Re: BigKev's 1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Sedan

Posted by BH On 2008/2/17 15:18:31

There's a spot on the firewall of one of my Pats where the original black lacquer peeled away, revealing red primer. Also, I once looked under a rust-free original Packard and saw red primer under the peeling asphalt undercoating. No wonder the floor boards rusted out on cars of the '50s (and not just Packards) up here in the snow belt - they didn't paint the underside!

Yet, after spending many years out in a field, my dad's old Exec seemed to have a dark primer showing through on the outer body panels where the paint was getting thin.

I learned to squirt paint on cars of the '70s and later; sanding (feathering) for spot repairs revealed varying shades of gray primer, but most body shops were still shooting red primer. Most glazing (spot) putty, which was nothing more than a really thick primer, was red, too. On replacement sheet metal, GM used baked-on dark gray (almost black) primer, but I have a couple of NOS Packard fenders that have a dark green primer. Confusing, no?

Randy is right about the primer (technically, an undercoat) affecting the hue of the topcoat. Lacquer has a transparent base; even when tinted, lacquer is somewhat translucent. It takes several coats of lacquer to hide the primer, but the undercoat still affects the color of the topcoat. However, because enamels start off with a more "solid" base, they are less susceptible to this effect.