Fender well /frame paint

good morning
Yesterday i removed my fenders to make my wheel wells look nice and took it bare metal, (regretting doing that now ). Now i need to paint the metal and wanted some opinions. Ive never done any painting but just purchased a gun. Should i use an epoxy primer, chassis primer, rust encapsulater, looking at the eastwood site , there is too many options.
Thanks in advance

You want the paint to stick. Bare metal needs an etching primer. You can get it in spray cans and you don't need thick coats for it to work.
In this case, sand the metal with no finer than 80 grit paper, wipe it down with some type of acetone or other cleaner then fog over it with etching primer. This stuff makes a chemical and mechanical "grip" to the metal so anything you use after that will stick well.

Thanks! Whats the difference in self etching and epoxy. How do i know when to use[ each QUOTE="Kern Dog, post: 911673648, member: 10067"]You want the paint to stick. Bare metal needs an etching primer. You can get it in spray cans and you don't need thick coats for it to work.
In this case, sand the metal with no finer than 80 grit paper, wipe it down with some type of acetone or other cleaner then fog over it with etching primer. This stuff makes a chemical and mechanical "grip" to the metal so anything you use after that will stick well.[/QUOTE]

Epoxy primer has a tough top coat. In some ways it acts as a sealer so that nothing above it can get through to the metal. In short, my understanding is that it protects the metal from the top side. It will stick to metal but from my experience, the Etching primer makes a sort of "bite" into the metal so it sticks to it better. I use it on all bare metal surfaces that will be painted. Body panels, engine parts, suspension stuff, etc.

Etch primer works on bare metal ONLY. While you can shoot it over just about anything, the "etch" only works on bare steel. There is no advantage to etch primer over paint or bondo.

You can shoot epoxy over anything that's free of grease and oil. The only downside to epoxy is it has to be topcoated within the specified window - usually 3 to 5 days. If not, it needs to be sanded with 180 before topcoating. Epoxy is tough to sand because it will clog up the paper.

Just plan things out so you can do whatever needs to be done in the required timeframe.

I use rattle can etch primer on small bare metal parts. Mainly because using a gun is too much trouble. On larger bare metal I will use the gun and epoxy - as long as I can topcoat the same or next day.

Keep in mind there's nothing wrong with plain old primer. Its easy to work with and there are many, many cars out there that were primed with it.

Well here’s my two cents. I literally just finished painting the entire front end of my car. Mine was down to bare metal from being media blasted. I basically sprayed it with phosphoric acid to remove any oil and contaminants and also etch the metal. Then I used a primer called Vibrance. From what I understand some Apoxsee primer’s can be very difficult to sand. The more expensive ones are actually made with better chemicals and are much easier to sand. Mine has been extremely easy to block and knock down with sandpaper. it’s a direct to metal primer. Just put it in my gun and shot it on.