De-stinking Penelope

[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!

[Nessism]

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

[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.

[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]

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.

[Flyboy]

[chuck hahn]

WOW!!!! Thats all that comes to my mind!!!

[psyguy]

That my friend belongs to a museum!

[rustybronco]

Don't get too excited, what you see is nothing more than wet sanded base coat on a very sraight tank. When I get a chance to re-base and clear it, I suspect it will look pretty much the same.

What I found cool was shooting the base coat at 19 psi. Unbelievable how little pressure that Iwata uses.

[nvr2old]

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


[/QUOTE]

Ain't it the truth. Nicely done.

[psyguy]

What I found cool was shooting the base coat at 19 psi. Unbelievable how little pressure that Iwata uses.

True that... my mini-gun works on 16-18psi and I really like doing things "slowly, slowly", which definitely helps when you are a beginner...

I've also tried high pressure guns and on a small surface area and with little experience it didn't go well...

[rustybronco]

One thing nice about the old high pressure suction guns is that didn't use a huge volume of air. If you get it adjusted correctly, I think they may be better for the hobbiest painter with a compressor that is on the smaller side. If you have the correct tip size for the material you intend on applying, crank the fan width down to 125~150mm and back off on the materials knob until it atomizes finely at the recommended distance and pressure. You don't have to have it cranked open so far that you need to put on roller skates just to keep up.

Load it up with paint and try some various settings, distances and speeds to see what it does.

[oblique]

This thread is addictive.

[chuck hahn]

Dale.......have you added the decals and cleared the parts yet? Hows the project going as of late?

[Nessism]

Yeah, we need an update!!!