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I'm getting ready to paint my car, and I was planning on using POR-15 Chassis Coat for the frame. However, it's 125 for a gallon (I have two chassis to paint). Is that more than I need? Has anyone used POR-15 for their chassis? How many coats? Is there a better, stronger paint?

Also, I was contemplating on using Plasti-dip for the body panels. Has anyone tried it? I believe they have a lime green gloss available. If not, what's a good, non-marring paint for the panels?

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"Most restaurants these days are as noisy as a drum-and-cymbal factory invaded by two hundred chimpanzees intent on committing percussion."

Dean Koontz

Don't buy more POR-15 than you can use in a limited time, or if you do, buy some smaller empty cans, so you can decant the left-overs into clean, full cans - and don't get any paint in the lips of the new cans if you ever want to re-open them.

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Warren
Isuzu Pickup/SR20DE, +401 COLD frame
Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11601

I used POR-15 on my chassis about 10 years ago. It seems to be sticking well, but I'm not sure it really prevents rust any better than a good Rustoleum spray paint. I brushed it on. It levels well, but it's hard to get a coat on a vertical surface thick enough to cover but thin enough to not sag.

The stuff is not tolerant of UV rays and will dull in a matter of months where the sun shine hits it.

Seems to me I purchased two quarts and only needed one, but maybe it was one and a bit. I know I put a little more than a pint of leftovers in glass jars filled to the top to minimize air inside. Just uncapped one of those to use a couple of months ago and it still seemed in good shape. I say un-capped, but really it was "poked a hole in the top of" since I couldn't unscrew the cap.

One other thing. Regardless of the paint, if I were to do it again I would go with gray, silver, white, red, yellow or just about anything but black.

John

From what I understand, the reason for the fade I'd that it's uv sensitive. You have to use a clear coat or top coat top prevent the fading.

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"Most restaurants these days are as noisy as a drum-and-cymbal factory invaded by two hundred chimpanzees intent on committing percussion."

Dean Koontz

as a owner of a body shop and have used it along with many other like products I can say POR products really stink !
over priced and not as good as many other products on the market .
one thing about por chassis is dry time it takes forever to dry this just lets more needless dust land on the chassis .
the other down side is recoating (painting ) it over it's self . it will lift .
the last time I used it I did a tr6 chassis that needed rust work .
we sand blasted the chassis and then sprayed a coat of por on the hole chassis . we then did our rust repair and went to prep and respray every thing again . it looked like we sprayed paint stripper over the thing .
this made us have to sand blast the hole chassis and redo every thing .

we use SEM rust shield . it's offered in 100's of colors you can recoat it with it's self it's more durable then por and it's a lower cost .


we just did this TR6 chassis last week with sem rust shield it took 2 coats and is a match to the factory semi gloss .
for the two coats it took a little over 1 QT .
you get the flat black and mix it 8 part color to 1 part of the hardener .
you will get a chassis semi gloss .
you can spray it over bare metals ,body fillers and other hardened paints (not lacquer) .
it's user friendly so it could be brushed , rolled or sprayed .

the reason why most people think about por is simply marketing .
most shops do not use it we tend to use products marketed for shops and not the DIY home users .
you see por booths at car shows and other events .
it's the same with things like plasti dip !
you read people using it on the car forums for things like badges and other things . you will not find shops using it as it's really just a crap product .
it states it's peelable right on the can ! what the hell would I want that on my car ?
I want it to stick and stay there .
I did some work on a customers Miata in the body shop we power washed the car and the owner plasti dipped the badges . the power washer blow the crap right off .

this is the color wheel of the SEM . you could also mix many other colors to match just about any thing you need to . I liked the SEM enough to have there mixing system in my shop .

Anti POR here as well. I use a decent 2k primer on a properly prepared and degreased chassis. Applied with a small cheapy touch up spray gun and overcoated with 2k black. Normally try to get a wiggle on and paint wet on wet to save prepping between primer and top coat. ( technically wrong no doubt but its not caused problems). Those touch up guns keep the overspray down.

Bob

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Build Log viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16640&p=187700#p187700

Mancave http://s1116.photobucket.com/user/mypic ... ow/mancave

"as a owner of a body shop and have used it along with many other like products I can say POR products really stink!"

I relined my gas tanks with POR 15 about 10 years and 60,000 miles ago. It is still looking good. That aside, is a better product available for the DIY guy? I ask because I figure it is a matter of time until the POR 15 fails. Also, corroded gas tanks are a given in the Sunbeam Alpine world and I'd like to be able to direct owners to the best possible product. Several owners have reported bad experiences with the commercially applied red lining, so I recommend POR 15.

Bill

Bob
going wet on wet should not be a big deal with many products as long as the products are of like chemical makeup say like epoxy or polyester and the flash time between the two is not to long of to short of a time .
I have done the same as you from time to time and never had any problems with the end result .

when we will do a chassis that is say needing to be the same color as the body of the car we will use a epoxy primer mixed as a surfacer /sealer spaying one coat just to get chromates on the bare metals in order to give the bare metal some rust and corrosion protection then top coating it with single stage or a base clear .

Bill
in my shop we restore allot of Porsche 911's they too have problems with there fuel tanks rusting .
they are coated with chip guard at the factory but they still rust out badly .

if the insides of the tanks are rusted we plug the tanks and fill them with apple cider vinegar and let it sit for 24 to 48 hours to eat away at all the rust . it works great will bring the insides of the tanks to clean bare metal .
dump the ACV out of the tank and rinse with distilled water .

for the out sides of the tanks we plug the openings and blast then with plastic media .
after that we spray them with the SEM rust shield and then after drying we sand the rust shield with a red pad and chip guard them .

SEM's rust shield is a all in one product being a DTM and top coat all in one . DTM direct to metal.
it chromated to combat rust it can go right over bare aluminum or other metals it's a one to two coat product to get the proper mil build .
it has many more uses then POR products do it holds up to heat so we also use it on engines .
every painted part on the porvett (Porsche with a SBC 350 motor) in the photo we used rust shield on . after 6 years and god knows how many endurance races on the car we pulled the motor to install a new moroso oil pan and it still looks almost like new with just some cleaning .

the photo did not post

From all of the horror stories I've heard about POR not adhering and fading, I'd do Rustoleum at $30/gallon long before POR. Its cheaper and a lot less picky about prep work.

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-Andrew
Build Log
Youtube

when it comes to proper adhesion prep work is prep work it should never differ .
cleaning and wiping down is a must to stop things like fisheyes , sanding is still sanding masking when needed is still masking .
when it comes to the quality of the product there are many factors that come into play .
for many years I was a BASF tech rep to the automotive manufactures using there products .
when it comes to non hardened coatings they can and never will last as long as a catalyzed or hardened product will .
a non catalyzed or hardened product is known as solvent sensitive or reversible .
this is because if another solvent comes in contact with it the coating will reverse back to a liquid state . lacquers will always do this or enamels with out a hardener mixed in to it .
because of this they tend to be harder to recoat or paint over the top if it .
for automotive uses you should always use a catalyzed or hardened product .
they may cost a little more but it is worth the little extra money in the long run to do so .
say you paint your chassis and use a single component product . you then get say brake fluid on the chassis and wipe it right off you will still wipe some if not all the paint off the chassis too .
a product that has a hardener in it you can simply wipe the fluid off and nothing will happen to the finish .
all and any solvent based product like brake fluid , brake cleaner and so on will damage the finish of a solvent sensitive product .
because of this was it worth saving a couple of bucks to have the chassis or suspension parts look like dog poop ?

Don't know about others, but I do not avoid catalyzed products because of the cost, but because I do not like to use products that like to destroy my lungs and kill me.

Does not mean I do not use them, just avoid them if possible.

So you do not line your gas tanks? The Alpine tanks seem to never stop rusting if they are not lined. Maybe has something to do with the crude tank venting used "back in the day"?

Bill

the alpine tanks probably rust because to get the metal to form easily back in the day, they would use a steel alloy that had a high iron content as compaired to modern steels used in vehicle panels.

i have used por 15 only once, to seal a fuel tank but if you do not remove any access, it will keep blocking your fuel lines and filter.

962 is right about using the correct product and not some gimmicky new fangled stuff sold to the diyer, there are products and there are professional grade products so if you want a professional finish that will last and look good, "you know what to do"

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and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
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