Antioxidant enamel vs primer + paint.

[Quartz]

Whenever I go to a paint shop and ask about a metal primer I get the same answer: "we don't use those anymore, use an antioxidant enamel instead, it's easier".

  But so far I ain't too happy with the results I've achieved with antioxidant enamels. I'm not good with paint but I've prepared and degreased the metal with care and applied the paint following the instructions in the can and the result is always a fairly delicate coat of paint, any bump or scratch against something hard and the bare metal shows. 

In contrast, I've had to strip some metals that had been primed and painted, tha coat was really thick and getting the bare metal to show was very hard, to the point that it was a pain XXXXXX to strip.

I don't know any expert whose advice I can ask for, so I ask here, have you tried these antioxidant paints? Are they worth it for heavy duty stuff if you apply them well? Should I try to get some primer if I'm concerned with contact resistance? 

 

Thanks for your time. 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Mod30
Language

[Purple Bullet]

Yep. Just because something works well doesn't mean it will win out in the market. I used to work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the worst environments for maintaining topside structural steel. We found that a zinc-based primer worked best and lasted longest, but I couldn't convince our paint department to move away from epoxy which chipped easily and allowed corrosion to start under the paint. I suspect they wanted to keep their crews busy.