You just got a bare shell back. Now what?

The most common mistake after a strip is treating bare metal as a finished state. It is not. It is the least stable the steel will ever be.

The first 24 hours

• Get it indoors and dry. Humidity is the enemy.
• Do not handle it bare-handed. Skin oils leave marks that show up under primer.
• Blow out every seam and cavity. Residual media in a box section will rattle out onto fresh paint later.

The first week

• Epoxy primer. Not a self-etch, not a filler primer — a proper sealing epoxy is what stops the clock.
• Photograph everything before it disappears under primer. Bare metal is the only time you can see every previous repair.
• Do the metalwork now if you are doing it. Welding through primer is worse than welding on bare steel.

What not to do

Do not leave it under a tarp outside. Do not put filler on bare steel — it goes over primer. And do not wait for a booth slot that is a month away; prime it yourself and let the painter sand it.

The dry air here helps, but a bare shell sitting in an unheated shop near Redcliff or Dunmore through a wet week will still flash. Plan the next coat before the blasting is booked, not after.