You're not alone on that island, Gilligan... The part about something home made, that failed miserably this weekend. so don't feel bad.
I spent too much of yesterday, running around to the appliance shop to scrounge a few refrigerator boxes, water heater boxes, etc and a stop at Lowes for duct tape.... and cleaning up around that part of the garage, to make room... I set the 2 post lift side of my garage, up as a sort of "spray booth"/ as I wanted to spray a /6 and all its parts (plus a few other parts for another engine) with a compressor and spray gun, instead of rattle cans....since I had the material sitting here anyways (previously bought for something else, was hoping to salvage my investment in those materials before they would be "shot," from age and un-use. ) and I have some small engine/mower/tractor parts I want to paint (other colors) while I have this all set up too, to contain the mess that painting brings..... It's been years since I sprayed anything with a spray gun.... last time, I did pretty well--with a Binks #7. of which I have a couple. and (was at one time) pretty good with even, if a bit rusty. I did my utility trailer around 10 years ago, too and it's still holding up. The makeshift paint booth served its purpose alright this weekend, but the painting itself went bad.
Yesterday was build a booth/cleanup and mask day, today was paint day. It took me way longer than it should have, for what I had to do.
and this was the 1st time I have used one of those newfangled guns with the paint cup above the handle.... HVLP, I think they're called? I don't know if the problem was with the paint (old, beyond shelf life, or just garbage from the start) or not being familiar with this style gun, or what.... I'm thinking it was the paint/ as I've used lots of POR 15, with great results in the past, this was the 1st time using their engine paint. And last.
I had a neighbor pass away, and I got some of his tools... he was a great painter among other things. (among other things that he promised to me, that I still have to get over and bring here)
I remember when he got this gun, I remember him saying it was "so cheap that, if it screws up, not out much/ just to chuck-it". I also got another Binks from him, which was clearly his favorite. and a "detail" gun, which was originally the gun I was gonna use for this. I already had a detail gun and a Binks just like his, here already.
Since POR 15 is so hard to clean up anyways, (I have sprayed it before with a regular type of paint gun, some years ago) I didn't feel bad about using the "cheap" gun. I thought I remember him saying he had gotten it from HF, no/ it was "tool shop" brand (Menard's).(there may be more paint guns hiding over there, yet)
I can tell it had been used at least once/ but it was well cleaned out, from "whatever" had been sprayed thru it. I test sprayed the inside of the cardboard I'd set up with just some thinner, to get used to the controls on this gun/ and "pre" set it up. The paint I used, the company says to spray it as is out of the can, after being well mixed.
It wouldn't pass thru the nozzle, just spit and sputter. I ended up putting the optional larger nozzle that it came with into it, and did thin it a little ( paint's instr. said no more than 5%) and finally got some product out. The gun sprayed well with just the thinner, and (I thought) set up easily.
First indicator of trouble, was that when I popped the lid my 1st thought was "this looks nothing like Chrysler blue". but I also know this was my 1st (and last) time using this particular engine paint, and that paint often looks different, once dry. I'd already bought it, and have had it way too long to return it (IF I could remember where it came from) so I went with it. I followed their instructions exactly, except that I'd only pre painted the sheet metal parts with silver POR 15, not the cast iron.
Everything looked different. not like it came from the same can, even!! the cast iron, vs the sheet metal, vs the aluminum (water pump) that I had previously "etch primed". The block and head are machine shop fresh and clean, with the block primed (months ago) with some kind of dark gray something. by the machine shop.
I did their soak with POR 15's "metal ready" product (a phosphorus based liquid that is thinner than water) --twice even--- then wiped everything down with lacquer thinner, to get rid of the resultant white haze.... and it was well dry, from sitting overnight after that.
I went to paint (had to open everything on the gun wide open, to get it to spray anything/ the 3rd indicator of trouble;; #2 was the having to change nozzles)
and the paint came out transparent.... made the different materials look way different, from each other. I guess the "302" heads came out the least bad of what got sprayed....
after 3 coats on the /6 long block,, the freeze plugs were still quite silver. barely a tinge of blue. At some point I knocked the can of paint over off the bench, and onto the masking paper I'd lined the floor with.... probably lost a couple ozs, as I'd poured most of it into the gun. When I'd had enough, after I blew thru most of what was in the gun..... (way more than I'd thought it would take, for much less coverage than I expected) I finished up the intake manifold (super 6) with the trailings left in the can and a brush, then started sopping up my spill with the brush and finished up the intake, that way.... of anything painted with that crap, the intake wound up looking the best. I had the intake hanging overhead, via a couple of coat hangers and a 1X2 board, strung across the 2 post lift. .
I just set the valve cover on the head, and had the oil pan and timing cover on the bench/ with those heads for the 318, the /6 oil and water pumps, thermostat housing, and triangle washers..... I'm gonna have to sand down and redo the pan and valve cover, if not totally strip them and start over....
I found a 1/2 can of Duplicolor "rattle can" of Chrysler Blue on my shelf, started going over the heads with that, and it looks better with that than the expensive stuff... my reservation with the Duplicolor stuff is that the last few engines I painted with it, peeled somewhere between a week and 3 months after being painted (it ain't what it used to be, either)
so I thought I'd do a "better" job, using this stuff. I repainted everything on the bench by going over it with the rattle can..... and it looked much better. I went and got another (only can of Chrysler Blue in this town on a Sunday) and did the /6 head and block.... it came off in some sections like spraying oil with water. I let that dry and went over it again and most of it looks much better..... there are still a couple spots on the block that look like water on oil now that "that" has dried.... the paint hasn't "lifted"-- yet anyway. I should have rattle canned it from the start--- but thought I was doing something better. It would have been if Id picked the right paint to put thru the gun.
I'll still use regular POR 15, but never again their engine paints.
