How should I paint galvanized sheet metal?

[divorced]

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I have a piece of galvanized sheet metal that I'm wanting to use to cover some holes in my firewall. It's a real shiny, smooth, flaky type of galvanized metal.

I don't want the paint to fall off after a while. Do I need to do anything special before I paint this metal? Do I use any special paint? Will the $1.00 spray cans work?

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[ryoken]

yup, zinc chromate... or at least a good self-etching primer.. same as alum, or it'll fail... we used to do TONS of galvanized bumpers at the bodyshop...

sand it with some 150 to 180, then zinc it, and anything ya want after that...

 

[divorced]

I know very little about painting anything... is zinc chromate easy to find? Where should I buy it?

 

[ryoken]

any body supply store, better auto parts stores, any marine store....

stuff like this...

http://www.wholesalemarine.com/pc/M...eller+Motor+Spray+Primer+-+Zinc+Chromate.html

 

[divorced]

Awesome, thanks for the information

 

[bigbadchev84]

anytime we have to paint galvanized at the hvac shop, we wipe it down good with vinegar, good quality primer then paint, have great results with no fish eyes

 

[bftank]

not trying to hijack(but i probably am), got an 89 burb and the paint is peeling pretty bad. i've heard its because they started galvanizing the sheetmetal an these mid 80's. is it necessary to take down to bare metal or could it be sanded up and painted over? apologies for the hijack.

 

[ryoken]

the reason you'll see that peel gig on lots of GM stuff thru that era was cuz they where over-baking their primers... I've never heard, nor seen any galvanizing going on with the sheetmetal...

it was a notorious problem.. we used to do tons of full, repaints at the bodyshop under warranty for that....

 

[medicdave]

All the sheet metal on my 90 blazer is galvanized...Dave

 

[ryoken]

my 87 isn't... hmmmmm...

 

[RockinChevy]

Only mid '88 and newer has the galvanized sheetmetal for the C/K series. I'm going after all the galvanized pieces for my '82 and I'd like to try a shot at painting the pieces before they go on.