What Primer Should I Use On My Car?

The Different Types of Primer and What to Use Them For

What is Primer?

Primer is an undercoat used to prepare your car for painting. It builds up rough surfaces, smoothing them over enough to paint on top of. It also stops topcoats from slipping, peeling or flaking.

Primer has several other characteristics to help paint apply evenly. For example, they provide adhesion to create a bond between the paint and the metal. As well as this, primers prevent paint from soaking into metal, which creates a dull finish. Finally, primers dry quickly, resist rust and sand easily.

However, using the wrong type of primer can be detrimental to the paint of your car. So, what type of primer should you use?

Etch Primer

This is a very versatile primer that is designed to be applied directly to bare metal and should be used when you want to build up and sand down the overcoat. Etch primers also protect against corrosion.

Etch primers contain a very mild acid that etches into the metal, creating an even stronger bond between the surface and the primer, so has excellent adhesion.

You may want to apply high build primer over the etch primer to sand down imperfections.

Epoxy Primer

This is a thick, non-porous primer that can be used on a wide variety of surfaces due to its strong adhesion and chemical resistance but work especially well on bare metal. It could also be recommended to use on cracks and dents due to its bonding capacity.

Epoxy primer can also be used as a topcoat for paint, the thicker the layer, the better the protection.

High Build Primer

High Build primers are formulated to get rid of small dimples in your project to give you a smooth surface to paint over.

You may need to do multiple layers of primer, sanding between every other layer. Because the texture is designed to fill pits, you need to sand before you paint over it. You may also need to add another primer over the top.

Galvanising (Zinc Rich) Primers

These types of primers are good for use on steel and iron and are have anti-corrosive properties.

These primers are also useful for underwater protection and boats and other marine vehicles, though surfaces need to be sanded before application, as they don't have the same excellent adhesion as some other primers.

Now that you know which primer to use, you can paint your surface to achieve a beautiful finish.

Primers for you to try:

Etch Primer

GTi Etch Primer Grey Aerosol 500ml

Epoxy Primer

Raptor Anti Corrosive Epoxy Primer Kit 1lt

High Build Primer

GTi Grey High Build Primer aerosol 500ml

Zinc Rich Primer

GTi Zinc Weld Through Primer aerosol 500ml