Help Needed Respraying The Pug

[Adnic69 0]

Hi guys

 

I am getting closer to the spraying of the pug and am going to give it a go myself. I sprayed my lotus 7 replica years ago and that came out ok so thought might aswell give it a go with the pug. I have flattened the paint back so i am now ready for filling the few small dents that there are.

Once this is done and ready to spray what do I do? Should I use normal primer or use an etch primer?

I have heard the a gravity fed gun is easier to use and gives better results than a pressured gun. Is this true?

 

Also how many litres of paint are needed

 

If it helps to answer the above I am spraying it Sorrento green as it was before.

[ashley peddle 3]

speak to paintguy off here - he always gives cool advise about this sorta thing (and if his name didnt give it away he is in the trade )

[888rmb 6]

I think you generally use an etch primer when you are spraying on to bare metal, not when you have just flatted down existing paintwork.

I would say you need start filling and flatting your dents, then apply a high build primer to help cover any other small imperfections.

You could use either a 2 pack high build primer or a cellulose primer. The 2 pack would sink less and give a better build than the cellulose.

2 pack paints however contain isocyanites (nasty) so you need a good mask, preferably airfed.

 

Once you have applied applied enough coats of primer and flatted it down till you are happy with it, then you are on to your base coat followed by your lacquer.

 

You probably want to spend quite a while on the priming/flatting stage as that will be one of the key things in determining how good it looks at the end.

 

As for quantities of paint an estimate would be

2 litres primer

2.5 litres base coat

2 litre lacquer

 

together with appropriate amounts of hardeners/thinners.

 

I am no expert btw, although I did spray a 205 myself in the garage at home with reasonable results.

[Adnic69 0]

Thanks for the advice so far.

I have never sprayed laquer before other than from a tin, its not the easiest stuff to use. Is it hard from a spraygun?

What type of gun did you use?

[Ant 2]

adnic,

 

You might wanna try ringing ur local college.. They probably do "saturday" morning courses, which go over the basics.. They are about £50 for 12 weeks ( 3 hours every saturday ).. Its a really good ( and cheap ) learning experience for the basics.. You could use £50 worth of wet and dry, primer, thinners and paint by just practiceing at home LOL Its a bargin really. Could be worth a try

 

Regards

 

Ant

[888rmb 6]

Thanks for the advice so far.

I have never sprayed laquer before other than from a tin, its not the easiest stuff to use. Is it hard from a spraygun?

What type of gun did you use?

 

It is easier to spray lacquer using a gun than a spray can as you can adjust the gun. However you do have to get used to how to adjust the gun, depending on what you are spraying (primer, basecoat, lacquer, etc)

The 2pack lacquer I used seemed a lot 'wetter' than the basecoat. The first time I used the lacquer I thought I wasn't putting enough on, because you couldn't see it very easily and I ended up putting too much on, and then it ran. Doh!

With the lacquer put on a light 'gripper' coat to start with, leave it to go off a bit (10-15mins) then put on another medium coat, leave that to flash off and then finish off with the final coat.

 

Painting is one of those things you have to try for yourself and practice. You couldn't just learn from a book.

 

Perhaps get an old bonnet from a scrapyard (£10) and have a practice on that.

 

As for the spraygun, I bought a Clarke gun from machine mart, not that dear. It was a pressure fed one and I chose the nozzle to suit the compressor I had borrowed. It was fine for what I wanted to use it for. Like any tool you have to decide how much money you want to spend compared to how often you are going to be using it.

 

I learnt the hardway that you have to clean the gun out carefully after you have used it other wise it all gums up and dosen't spray properly the next time, and you have to spend ages cleaning everything.

[Paintguy 0]

Another topic that I've entered a bit too late. My internet's been up and down like a whore's draws lately, so I haven't managed to stay online long enough to type a reply.

 

Looks like you've been getting good advice though, but I'll give you some of my opinions as well, just in case it helps any.

 

Gun Choice:

Gravity fed guns aren't necessaily better than suction fed ones, but you'll not find many pro's using anything else nowadays. One reason is that all the main manufacturers are moving to Gravity fed for their top line guns, so it's just a case of what's available. Also with GF you can use every drop of paint that you've mixed, rather than having to throw the dregs out of the bottom, as with suction, so it makes for less waste, which is a good thing in many different ways.

Avoid HVLP guns unless the rest of your equipment is man enough for the job. Again, most pro's use High Volume Low Pressure guns, but again it's more down to reducing costs and emmisions than anything else. The transfer efficiency of HVLP guns is far superior to conventional guns, meaning more paint goes on to the panel, and less gets wasted into the air.

But as the name suggests, they need a high volume air supply to work even reasonbly well. This means a very large compressor, large bore airlines, and high flow connections. Anything less and you won't get the best out of it.

 

How much you spend is up to you. There's no point spending a fortune if you'll only use it occasionally. Personally I think nothing of spending several hundred pounds on a gun, but then I do this for a living, and they get some pretty heavy useage! And also the higher up the scale you go, the more specialised guns become. I've recently bought a gun for a discounted price of £420. It's a SATA 2000 Digijet, and sprays basecoat on superbly, but it's absolutely shocking at spraying lacquer!

 

 

Primer:

Opinions vary on primer, but it needs to be stressed how important a step this is to get right, Imagine building a house on dodgy foundations; it'll look good for a while, but it won't be long before it starts to sink into the ground. Same with your primer. It is the base that all your susequent efforts are built upon, and if you've skimped on the preparation, rushed the application of your primer, and not let it cure fully, you might as well just paint the car with a brush.

I use an etch primer on large areas of bare metal, but only because my paint company says I should, so I have to do so for warranty reasons. A good quality high build primer containing zinc phosphate will be more than sufficient, or a good red oxide primer. The latter is oft recommended by Beastie, and he ought to know!

Whatever product you choose, make sure you're completely ready before you even think about spraying it on, and follow the intructions that come with it to the letter. Don't rush, and use it as a practice run for your painting.

 

As mentioned above though, if your spraying on top of the old paint surface, there's no need to prime it all. Just spot prime the areas you have repaired. As long as the original paint is sound, a good rub down will give you an ideal surface to paint over.

 

 

Throwing on the paint:

 

Practice, practice, practice!

 

You can't expect to get it right first time around, so spend as much time as you can getting used to holding a gun, and moving it smoothly. Go around local bodyshops or paint suppliers and see if they'll let you have some 'scrap' paint to practice with. Since they have to pay to have it disposed of, they might be glad to get rid of some.

 

Painting is all in the wrist. Trying to move the gun perpendicular to the surface, whilst keeping up exactly the same speed and distance is not as easy as it sounds, but time spent getting it right will pay dividends in the final finish.

 

I'd agree that the light - medium - full coat method is a good one for an inexperienced painter. It won't give you the best possible finish, but the initial gripper coat goes a long way to holding runs. And be thankful you're starting with an 'easy' colour. Light silvers are very easy to get patchy until you've been painting for a while, and laquering such light colours (especially white) is tricky too, as it's hard to see how much or how little you've put on.

 

 

But before I go, I must add:

Don't even think about spraying 2pack paints unless you have the proper breathing equipment. THIS STUFF KILLS! Do a search for isocyanate poisoning,and you'll see what I mean.

 

HTH.

[Adnic69 0]

I am getting closer to the time of spraying. Have just bought this compressor http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/s.nl/sc.9/cat...t.A/id.28085/.f

and was going to get this gun for it http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...me=STRK:MEWA:IT.

 

However Paintguy says above not to go for a HVLP. The cfm ratinf is high enough on the compressor though. Am I missing something?

[Paintguy 0]

I could be missing something, but I can't see anything in that description that says it's a HVLP gun

 

In fact, looking at the specs, I'd be surprised if it was. Most HVLP guns run at a maximumof 2 Bar (roughly 30PSI), and have a higher cfm rating than that one.

 

I've never used that particular gun, so I can't say how good it'll be, but it looks suitable for what you need And to answer your PM, I'd go for a 1.3 or 1.4 set up for painting.

[Guest plonkman]

Hi.. This is an interesting thread.

 

Any update on how this went? I`m thinking of doing this myself.

 

Cheers!