De-stinking Penelope

[rustybronco]

Arronduke, There is a lot more to your statements and queries than meets the eye.

Is that a serious amount of cleaning? In my opinion you can never have things clean enough. One finger print and all can go heck in a hand basket quickly. My opinion is most consumer paints such as off the shelf spray bombs, are a lot more tolerant of oils than some of the professional products out there. I did an enormous amount of cleaning because of the conditions I am working under. One minute I'd be sanding on a tank, the next playing with the dogs, who, I might add, have oils in their coats.

Now there were a lot of missteps made along the way. For instance NEVER use an enamel spray bomb for guide coating. That will gum up sand paper quicker than you can say pine tar. Second, never use old activator, That one mistake caused me hours of sanding primer that was way too thick, thicker than the 1.4 tip I was using was capable of shooting. If I had a 1.8 or a 2.2mm tip then it wouldn't have been so much of an issue but as I don't have, I had to deal with sanding away the texture. Another thing that added to the long hours spent priming and blocking the tank was all the dings and dents in the tank and, as all I had to use was a rubber sanding block, a few wooden sticks and dowels to wrap the paper around and, considering my less than capable skills at filling dents and metal finishing, it took me three plus times as long as someone who has the proper tools and skills needed to do first class workmanship. As I said many times before, I'm nothing more than a garage painter. A persistent one, but still just a hobbiest when you get right down to to it.

Now the real reason for spending all the long hours making a booth, all the preparations necessary to provide proper air that is clean and dry to do professional type work without ever being one, is so I could look back at it one day and say that I took a rolling heap and made it into something anyone would be proud to own. I would also like to add, with VERY few exceptions, all done by myself. With the help of some very fine people here, I was able to garner all the necessary pieces to make this project into more than just a simple re-firb and slather on paint, but the actual workmanship done so far again is all mine. Nothing farmed except for the small amount of welding I had done. No one leaning over my shoulder telling me how to do it.

Ok, now as for painting with a spray bomb Vs. using a proper paint gun? Stan, Flyboy proved it can be done when he first painted the side covers on Jennifer. Things of beauty those were. My swing arm was painted with a 1 h.p, compressor and a knock off gun in an open garage without even so much as a speck of dirt in it. On the other hand, my old chain guard looked like dust city. It's all in the luck of the draw and what weather conditions you are painting in. One day good, the next, crappola. I built the booth to help tip the scales in my favor.

Was it worth it financially? NO way, I could have paid some less to paint then than I have in materials. But if you want to do things right, and haven't the necessary skills to do it as one who does this for a living, you have to decide how much time-effort and money your willing to part with. You have to decide what works best for you. As for me? I stopped counting... Don't care either. I said I'll do this to the best of my abilities and that's what I intend on doing until I'm finished.

One thing I'd like to remind those who are following along with all my trials and tribulations on this build is, black is an unforgiving colour. You have to do it up right or it will haunt you forever. It also shows how much time and effort you put into it as well.


Block sanded the basecoat earlier today. Now to schedule booth time and get back into the swing of things.





Ahh... Black, you can be so beautiful if done right.

[Arronduke]

Dale,
Looking good.

I have been planning to build a spray booth under my house for a while now, saved your pictures to add to my folder.
I have many question but they can wait for a PM.

BUT that is a serious amount of work cleaning etc... scared me bad.
Me.. I take a part outside and spray with a can... 45sec done. can upside down spay... 5sec clean up done.

Ok there might have been some cleaning / sanding etc but not the hours you have done.
Tell me is it worth it? For someone like me never who has never used a gun before, is the savings $$ and the I did it factor worth it? Or just pay the coin?

Thinking, I have a few project to do and more running a round the brain.. like you all do.

[rustybronco]

No clear yet. I've been under the weather since last night. The plan was to block sand the base coat after work on Tuesday (I bumped my arm into it while hanging it up to dry) and clear it tonight.

No worries, I JUST got off the phone asking to borrow a spray booth.

[Nessism]

Did you get some clear on these parts yet Dale? Or was Monday the paint day?

[psyguy]

I'm running out of time for this year. Might have to beg a real spray booth to finish it.

Oh no! The legions of people following this thread with utter admiration for your work would be very disappointed, I'm sure!

[rustybronco]

Base coat is on. Hit the tank with my arm and put a mark in it. Tomorrow I'll wet sand it and hopefully that will take care of it. If not, then I'll block sand and re-base it.

I'm running out of time for this year. Might have to beg a real spray booth to finish it.

No one ever said this was going to be a cake walk.











You can just make out where I bumped it. There's the reflection of the florescent light and on the right hand side just below it is another gray reflection.
If you look closely, you can just make out the half circle mark in the base coat.

I was lifting the tank to hang it on the hook and brushed against it.





On the bright side, the tank was as straight as an arrow!

[rustybronco]

It's a sunny 72° F in the old spray booth tonight.

Picked up some spot putty. Took care of some minor little issues on the tail piece. Sealer is on waiting to dry. Guns are cleaned ready to go.

Base coat up next.

Hahahaha, I think our coat hangers come from the same far Eastern sweat shop, difference is my garage don't look like a climate controlled laboratory when I paint, not for lack of wanting though.
But then again, we are not known for having three feet of that cold white slush conspiring against our painting efforts, I take my hat off to your tenacity.

[rustybronco]

So what's so different between your method of hanging parts and mine? The nationality of the person making the coat hanger?

My method is just a different take on stapeling plastic to the rafters.

Damn, this is getting far too technical for my little brain, and here is me just hanging stuff from a coat hanger in the garage....hahahaha, oh well, I guess I have a whole lot to learn.

[nvr2old]

As long as you have a good exhaust fan, even a box fan pointed outside will work, you shouldn't have any combustion problems with an electric heater. It would take a cloud so thick that you can't see through it to even be considered a danger to ignite (as long as the heater is not inside your booth, that is). With that being said, it's always better to play it safe, though. Get it as warm as you can and if you feel uncomfortable with the heater on during spraying, turn it off and then back on once spraying is completed. You should also always keep a fan going after spraying (over night) to keep the air moving around the new paint to help it dry evenly. If you don't, you risk the finish getting a "crust" on top and sealing it off before it dries from the inside out. A reciprocating fan works best.

[chuck hahn]

What about combustable paint misting?????????? Get it heated, shut off heater, shoot, restart heater??? And remember the metal itself needs time to get to at least 70ish. maybe take parts in the house and carry them out just as your getting ready to spray???

[rustybronco]

Then electric it is...

***EDIT***

Inside the 'boot' without any air flow from the box fan and using my little 1500 Watt heater as the only heat source, the temp rose from 52°F to 69°F over a twenty-five minute period.

[nvr2old]

I guess I just wouldn't use propane, period, if that's your heat source before spraying. I've seen water/condensation, literally, dripping off of everything metal in a garage heated by propane. Bad, bad....