What sequence on top of bare metal?

[waltraud]

Have just re-skinned sliding door and was thinking vactan, zing or etch primer (upol) then filler, then primer then combicolour. Is this right? Always seems sensible to at least use vactan first before filler or am
I missing something important? Thanks.
Tim

[Mickyfin]

Vatcan is only really going to serve its purpose if the area to be treated is rusty.

[jimpainter]

If there is no rust, forget the vactan. Clean and degrease the metal with panal wipe, then etch prime (only a light coat), then your filler work. If you go through the etch when doing the filler reetch when filler work is done, key, prime,key, paint

[waltraud]

Thanks folks. Will give it a go.

[boatbuilder]

If theres no rust, I use epoxy etch primer first, then filler, then prime again and paint topcoat.

[waltraud]

I tend to think of putting vactan in clean, just welded metal as a preventative 'primer' of sorts to protect anything on top of it. So if any moisture gets in or underneathe filled joints it's less likely to bubble up later. Is there any reason not to do this? I wont be spraying on top just primers then rustoleum. Just got etch primer spray which is new to me!

[boatbuilder]

I'm not that confident in vactan's ability to stick well to anything other than slighty rusted or pitted metal.

[Hacksawbob]

vactan will come off paint just with the force of removing masking tape, but it stays where it's gone black and it was needed.

[CovKid]

Vactan isn't preventative, nor was it designed to be. Etch primer or similar is better for that. Much as I sing the praises of Vactan it needs to be fresh (its dead after 12 months) and its only role is to treat rust. It does nothing on clean metal and can be a pain to paint over if used inappropriately or painted on too thick. In your case, forget the Vactan.

[xpress]

you can wipe over the bare metal with a product called jenolite, make sure you wipe it off and let it dry and it doesn't react to rustoleum combicolour, and the combicolour didn't need a primer, it can go straight to metal.

[waltraud]

Thanks. I've used Jenolite before, I think it's quite similar to vactan in that it coverts the bare surface of mild steel to a non oxidising 'film' that effectively protects it from being affected by moisture. Waiting for the Combi colour to be delivered now, have filled the seams with a bead of something similar to the proprietary stuff people on here recommend. Will post some pics up!