- Is 1K primer better or 2K primer?
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Hey, Donnie Smith here and welcome back
to another Q & A.
The video is where I answer some of your questions
that you have on my YouTube channel
and I respond to them on these videos.
And the question I have, which is an excellent question,
is about 1K and 2K primers.
So Clinton Snow asks, "Hi, Donnie.
"I have an important question for you.
"What primer is better, 1K or 2K?
"Can you please explain with more details?"
And like I said,
that is an excellent question because
there are so many people confused about
primers and what's better, 1K, 2K.
So first, let's talk about what are
1K and 2K primers?
Well all that means is how many components.
For example,
I used to use a lot of lacquer
before we had all the 2K primers.
It's all we had.
You have your lacquer thinner,
your lacquer primer,
and then all you need to do is reduce that
so that you can spray it.
So it takes a thinner.
That is two products,
but the thinner does not count
as a component.
Now 2K has an extra component.
It has your primer,
and then it has a component which
is hardener, catalyst, activator.
It's basically something that's going
to interact with that primer and it's going
to have a chemical change.
And then it may or may not.
It may take a reducer to help make
it more sprayable as well.
But to answer this real quick,
hands down 2K is much better.
I prefer 2K.
Like I said, I've used a lot of the others
'cause that's all we had and it
provided some very good results for many years.
But there was some problems we had with it.
Shrinkage was a lot bigger problem where
some of the primer,
the solvents out of it evaporate.
So you can have more shrinkage.
You may have to prime and block
one or two more times than we do
with the primers we have today.
I mean a lot of these 2Ks,
prime it one time, block it out,
and you're ready for paint.
Used to have to block everything
at least two or three times
with the lacquer primer.
So, there's another disadvantage.
And I also remember a problem that we had
and this is with the body filler.
We used to have red cream hardener that
we'd put in the body filler,
and something about the red hardener
would bleed through that primer,
that lacquer primer,
and sometimes you'd get like a stain
that kind of surfaced.
It wasn't real noticeable,
but you could can kind of see a stain
on the finished product.
So everybody quite using the red hardener,
and that pretty much cured that problem.
But yeah, 2K much better,
but it is going to be more expensive.
And I don't know everyone circumstances.
I don't know, you're in your garage,
do you have spray equipment,
you're using aerosols.
'Cause most of your aerosols are going
to be 1K products.
Now there are some exceptions to that.
Like Eastwood I know has came out with
some 2K epoxies and primer servicer.
And the way that works,
it comes in a spray can,
but you pop the bottom,
it breaks a seal in there,
and then the two components can mix together.
And that works well too if you're just using aerosols,
but it's going to be more expensive.
2K is more expensive than 1K.
So I guess to answer your question,
2K, it's better.
I mean it's way more advanced than the 1Ks were.
But like I said, we've used 1K for years and years
and had some awesome results with it.
Your budget.
That may help you determine which one
that you want to use as well because
the 2K is going to be a little bit
more expensive than the 1K.
The spray equipment you have, your environment,
and all that may help you determine
if 1K or 2K is better for you.
So 1K is cheaper.
May be a little bit more work.
2K is going to be a little more expensive,
but it's going to be a better product.
Well Clinton, I hope this helps answer
your questions and if not,
leave a comment below and I'll try to get back
with you or there's others on here as well.
A lot of wisdom and knowledge on YouTube.
They may help answer it as well.
So if you feel like you've got a better answer,
by all means put a comment down below.
Well Clinton, I really appreciate you asking this question.
Great question.
A lot of confusion out there about this.
Thanks for watching the videos,
and everybody out there on YouTube
really appreciate you.
Have any questions or comments,
leave 'em below.
Thanks again for watching this video.
I hope you all have a great day
and we'll see you in the next video.