I just had my hood and radiator support stripped and ecoated. My question is do I prime it next or does the ecoat serve as the primer?

e-coat is primer.. You should be OK!

what exactly IS ecoat?

Ecoat is electro coat primer that has been applied using electricity. The part is hooked up to a positive charge the primer is hooked to negative. The differnet charged primer is then sprayed onto the part. The reason they do that is so the ENTIRE part is covered with primer.

All major car maunfactors apply this type of primer for their factory warrantary to fight agaisnt rust.

I see that you are from MI and my guess is that you had those parts dipped at Ecoats?? right. Ecoat just like any other primer is not meant to be used as a stand alone product, it needs to be painted or the elements can break it down. You will need to scuff up the ecoat with something like a red scrothbrite pad then apply your regular primer. On the rad support I would just scuff it then apply some expoy primer then topcaot that with SS urethane black. On the hood scuff it and then apply your primer surfacer, block sand then more primer surfacer. On the underside wiat til you are ready to paint, scuff it seal it and paint it

A zinc rich primer that is "Electrostatically" applied. "Electrostatic Coat". graemlins/waving.gif

Originally posted by jon_volk:
what exactly IS ecoat? Check out www.ecoatking.com (http://www.ecoatking.com) there is a good explanation of the process. They actually submerge the part in a vat of a primer solution.

That answers my question... looks like I am off to the body shop to have them painted. Thanks for the replies.

Actually the black coating is not the "ecoating". The parts are dipped in a zinc phosphate bath, this is the coating that prevents the rust. The black coating on the outside is just a electrostatic primer that is applied over the zinc-phospate coating to protect the delicate coating. I had my whole car done by these guys. The inside of the doors, hood and body are perfectly clean including way down inside graemlins/hurray.gif .

I was just able to afford the hood and radiator support... I sure wish I could have had the whole car and frame dipped. They really do a nice job though.