Spray Guns

Ah yeah, they are handy when going to track etc aswell.

When i looked into setting up my gun the range your looking at is 40-50 psi @wot...that seems to be a general range for majority of all guns if that helps

I was going to do the following prep work based on different things I’ve read/watched. I have decided I want to paint the whole panel rather than blending the new paint in.

• Sand whole panel with 180grit then onto 320grit
• Wax and grease remover whole panel
• Prime entire panel
• Wet sand primer with 400 then on to 600grit
• Wax and grease remover whole panel
• Apply top coat (three coats)
• Apply clear coat (three to four coats)
• Wet sand clear coat with 1500-2000 grit before using a rubbing compound

Any comments or anything to do differently? Yes I’m an amateur it’s fun learning though.

Personaly i wouldnt use such harsh sandpaper to begin with ..... not unless you want to go bare metal otherwise your put deep gauges into the panel you are wanting to do and its where you then stop sanding it down that harsh ... preping a panel 600 then 800 panel wipe then wipe with a cloth as you dont want to let a degreaser or panel wipe create a film on the panel then tack cloth ready for primer ...

From what your list i would presume your be using cellulose ???? .... to be honest woody dont rule out using 2pack as its less fuss and messing about it goes off quicker as its chemical dry rather than air dry and easier to flat out and buff ...

^ +1 on that .
I don't do much body work as hate it, but if spray like a panel - bumper I always use 2pack.
easier finish, less problems & the stuff more durable.
I even used it on my strut bodies after rebuilt with inserts & lower & upper strut bars & it lasts reel well in straight colours, tend use epoxy for that now though.
start on some small stuff like a front wing for practice, easier control environment factors for small bits too.

Ideally my plan is to spray the whole car in future but I want to basically finish building it first, get it tuned and sort out any problems before I focus on doing anything else. I've fixed up some small rust patches that were really standing out, I think I'm just going to use some acrylic matched sprays cans for the time being, just trying to get the best result out of them instead of completely wasting my time etc

so ive had some free time and really need to spray some stuff. I wasnt happy with the dodgy rattle can job on my rear panel, brought a gun, water trap and reg. Exicted to try something new, see how it turns out over the holidays

^ sounds like santa treating himself lol .
You should be impressed with a gun once got use to it a bit.
I have hvlp gun which come with 3 nozzles 1.4 1.7 & 2.0 and 0.6L paint cup, was cheap (about 40aud) but does primers and epoxy finishes well.
cheap ones can do color coats and top coats surprisingly well.
I was recommended a Europrohv103, these 3x price but nice trigger action, easy clean and has service parts available, taiwan made by rich star precision, very nice affordable top coat gun .
even the budget lvlp fastmover fmt3006 do decent finish with practice .

Should be fun having a play on a bumper or wing or something.
I no expert on painting and hate doing it (mainly as have lot of learning to do) but had decent results doing small panels where easy setup nice spray environment and not get overwhelmed by massive area prep work etc .
Is handy have some paint finish equipment and if you got liking for it surprising what could be achieved. have fun .

yeah mate, hoping it turns out alright, got a couple of old panels to practice on aswell. Only a cheaper gun but should be alright and be alot better than the paint on there at the moment. Just need to spray the rear quarters and if turns out alright ill do the front bumper, front wings and side skirts. Ill get the buffer on the rest of the car and should look pretty sweet. Its amazing how good old paint can come up with some love.

I reckon you'll be surprised what results can get even with cheap gun and half decent paint. Painting not my thing but even cheap guns seem pretty good. Only thing let it down is my poor prep or habit of alway wanting one more coat and either get run or finish not as sweet as previous coat.
Takes little while learn good paint products too. I don't take on much paintwork besides bumpers sideskirts and bolt on panels as that all want cope with before gets me overwhelmed .
Epoxy or 2k on struts, wishbones, strut bars etc is also super useful and cheap tough refinish solution, handy have a paint gun at any level really.
Have fun m8 .

good to know mate, dont mind if its not 100%. Could always pay to get stuff sprayed but whats the fun in that

It's all about technique fellas. I have $500 Digital pressure gauge Sata's and A few Devilbiss guns, and I even have separate guns just for primer, white paint, and clear coat.

I could make a really nice looking paint job with a $50 gun though. It's all about experience, setup, temperature, technique and setup. If you're spraying a car, i would at a minimum, have a 10CFM compressor. Dust and moisture are your worst enemies. Filters, filters and more filters.

My personal setup is a primary filter that takes out water with a disposable dessicant that you you have to change when the little balls turn blue (means that they can no longer hold moisture) and then I also use disposable inline filters at the gun. Typical cap pressure with a 1.4mm basecoat gun tip should be around 10-11psi, with inlet pressure regulated to 35psi (not all guns can tell you this, my sata digital display shows both cap and inlet pressure), with clearcoat, I usually use a 1.2 or 1.3mm tip, and I bump the pressure up to 40 psi for better atomization (sorry for the imperial numbers here, we don't use kpa) Primer gun, typically a 1.6mm tip, sometimes a 1.8 if it's a really high build primer.

Thats some really good info mate, thanks heaps for the input. Ill add an inline filter to my setup aswell then if its going to make a different.

Currently I have a reg off the compressor with a filter then another reg at the gun aswell.

My rich star gun does tops and clear-coats really well for price of them, sure an experienced painter could do way better but also have seen a lot of them do worse and with better kit so a lot comes down effort materials and environment.
water probably easiest deal with, dust and insect can be problem for me, dust my fault, insects hardest control here lol .
Just crack on and see what can do and learn as go, I had little use of spray guns in past but pretty much learning from scratch and still learning by mistakes mainly :-)
Practice and experience helps but even the cheaper guns these days are way better than I expected .

We happy with PSI or Bar, It fractions of inches that gets a lot of us all cross eyed :-)

You can take care of that whole dust and insect problem by building a rudimentary paint booth. All you need is some 1x2's for framework, a roll of plastic sheeting and a couple fans. Use the framework to build holders for furnace filters to filter the incoming air. Really cuts down on the dust

I'm thinking about setting up a portable car port in the back yard if it turns out I'm alright with the gun

So set-up my gun and compressor up today.

Originally I had a cheap reg with a filter near the compressor, then I had an inline filter just before the gun and another reg/gauge on the end of gun because I wanted to check the pressure at the furthest point. I was getting crazy pressure drop, like 15-20psi which dropped pretty slowly aswell.

I removed the reg near the compressor and now I only get a fast 5psi drop at the gun. Is this set-up ok? reg on the end of the gun and an inline filter?

Think you may need higher than that mate are you using a long line or something ???

What you mean mate? Nope fairly short line.

Whats your compressor output again ...old age memory aint what it used to be lol ...

170L/M 6cfm.

You want 30 -35 psi for most guns not sure you will get that with 6cfm .... i could be chatting wet but i was always led to believe aim for a compresser with 10-12 cfm ...

Just to clairify what I meant was that originally when pressing the trigger, I would get say between 55psi-50psi which would slowly decrease over a couple of seconds to the desired pressure and hold at say 35psi.

Why didnt you say that in the first place lol ... i would say thats probably ok as you never start to spray on a panel anyway always start off the panel