Wish me luck !

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AdamR

AdamR

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The Scamps engine bay will be at least in primer tonight if not in color. This is my first time laying down paint that didnt come out of a spray can.
 
Go Gettum Adam. I'm sure it will turn out right. Do you have compressor and equipment? Are you doing it at home? I'm considering doing my car myself and have never sprayed either. Good luck and take your time. Mike :wav:
 
Hello AdamR, I am sure you will do just fine, Just remember to do a fog coat first
and then come back and do a little heavier coat the second time.
Hope everything go's well and if you do put color on do the same with it.
Just a fog coat then a little heavier on the second coat let it get tacky between color coat's. Have fun with it and every thing will be good.
 
What type of paint are you using? A test panel would be a good idea. If you're using single stage one mistake a lot of people make is dry spraying, not putting on a heavy enough coat. It should be heavy enough that it almost runs, but not so heavy that it does. If you are too light with it you'll see that it doesn't have a great shine to it, looks almost like older oxidized paint. If you have an old trunk lid it wouldn't hurt to give it a try as a test. We all have a different idea of what a heavy coat is so test panels are a great way to see what you're doing especially if you've never done it before. Also, what type of primer are you using, idealy epoxy is best left for another day before top coating. Good luck
 
Im spraying epoxy first. I'll let it dry over night and probably will sand it out with some 320 before spraying the Urathane top coat.
 
It isn't a must, but I've heard people have issues with the epoxy when re-coated right away. You may want to go a little finer than 320, like 600 wet, although I would think a single stage urethane would cover sand scratches better than a base coat which has virtually no mil thickness. The other thing is you don't need to sand it at all, check the tech sheet but there should be at least a 24 hour re-coat window so unless you have dirt and trash in it you can leave it be.
 
tech sheat just says wait 5hrs before dry sanding with 320 to 400grit paper.

dry to the touch in 1 hr
Recoat time 48hrs
 
That's interesting, most epoxies if used as a sealer aren't meant to be sanded which is not to say they can't be, just that it doesn't hide sanding scratches as well as a high build primer does. The recoat window of 48 hours means you can recoat it without sanding within that time, after 48 hours you must sand, so it's up to you whether you do or not in this case. I usually do sand just so I have as perfect a surface for my topcoat as I can get. If the tech sheet says 320 - 400 I would have to assume that's fine. Also depends on the type of paper you get, I think most of the paper down in the States is CAMI grit where as we have a lot of P grit, kind of like a metric to imperial thing so 320 CAMI is about 400 P and 400 CAMI is almost 800P.
 
Ill check my paper and see what it says. heres a few pictures.

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My paper is 320 P grade.

Also I was given an Astro HVLP gun Is this a good brand ?

The tech sheet for the paint says 35 to 45 psi is this set at the gun or the compressor ?
 
320P is a bit more aggresive that the 320 - 400 they are probably referring to so if you have 400 go with that if you do sand, wet sanding is also less agressive and less dust which is a bonus.

I've never used an Astro but I've heard they're a decent gun for the money.

The PSI is set at the gun with the trigger pulled so set it up before you put paint in it. Set the pattern up so you spray a nice cigar shape with a single pull.

The biggest hassle with the engine bay is all the different distances and corners, etc. You want to keep the gun an even distance, say 8" depending on the gun from the surface and parallel to it, that's a bit of a bear in an engine bay. If you get to close you'll get runs, too far and you'll dry spray. Welcome to painting, I hope you'll enjoy it :lol:
 
Rob, Thanks for all the advice. I'll pick some paper up tomorrow instead of using the 320 I have. Do you feel I should ho with 600 ?

I shot the epoxy as a primer/surfacer (no reducer) instead of a sealer. Is this going to be a problem ?

Last question, I have a few spots were the primer went on "dry" or left a rough texture. Is this from wrong air pressure ? To high or low ?
 
Sorry I thought you would be using base coat. :scratch:
Rob has you going in the right direction. :wav:
Where your primer is rough I like wet sanding it will cut out your rough
area's with 600 then blow it dry with you blower.
I would use a scuff pad all over it and then get the floor wet so you don't blow dust up on the paint. Sorry about the first post most of the painting I did was with base coat then clear. Rob has your back, Hope everything go's good enjoy my frend.
 
No problem Mike. I thought of going base/clear but I figured the single stage will match the factory finish better.
 
Adam, you'll want that as "line" pressure. With the epoxy being a bit thicker consistency i'd stay on the high side. Looks like it came out pretty good :thumbup:
AdamR said:
The tech sheet for the paint says 35 to 45 psi is this set at the gun or the compressor ?
Click to expand...
 
Eric, Most of it came out good. Just those few spots that are rough.
 
It won't be a problem top coating it even if you didn't reduce it. Usually it's reduced to flow out better before top coating, if you're going to sand then you're fine anyway. I would go with 600 wet personally and make sure you sand out any of those rough areas. It's hard to say what caused that, basically it's like orange peel which can be caused by lots of things, too dry, too fast with the gun and on and on. The paint should look wet and shiney when you shoot it just like it will when it's dried. Make sure you have a good respirator, new paints are bad news. Good luck
 
Good luck with the painting.

I recently did the trim and upper halves of the doors and rear windows with a '67 color, med. blue metalic, and followed up with a urethane clear coat. I'll have to get some pics, I thought it turned out nice.
 
It turned out pretty good if I say so myself ! Im very happy with it. there are a few fish eyes, a few drips and a couple good runs but it had all the stuff in the original paint too, LOL

I may wet sand a few runs out but I havent decided.

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If I do decide to sand the runs out how long do I need to let it dry ? What grit paper do I use. I have some 1500 and 200 grit.
 
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