Using sealer ?
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- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 1 month ago by Ben Hart.
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Sealers are used to do exactly what it says “seals” all edges and to give your base coat a completly flat surface to lay down on and keeps shrinking of base and clear so the out line of your repairs dont show down the road. It can also be used on bumper to promote adhesion and be tinted to use as a valushade for your base coat.
Sealer has several specific uses. Sealer is not needed in many instances, but should be used when necessary.
Sealer is a generally used as a wet on wet primer. It does not fill like a primer surfacer but does has some minor filling capabilities. Sealer is generally used in collision shops over top of new parts (bumpers, fenders, moldings etc) in a wet on wet process so the parts are only prepped once. The primer that is on these new parts is not very suitable to be painted over. The sealer provides adhesion, chip resistance, and in some cases corrosion protection.
Sealer is also used when there may be a compatibility issue between 2 products. It may also be used over burn throughs in repair panels. Using sealer may also allow you to finish your work with a slightly coarser grit of paper (say, 400 instead of 500 or 600). Sealer also helps the top coat hold out and retain gloss.
Again, as smooth said, it can be used for your valu-shade on poor hiding colours.
There are a lot of uses for sealer. Each sealer is different, but most better sealers are 2k products most commonly urethane sometimes epoxy based. Some can be applied DTM (generally limited to smaller areas only). Many can be flexed to go over flexible plastic parts. If doing completes that are prepped nice and a fairly consistant colour, sealer is not needed. But if there are panels of different colours (grey primer, sanded paint of a differnt colour etc) sealing can be very helpful with coverage/hiding.
[quote=”paintbreaker” post=22536]sealer is use before primer surfacer or before basecoat? how about epoxy primer?[/quote]
Sealer is used right before your base coat (on top of properly prepped primer surfacer or other substrates).
There are different epoxy primers. Some are generally just used to go over bare metal, filler, fiberglass etc before applying the primer surfacer. Other epoxy primers are primer/sealers and can be used like both a sealer and an epoxy primer. If you are using it, read the tech sheet.
thanks ben!
i am looking to switching to de-beer w/b and speaking to the rep he said always use a sealer before b/c
just that i have always wetsanded with 5/600 before and based directly on sanded primer (with solvent base)
when i tried wet on wet before i ended up with shrinkage/mapping that you could then see through the finished job from the sealer
obviously never allowed enough dry time?
tommy
I’ve personally never had shrinkage issues with sealer. Could have been your application or could have been an inferior product. I would imagine the cheap 1k sealers would tend to do that.
Talk to the Debeer rep again. If you are using a quality primer (their primer) you should be able to base right over it without sealer. I don’t know the product at all, so I can’t help you out specifically.
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