Por-15 states in the instructions to perform an acid etch if using fresh metal. While the Hot Rod Regal is not new by any means the floor pan metal, as seen in the last up-date, looks brand new. I seriously considered simply priming and painting the floors because they looked so nice, but I wanted the superior protection of POR-15 paint.
The acid etch is a POR-15 product and contains zinc to provide a corrosion barrier. This process is performed to provide a “tooth” or rough surface for the POR-15 paint to adhere to. A fresh shiny floor to the now acid etched floor pictured below doesn’t seem correct, but per the instructions, it has to be this way.
Unfortunately, my picture quality was not very good for these photos (fuzzy), but you get the idea. Follow along as I show this necessary step for the paint to adhere to fresh bare metal.
Before POR-15 and after acid etch
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After POR-15
Its worth noting that every seam had the old factory seam sealer removed before the acid etch and paint process. Every seam and joint were over coated with POR-15 to keep moisture out in the future. Extra effort was taken to mask off threads of seat posts and safety harness attach points. Next, new seam sealer was applied.
After this I moved on to the underside of the floor pan. It required removal of the frame to make sure I gave attention to the frame rail channels. Also, the frame was really dirty and needed cleaning and rebuilt. More on the floor and frame later, I will show you how I separated it in next post.
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