 grit and clean. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!!

* Spray SPI epoxy, 2 coats with proper flash time in between. Wait 24 hours.

* Apply filler directly over un-sanded epoxy- fresh epoxy and filler have a death grip on each other

* After filler work is done, spray 2 more coats of epoxy to seal it in.

* before your 7 day window ( SPI only) is up, spray primer filler over project


By doing it this way you are ensuring proper moisture protection on either side of the filler. Epoxy and filler have a death grip on each other and making this " epoxy sandwich" is the best way to prevent rust from forming under the filler.

Any questions please ask away! I do this for a living.

The only negative of spi for me is cold weather... you must keep it above a certain temp for 24hrs. Otherwise it's all I'll use once I'm out of the leaded ppg I stockpiled

As far as doing 2k primer or putty directly over the non sanding ppg, you still end up sanding into it and ruining a lot of sand paper. You can get epoxy for half the price that will do the same thing.