Harbor freight spray gun?

[gliderider06]

I ended up with orange peel in the camaro pictured above. It wasn't bad and most people would of said it looked great. But if you can prime/paint a car what is one more one step with wetsanding. Isn't to hard.

Took 1500 followed by 2000 sand paper and then buffed it out with 2 different style pads and compounds. Smooth as glass now and still need to do the last step with wax and a dual action style buffer.

I have found out it seems like single stage enamel and urethane tend to lay much smoother when its all said then done compare to a base/clear set up.

Base/clear require different tips. Don't get me wrong, the HF gun does good, and is more suited for single stage paints that require a larger tip to spray. The clear coats need a 1.2-1.3mm tip to atomize the clear properly to make it lay flatter. My new gun I bought for the sole purpose of clear only. It lays it super flat and my last paint job, I barely had to sand and buff the final finish compared to the HF guns. The HF gun has a 1.4mm tip which will not break up the clear as the smaller tips, and lay more material on the panels. I painted several cars with the HF guns with great results. I personally spent the money on a good gun to reduce my final wetsand and buff of clearcoat.
Your cars look really good! I will try to find pictures of the cars I painted with the HF guns and add them to the post.

 

[racerkilla]

Base/clear require different tips. Don't get me wrong, the HF gun does good, and is more suited for single stage paints that require a larger tip to spray. The clear coats need a 1.2-1.3mm tip to atomize the clear properly to make it lay flatter. My new gun I bought for the sole purpose of clear only. It lays it super flat and my last paint job, I barely had to sand and buff the final finish compared to the HF guns. The HF gun has a 1.4mm tip which will not break up the clear as the smaller tips, and lay more material on the panels. I painted several cars with the HF guns with great results. I personally spent the money on a good gun to reduce my final wetsand and buff of clearcoat.
Your cars look really good! I will try to find pictures of the cars I painted with the HF guns and add them to the post.

Wow good to know. I could see if you were doing multiple cars how wetsanding could be a pain. The extra money for the gun would save a lot of hours later. Also the 3m cutting compound isn't the cheapest stuff.

 

[gliderider06]

Here are pictures of HF gun paint jobs. Turned out great after wetsand and buff. I bought the high dollar guns to reduce my time buffing.

 

[Abodybomber]

Some good info, here. I usually shoot, single stage acrylic enamel. The HF gun is decent ,at that. BC/CC , the best squirt job I got, was from a Sharpe Cobalt HVLP, 1.4 tip.

 

[DaveBonds]

I ended up with orange peel in the camaro pictured above. It wasn't bad and most people would of said it looked great. But if you can prime/paint a car what is one more one step with wetsanding. Isn't to hard.

Took 1500 followed by 2000 sand paper and then buffed it out with 2 different style pads and compounds. Smooth as glass now and still need to do the last step with wax and a dual action style buffer.

I have found out it seems like single stage enamel and urethane tend to lay much smoother when its all said then done compare to a base/clear set up.

Enamels take longer to cure and inherently lay out flatter, because of cure time.

The best thing you can do with a base/clear system is to take your time on each panel/ section you shoot for a reasonable layout.

I turn the gun down to about 35-40psi, which renders me about 8psi at the cap instead of ten. I get a lot less cloud, but I've got to make the fan a touch narrower and bring the gun in just a bit closer.

I end up going through less material and the way the pattern lays out on the panel from the beam allows me to control the finish look, as I am painting each coat, especially the first coat, because I'm putting on less material, it stays static on the panel instead of wanting to move.

It also means that I have more flash drying between coats. I give it about 20-30 minutes between coats and repeat the process. I don't like laying it on heavy to achieve gloss, because the final layout requires the paint to flow, in order to achieve a smoother finish if you do that and gives you unpredictable results. It also gives the paint more reason to sag or run, if you try and put it on wet.

If you go over an area and pass it relatively quickly, you can pass it multiple times somewhat dry and eventually, there will be enough material on the area that the beads will begin to grab each other and flow. This is the way to know how much material you are laying out, instead of just trying to get gloss out of one pass. It puts on just enough material to control it and because it is very little material, you have more control to keep it as it looks, each time you coat it. By the 2nd or 3rd coat, I've walked away from jobs that simply don't need polishing to look as smooth as I want them to, because I keep the coats light and let the beads of paint on the panel do the work, with multiple, light passes, instead of letting the beam from the gun give me the gloss on a single pass.

As an example, when I go over a panel, I will pass the entire panel light enough to leave a dry look if I walked away. It would have the texture of a formica countertop laminate. I do it again and usually by the 2nd or 3rd pass, the beads on the panel start to find each other and flow out. I consider that one coat. This all happens within about the same amount of time that it takes to do one full pass with the gun, but I have a much better idea about exactly how much paint is on the panel and I can be sure that the entire panel is getting the same amount, because I can see it in the reflection as I'm doing this.

Once I've achieved gloss on the first coat, after the 2nd/3rd light pass, I check everything with a bright LED light to be sure everything is even and leave it alone for a half an hour before coming back in to do it all 1 or 2 more times.

 

[buckshotbishop]

anyone paint a metal flake paint with the hf gun?

 

[EL5DEMON340]

I'm a month or so away from redoing the hood blackout with SEM trim black with that HF $10 gun. The blackout that was done in 1980 on my 71 demon is not correct so I figure WTH. I just got the gun stand and paper filters today.

 

[aracer01]

Check the spray hole size to match these guns to to the material. IE. 1.4- paint and1-8 primer (read the paint can) Low pressure means a small pattern. The old bottom feed cheepie could spray a fence or semi trailer with 8" swath, these use 4" and spray water based enamel SMOG paint. go for it and see, the worst would be if you have to buy a $80 gun next.

 

[gliderider06]

Yes I painted 3 cars that had metal flake in them. Two of them are in the pictures I put up. The HF guns spray good for me with base coat. I just like my good gun for clear.

 

[racerkilla]

Enamels take longer to cure and inherently lay out flatter, because of cure time.

The best thing you can do with a base/clear system is to take your time on each panel/ section you shoot for a reasonable layout.

I turn the gun down to about 35-40psi, which renders me about 8psi at the cap instead of ten. I get a lot less cloud, but I've got to make the fan a touch narrower and bring the gun in just a bit closer.

I end up going through less material and the way the pattern lays out on the panel from the beam allows me to control the finish look, as I am painting each coat, especially the first coat, because I'm putting on less material, it stays static on the panel instead of wanting to move.

It also means that I have more flash drying between coats. I give it about 20-30 minutes between coats and repeat the process. I don't like laying it on heavy to achieve gloss, because the final layout requires the paint to flow, in order to achieve a smoother finish if you do that and gives you unpredictable results. It also gives the paint more reason to sag or run, if you try and put it on wet.

If you go over an area and pass it relatively quickly, you can pass it multiple times somewhat dry and eventually, there will be enough material on the area that the beads will begin to grab each other and flow. This is the way to know how much material you are laying out, instead of just trying to get gloss out of one pass. It puts on just enough material to control it and because it is very little material, you have more control to keep it as it looks, each time you coat it. By the 2nd or 3rd coat, I've walked away from jobs that simply don't need polishing to look as smooth as I want them to, because I keep the coats light and let the beads of paint on the panel do the work, with multiple, light passes, instead of letting the beam from the gun give me the gloss on a single pass.

As an example, when I go over a panel, I will pass the entire panel light enough to leave a dry look if I walked away. It would have the texture of a formica countertop laminate. I do it again and usually by the 2nd or 3rd pass, the beads on the panel start to find each other and flow out. I consider that one coat. This all happens within about the same amount of time that it takes to do one full pass with the gun, but I have a much better idea about exactly how much paint is on the panel and I can be sure that the entire panel is getting the same amount, because I can see it in the reflection as I'm doing this.

Once I've achieved gloss on the first coat, after the 2nd/3rd light pass, I check everything with a bright LED light to be sure everything is even and leave it alone for a half an hour before coming back in to do it all 1 or 2 more times.

I agree with you. Base paint I keep giving light coats until I get the color built up. For the clear I do very light coats.. as you said the first coat almost looks textured which gives the next coat something to grab on to and so on. Get no runs this way.

Same goes for single stages, light coats until the last coat which is bit heavier to get the shine. My dad always said you only see the last coat.

I have watched friends try to get full color/shine the first coat out. Not a good outcome.

 

[DaveBonds]

I have watched friends try to get full color/shine the first coat out. Not a good outcome.

Right!

Looks awesome for about 20 minutes, until you realize how much more time you cost yourself, blocking out a sag or run and unless you plan on cutting the entire car as smooth as glass, you may end up re-spraying the panel(s).

Go dry all day long until you're ready for the last one or two coats and give the last coats about 20 minutes each to set up. You can always tell when its ready for a coat, if you touch some masking tape or paper near the last place you sprayed and its gummy/ tacky. You can go a bit heavier on horizontals, but even that depends on the shape of the car. If it's boxy, you're ok. Don't dare with something that you can pour water down and watch it hit the floor as fast as you pour it on, like a Porsche 356 or the like.

I also find that nibbing and excessive use of tack cloths (I use about 3-4 per car) helps a lot with the dry coat applications until clear, unless its a single stage.

I just finished up an AAR Cuda last week. F4 covered in 7 coats. I tacked the rest of the panels after basing the roof each time, tacked the entire car first before each coat round and nibbed the dust in the 5th coat flat on the entire car, 2 more light ones to cover, gave it a final tac, dry clear on coat 1, 20 minutes wait, normal on coat 2, gave it 40 minutes and went normal on coat 3. No runs at all, beautiful layout with lower orange peel than factory jobs, but I'm still going to block color sand the daylights out of it, per client's request.