The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting setup questions

Let me preface this by saying I have never done anything like this before, so any tips or critiques will be extremely welcome.

After getting some quotes to paint my 53' and promptly having my jaw slam into the floor, I have decided to paint my truck myself. I am looking at:

Compressor
Gun
Paint

I only have 110v service in my garage, so I am severely limited in what compressors I can run. It quotes 7.0 SCFM @ 40 PSI, which considering the gun needs 5.91 CFM @ 29 PSI, hopefully it will work for my needs.

Suggestions? Comments?

Thanks

I have a sears craftsman compressor with a 30 gal tank & 110. I don't remember the CFM but it was good enough for my jeep & when I get around to the truck it will do fine then as well. Just stop every minute or so & let it catch back up if necessary.

Maaco wanted nearly $1k to squirt my jeep after I told them not to paint the tires (extra) headlights (extra) and paint the inside of the windshield frame since it was a convertable & everyone would see it (extra). Plus they kept telling me they would do a crappy job,. I figured heck for a crappy job I'd do it myself. It turned out pretty good for my first time & I figured I'd go camo if I screwed it up too bad.

The number 1 advice I can give is take your time & do the prep work.

The more time you spend in sanding & body work the better your paint will turn out. If you think you can start & finish in 1 week your not going to have a very nice result. It takes a lot of prep to have a good result.

Do you have any pictures of the jeep you can post? I'd be interested to see how it came out.

I'm definetly going to take my time on the prep. Any tips you learned you can share?

Be sure to use a proper degreaser of some sorts before painting from all those fingerprints. They will leave fish eyes.

Before you start, wash the vehicle real good and then use a degreaser on the whole body before you start sanding/grinding, etc.

Ferndale, I have used both Campbell Hausfeld and Craftsman 110v units and I also use a Campbell Hausfeld gravity feed spray gun that I purchased from Wal-Mart and they do a good job. Here are some pics of some of my projects.
http://rides.webshots.com/album/191256396tRormU?start=96
http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii66/bigbassmann/1954%20chevy%20truck/
http://rides.webshots.com/album/340473576velxOp?start=12

Here is a link to the pictures - you can see it was several years ago - but I still had fun with it.

http://tinypic.com/a/19s3p/1

For me the hardest part was dealing with the glass. I broke the windshield when I tried to take it out.

Prep, prep, prep. Sanding is critical. I plan to paint my truck I have tested a few panels and cannot get over what shows through, tiny scratches from the sand paper, tiny pinholes in the filler (even glazing). I am rusty. I have not done finish body and paint for many years.

I found a guy locally that does only restos on classics. Suprizingly he said he can make the truck look really nice for $1500,,,not show quality because I don't want that but very nice. I looked at some of his work and it is really impressive.

I would still like to paint it myself but it is nice to have a back up plan if I have a breakdown from sanding and blocking.

i use a small compressor. to incresse the volume and so i don't have to wait for air to build up, i have an extra tank. i think it is 60 gal. works well for using a DA and paint gun. not a new ideal though. i reserched it on the internet. i tried using two compressors to feed the large tank. did not get the results i wanted. so, one is hooked up to the large tank and i use the other to move around. it is easier to use if i don't want to fill the bigger tank up. good luck

I was going to paint my truck and motorcycle with my existing compressor and a pretty good gun that was recommended to me. However, since I'm like you, fairly new at spray painting, I came to the conclusion that a HVLP set might be better for my situation. I based that that on that I would be painting inside my garage (makeshift spray both) and I didn't want to go through the pain and expense of making sure the air out of the compressor was always dry. Also, I expect to continue to spray paint future projects. I bought a three stage turbine and matched gun as a set. After a few tries, the results were pretty good. The place I bought the set-up from even contacted me and guided me past my problems. And I do like the minimal overspray. Set-up is fairly simple and it stores away nicely also. You might consider looking into HVLP, my set-up cost me about $800, but I see it as a long-term investment.

Ferndale, I do all my paint and body work with a similar setup as you are contemplating. my compressor is bigger because I do have 220. I don't believe your compressor choice is going to be adequate for sanding tools, but it will be perfect for that paint gun. Do you have anything to practice on? I painted an old hood several times before putting any paint on my suburban. My buddy did all the spraying on the "Fried Green T'mater" and it was his first paint job. He did a fantastic job with only one run. I did use enamel paints on both of these projects, so that is the only difference with your plans. Good luck and You Can Do It!

Make sure you use a water filter on the compressor and then use a disposable moisture filter at your gun. You want dry clean air flowing through your gun! I live in Florida and when I let the air out of my compressor and filter it pours out water. Your will also need:
1. Good NIOSH respirator
2. Wax and Silicone remover
3. Good sanding blocks
4. Lots of sandpaper. I get mine in rolls from Eastwoods.
5. Patience
6. Patience

I am about to tackle the labor intensive work of blocking my entire truck. Can't wait! I want to paint the truck myself but I need to figure out how to build a decent garage paint booth. Have you thought about that?

ok I read all the posts and there's some really good info in there so I'm gonna put my 1.5 cent's in lol
1 if your grinding paint go with 40 grit open coat sand paper if not go with 80 grit sand paper NEVER GO MORE THAN 100 GRIT AT A TIME. Meaning 80 then 180 then 220 then 320 then 400 then 500 then 600
paint is the easy part you could be the best painter in the world but if you have plastic showing or bad body work you paint is gonna suck
use a thick primer to do your surface I use preface fiberglass surfacier it's a high build primer
if you sand your car or truck all the way down to bare metal use a metal conditioner
try not to get your plastic more than 1/4 inch thick
when you sand sand in a x shape with the block parrell to the body when you get to the 500 or 600 range wet sand it comes out better lol if you need anything else let me know

I painted my jeep with a 110v, 4 hp air compressor with a 20 gallon tank. It worked fine. every now and then you had to stop to let it catch up. I would recommend the HVLP (high volume, low pressure). It just takes less air to push more material. water filters are absolutely essential.

JP, love the recommendation on going up 100 grits at a time. Make sure you read the info w/ all your products. Some will work together, some will hate each other and make a MESS! Lots of sanding, hand sanding will be slower but will give you more control until you get the hang of what you are doing. start sanding/prepping/painting on areas that aren't highly visible, just to get your legs under you. Most love to start with the hood and fenders first. Start with the back of the cab, where the bed will hide it. make your mistakes and learning opportunities in the obscure places. make the eyecatching parts the final thing you do.

and its been mentioned before, but my best 2 pieces of advice, patience and ask questions. The reason repaints are so expensive - paint isn't cheap, and neither is skilled labor. And it takes a whole lot more labor than paint.

buy the best compressor you can afford - wire your garage for 220 - a 30 amp breaker, a little romex and a 3 prong electric dryer outlet / chord - isn't to tricky...

I have this one and it works fine for hvlp
- great deal when you can get them as blems (like the link below) - and it was only $7 for delivered to your door (that was the deal when i bought mine, anyways)...


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=55222]

for hvlp you need High Volume, Low Pressure - that means it needs to push MORE air - a small 110 volt compressor will not keep up - the setup above with wiring is going to cost you about $400, but you will be very happy with the addition...