The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Teach me your ways oh wise stovebolters

So I'm entertaining the idea of doing most of the work on my truck myself. I see the damage from the wreck as an opportunity! I'm gonna track down front and rear fenders, sand the rust off, get paint from an auto paint store about a half hour from me and buy a paint gun and see what happens. I know that painting is harder than it looks, but I've been taught by a couple guys quite a few things so I'll try it, only way to get any good is do it!

With all of that said I have compressors but can you all tell me a decent spray gun and where to get it? Also any other tips or ideas?

Make sure your air is dry and oil free.

Different spray guns have different air consumption. Start with your compressors, what CFM consumption will they stand? Then go from there..

"With all of that said I have compressors but . . . "

What is the CFM rating of your compressor?

Do you have an filter and air dryer on an outlet on your air line?

(same comments as posted by MNSmith & MP&C, above)

As you live in 'East by God Tennessee', you can spray any kind of paint you want unlike other places where they are afraid of everything. What kind of spray gun do your buddies use? Also, painters tend to learn how to shoot one brand of paint and stick to that brand.

If you are only looking to get your truck back to a daily driver the way it looked when it was 2-3 years old and not blue ribbon show quality you could do what I am. I am a jack of all trades and pretty good at some. I have next to no experience with a paint gun. I have been redoing my 54 3100 one piece at a time. I started with the bed. It did not have one when I bought it. I located one in a salvage yard. I had the original fenders. To keep this short (too late) I stripped and repaired the parts. next, don't anyone laugh, I have been painting the parts with a can of rustoleum Acrylic Enamel automotive spray paint. Yes, rattle cans. Granted, the finish won't be as hard as a paint job from a spray gun with hardener in the paint but it makes for easy touch up. I don't have to drag out a bunch of equipment and set up in a paint booth. I painted these parts and pieces in my driveway. Click on the link in my signature (My 54 3100) to see a slide show of the progress as I worked on this or click the link to see the end results. Bed, bumpers, grill and running boards are all rustoleum spray paint. I have not painted the dog house yet.

Finish results: http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/d.../20160626_201238.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

They are craftsman compressors. And this might be a dumb question but i don't know the answer, what's a CFM rating???

I've used rustolium rattle cans on a lot of stuff on my truck but my fenders are a special magenta color so I figured I'd have to gun spray them.

I will have to ask a couple guys what they used. One guy at the train yard I volunteer at used to paint simi trucks for a living so I've been learning from him some.

Is there a compressor out there that's just for painting or will taking a basic craftsman work?

If you get a HVLP gun you will not have to worry too much about the CFM of your compressor output.

High Volume Low Pressure.

CFM is Cubic Feet per Minute

If you don't have the specs on your compressors, a rough way to get the CFM rating is to look online for a similar compressor (match up the horsepower or voltage and amp draw to what's on the nameplate of yours).

A HVLP gun actually needs quite a bit of air (as in HIGH VOLUME, which is what CFM is a measure of), so you still need adequate compressor capacity.

A 2 gallon tank oilless compressor probably isn't going to cut it. If it's a 30 gallon tank, 2-3 HP reciprocating compressor, you're probably good to go.

i use a cheap harbor freight hvlp gun, as long as you keep it clean it will last for quite a while. usually a hvlp (high volume low pressure) gun requires about 30 psi MAX to work and spray a nice even pattern, I've used $900 De-vilbiss paint gun and my harbor freight gun and both take about 25-30 psi to work, just make sure your compressor can keep up with a constant use of air at that rate.

HVLP does use a considerable volume of air, and something you need to weigh out in looking at paint guns. PSI is much less of a consideration, how quickly your compressor recovers is. Will your air compressor support it? Just to show a comparison, a SATAjet 500 has a CFM consumption of 15.2, an Iwata LPH-400 has a CFM consumption of 8.3 so you need to first determine what you have besides a name brand to see if it even has enough CFM to operate a paint gun efficiently. Then you can shop around based on what your air compressor will handle, or perhaps you will need a new compressor as well.

Hey dgrinnan- I'm glad to see your truck converted back to fenders, it looks great. As far as rattle cans go, if you can do that well with a can......you should try a cheap spraygun from HFT. This is not an ad for them, just a good way to learn basic spray techniques. Start with an inexpensive gun ($10) and a quart of rustoleum satin black ($8) for frames and suspensison etc. When I learned to paint decades ago $10 guns just didn't exist. Hang some stuff from bailing wire in the garage at eye level and go for it, one light coat at a time. Keep up the great work. Mark