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Rant: Went with the cheap filler primer on a late model Accord
Had a 2018 Accord come in last week with a deep scratch on the quarter panel. Picked the $25 can of generic filler primer over the $60 3M stuff to save the customer some cash. After sanding it down, the primer had pinholes all over and I had to redo the whole section with a second coat. Now I am telling people to bring their own primer if they want to cheap out, because that extra hour of labor cost me more than the 3M would have. Has anyone else had luck with a specific brand of budget primer or do you just stick with the good stuff?
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the_patricia1mo ago
Not that it helps now, but @jennifer965 is right about the time trade off. I see this same pattern everywhere. People will buy the cheapest trash bags and then double bag them because they keep ripping. Or grab the bargain bin lawnmower and spend every summer fighting with it while the neighbor finishes in 20 minutes. There's cheap and then there's false economy. Primer is in that same category for me now. A few extra bucks upfront saves an afternoon of sanding later.
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Oh man, that reminds me of the time I tried to save a few bucks on spray paint for a garden bench I was restoring! I grabbed a can of the cheapest matte black I could find at the hardware store, and it came out looking like a textured orange peel. I spent half a Sunday sanding that thing back down before I could even start again. My neighbor saw me out there and just handed me a can of Rust-Oleum from his garage, and the difference was night and day. Learned my lesson the hard way too, some corners just aren't worth cutting.
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jennifer9651mo ago
I used to grab the cheapest primer myself because I figured it all does the same thing. But after a similar disaster with pinholes on a bumper repair, I switched to the 3M and never looked back. That extra time sanding and respraying just isnt worth saving a few bucks.
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