Paint Guns

[stiksave]

Ditto on the detail gun. The water seperator will be a must. The small compressor will cycle alot and pick up moisture for sure. Harbour Freight has all the items you need. For painting metalic, add a couple large ball bearings into the cup to help mix things up. 1/4" to 3/8", or a couple of stainless nuts. I've even done some small touch up work with an airbrush. Have fun.

Chris

[Wingnut]

One thing I found out with the cheaper spray guns is they do not atomize the paint well. I've used them, till my son bought me a $400 gun and you cannot believe how beautiful that gun lays the paint down. But I realize that is probably not an option. Next best thing is to use a base coat clear coat system. Apply the color and then coat with 4 coats of clear. This way, if you end up with a lot of orange peel or dust or whatever, you can sand and buff the finish to like perfect. Buffing will be hard on small pieces though unless you get one of those little mini buffers. And, with a full size buffer a gas tank will take off like a rocket if you catch and edge unless it is secured to something like a piece of 4X4 clamped in a vise. If you are going to do a real urethane or base coat clear coat job go and price the materials first. You will find they are super expensive! By the time you get filler and spot putty and primer and color and clear and buffing compound etc. you will have spent a fortune. Some of these things are 1 qt minimum. It may be almost the same price to have a body shop do it. It costs me over $1000 for just the materials to do a car, $150 to do a bike frame. (But you will have enough left over to do 2 more.)

If you do decide to do it yourself, get something called a "last chance filter" or a "gumball filter', It screws right on to the gun where the hose connects and will absorb any oil or water you may have in your air lines. This is a must!

edit: This is my kids car I did. http://www.geocities.com/thursday613/accord.html

[stiksave]

Red, the most expensive color at the paint store. Nice job. Acrylic enamel, gloss hardener, and reducer is cheaper. The results can be very good also. Laquer sux, I've never had good luck with it.

Chris

[SqDancerLynn1]

Paint is expensive I remember paying $150 for a gallon of
Acrylic urethane enamal 10 years ago, & like $60 gal for DP40 primer
UV protectant More to it than slapping some Home Depot paint on the wall at home

[sagent]

nice to know the small compressor will work even though I have others to borrow. and the paint prices suck considering I have to want the 3 color job on my sportbike

[mark m]

and the paint prices suck considering I have to want the 3 color job on my sportbike

A while back Earlfor mentioned using HobbyPoxy (I think it was) epoxy paint instead of automotive paint as an economical option. It is a 2 part catalyzed paint used for model aircraft and will be as tough as any of the urethanes for our uses. The only issues would be a somewhat limited choice of colors and only pastels (no metallics) available. I may be wrong on the metallics, but I don't recall seeing any when I was flying R/C.

If Earl will join in and confirm this, it would be great.


Mark

[earlfor]

When I made that post, I had not bought any new Hobby Poxy paints in some time because I had (and still do) a supply of them on hand. With checking at that time due to some having difficulties finding the paints, I found the EPA had acted to have them removed from the market. There are replacement hobby paints for those products, but I have not used them, so cannot comment on suitability for our purposes. An alternative to the high prices of multi part catalyzed automotive paint products is that you can do your paintwork in cheaper one part lacquer. The lacquer will dissolve like nothing though in gasoline. You can spend the money on a good multi part automotive clear coat to seal the lacquer. As long as the clear coat is unbroken, gasoline will have no effect since it cannot get through the clearcoat. That isnt the best approach from a quality and durability standpoint, but where cost control is a must, it is an alternative.

Also, PPG makes a their high grade Concept line, but they also make a less expensive line (MTK) Components for the two systems are different and not interchangable when mixing the paints, but either paint can be applied over the other once it has cured/dried. Both systems have a clear coat and both systems are impervious to gasoline, acids, and most solvents. The MTK line is usually available in pints in standard solid colors.

Dupont makes a high end paint called Imron. There is any color you can imagine available. They also make Centari which is comparable to the PPG MTK product line.

US Paint makes Awlgrip, which is the highest quality I have found. Colors are limited and it is the most expensive. It is also the most durable.
Once cured, it is nearly ceramic hard. The drawback there is it cannot be used on anything that has any flex to it or it will crack.

Also, for detail stripes or small accents, there are many colors available in fingernail polish. Fingernail polish is a single part lacquer, so it is not resistant to gas or solvents, but can be clearcoated with something that is.


Earl

A while back Earlfor mentioned using HobbyPoxy (I think it was) epoxy paint instead of automotive paint as an economical option. It is a 2 part catalyzed paint used for model aircraft and will be as tough as any of the urethanes for our uses. The only issues would be a somewhat limited choice of colors and only pastels (no metallics) available. I may be wrong on the metallics, but I don't recall seeing any when I was flying R/C.

If Earl will join in and confirm this, it would be great.


Mark