Apocolips

First off I know nothing about painting cars. So this question might sound a little strange. Why, when you have a black or dark colored car the primer is white, and when you have a white or light colored car the primer is black? Is it so you can see the nicks better? I have a need to know!!

Pineapple

rsvette12

Gray primer is fine - you can use 3M green putty for light scratches - to check you body work you can spray a light coat of black lacquer resand until your happy with body work and scratches are gone - re-prime in gray sand for paint done

FYI never use bondo with red hardener especially on a white car it will bleed continuously and you will see it thru the paint forever

Apocolips

Thanks for the replies. I have a 2017 Arctic White GS. I got a nick in the paint the other day and it was black under the white. I also had a 2014 Stingray in Cyber Grey and it was white under the gray. Why?

rsvette12

Do not use red hardener you have a white car how convenient lol - primer color does not matter used gray for 35 years thats fine

Try to keep repair contained to just the nick area as not to spread out more on panel - this keeps area to be repainted a lot less - you could put masking tape around repair area as not to sand more then you need to - depends how deep it is - putty may not be ideal its for only final sanding step really

If its a shallow chip I would try just green putty will be a lot cleaner - putty does like to draw in if its to deep

You could use a tiny amount of bondo let it rise above flatness of panel a little bit to give you leeway to sand down to the panel for a nice repair - not enough to sand away it will be low

You will have to sand and re prime a few times depending how good you are with body work

Keep in mind you mask off the area you will have hard line primer marks that need to be sanded - wet sand if possible - its much cleaner wet sanded - flatten primer out (no hard lines) then you prep surface for paint

Any pics easier to give you hints after seeing where it is and what panels are affected

rsvette12

Use the duplicolor perfect match base and clear its amazing stuff

rsvette12

Basically you do this but on a much smaller scale - notice he clears entire panel after base coating the color - best way to to do it -

Would be helpful to know where your chip is

Avanti

A "nick" could mean anything, let alone "where."

rsvette12

So true

Apocolips

The post is not about how to fix the nick, it's why the primer color is black on a white car or white for a black car!

rsvette12

Ah that was a waste of time - they use what they want - the color doesnt matter