New to spraying :)

[Phil_B]

Hi everyone

Ive just joined this forum as it seems to have alot of information on paint spraying for cars.
Before i ask a couple of questions heres why i'm here. Me and a couple of mates who all have a passion for cars, in particular enhancing the look of our own. With each of us needing bodywork doing, either on bumpers, or new body panels in different clours needing attention (no full car resprays) we were thinking of DIY spraying instead of paying amounts which we cant afford to pay for bodyshop work. So combining our money we thought we could possibly buy the necessary equipment and try our hands at it, thats the theory anyway, not sure about the practice

Heres the questions.

Reading up on here the compressor is the usual way to go, but there are also dedicated spraying machines which seem easy for beginners not spraying whole cars like the apollo spraymaster which interested me. The spray master and gun is £176.00, is there a compressor and gun for the similar price that will do a better job? Ive seen mixed reviews on here about it but it does look a better option for me obviously unless the finish achieved is awful.

Thanks in advance, i am trying to search the forum first before asking questions and have read the useful painting guide.

 

[jaykay]

get a cmpressor might cost more,but at least you will be working with a tool that is up to what you want.try 2nd hand.

 

[Phil_B]

thanks for the fast reply, is there a reason why it would not be up for the job?

 

[irondarren]

welcome to the forum, the forum really isnt about painting more about welding. As it just so happends a large percentage of forum users are car welding, which more often or not means whats been welded often needs re-painting. hence the number of threads on painting, and the number of good replies.

If your trying to organise yourself a set up for spraying, there are a number of consideration to bear in mind. my own personal opinion of compressors sold with 'air tools' is the spray guns really are not up to much except primer, the tools they give with it are not of much use. If it was me i would buy the biggest and best air compressor i could, buy a seperate spray gun costing no less than £35. I use for painting gates and railings a cheap £35 spray gun from my local paint supplier, its fine for painting gates and railings, and with care you can turn a reasonable finish on a car.

some points to note about spray guns which are important in my opinion:
1 Reasonable quality air guns consume around 10 cubic feet a minute of air.
this means if you want to spray a whole car you need a large 3hp compressor, or break the spraying into bits wings then drivers front door then, driver rear door, rear wing etc, pausing between each panel for the compressor to catch up.
2 the size of the nozzle/needle (valve that lets the paint out) is dependant on the type of paint being used.
cellulose needs a small needle say 1.2/1.3 base coat the same, 2 pack paint including laquer requires a large nozzle of 1.4mm, primer is normally done with a much larger 1.7mm nozzle. but with care a 1.3/1.4mm nozzle does all, for priming you need to build multiple coats
3 gravity or top pots use all the paint but balance can feel strange to start with.
because the paint is above is in the pot above your hand, it feels top heavy. once you get used to spray with a top pot picking up a bottom pot and painting feels real weird. The other great thing about top posts is all the paint is used, because it is gravity feed. This means if you want to touch up some thing you can add just enough paint to do the job.
4 bottom pots or suction guns always seem to feel better balanced when first learning to spray
The balance just feels better when your first learning, but suction guns always leave a little bit of paint in the gun, the bit it just cant suck out, its only an egg cup full though, it can cause problems when spraying at an angle with the gun pointed upwards.

hopefully that helps out a little, as for the compressor you quoted i have no idea what its like. Aldi i believe were sell cheap compressors a while ago reasonable size very cheap, not up to heavy use but for what you want i guess would be fine

 

[eil]

Phil Hi welcome, Jaykay does a lot of spraying does he use an apollo to do vehicles? there might be something in that. I used one in the early eighties OK for putting cuprinol on the garden fence was my opinion.

 

[irondarren]

eil i must admit i mis read the post didnt follow the link and went into a whole spill about compressors and spray guns. Now i realise what it is i have to say i am with you on the opinion of fence painting, i used one years ago. you just dont seem to have the same control as a compressed air spray gun.
As for jaykay's advice on second hand they can often be quite expensive

 

[jaykay]

jk

ok,start at the beginning,i'm asprayer by trade,and a welder by choice.
i'm 60yrs now.so i have played with most guns/compressors.
as for that small setup,it will work,i have used them sort and got good results.
but as a newbie you will find it hard for many reasons,which if you know what your doing you can over come.
but for you,your just going to make it hard for yourself.
with half desent comp. gun,you'll have a chance.
alot of cheap guns work ok.and you can get results.
ifound with them small units you get a pulse in the air feed,that makes it hard to work with.
paint is not cheap,and you can waste alot trying.
my car cost £600 for paint, and i had no wastage,so think about it
oh by the way the trick with gravity guns spraying up hill is to loosen the pot pickup tube,turn it 1/2 a turn. the tube is now sloping back to wards your and and will take all the paint from pot.
hope this helps abit.

 

[Chipper]

If there's a few of you, chuck in say 150 notes each, or the more the better. Look at it in terms of the cost of a respray per car - still got yourselves a right bargain. A nice big comp will feed all sorts of other tools too, like DA's.
Would've thought a comp would be more flexible too than the turbine things, in that you can use mini-guns, fullsize ones, etc.

Quality guns can be bought s/h and rebuilt, my JGA cost £60 all in, inc rebuild parts (had to wait for cheap ones to come up mind).

 

[jaykay]

he he my firm i worked for said"we have to go hvlp."i got my 2 jga 3 setups for both=£50.
oh and all the spare i had stashed away.

 

[eil]

Cmon jay wheres the pics of the car.

 

[jaykay]

jk

how do i put pics up from my puter?????

 

[eil]

Theres a tutorial somwhere , you go advanced then look down to attach files click on the add photos.

 

[malcolm]

Here's the tutorial for posting photos: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5016

 

[Wozzaaah]

Jay's car pics are now in the brew room.

 

[jaykay]

thanks,wozzaaah,sorry for putting in the wrong place.

 

[Wozzaaah]

No probs Jay, I've spent several hours attempting to sort the welders and welding machines section today so I've got my tidy head on .

 

[Phil_B]

Wow thanks for all the informative replies. especially irondarren!
So it looks like its a compressor then, we realy do not have any more money to spend, £180 is our budget really, i know its not enough for a really good comp but which do you all suggest for one?
My other option is renting one between us when we all have a few jobs to do to keep the cost down.

Again any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Chipper]

Jay, what a bargain
Phil, there's zillions of comps out there, just get the most cfm and biggest tank for your £s. If you buy on fleabay be aware if it goes pop you'll need to return to seller, so there's courier costs if far away.
You can spray with a small comp, but it won't be so nice to use and will be less good for other things. It'll run more, you'll be waiting for it to catch up which can be incovenient. Secondhand comps might be an option too o'course.

When gun-shopping be aware of the difference between HVLP and conventional guns (HVLP needs lots of air).

 

[Phil_B]

Still looking at compressors then, the biggest tank i can afford is a 50ltr one. The Sealey compressors seem to be the cheapest, maybe theres a reason for this but i'm on a budget

Heres the one ive found, i am a member of Makro aswell so i might pop down today and see what they have.

Sealey SA2250/2 - Compressor 50ltr Direct Drive 2.0hp

What do people think? good or bad i don't mind. I know its not enough to spray a whole car but would the spec be good enough to spray a large panel at least?

 

[eil]

Phil, I suggest that you and your mates have a good read on the compressor and paint sections of the forum first, theres been a few that have had Aldi or Netto comps like the sealy ones a lot cheaper, if the three of you do the reading then the group of you will then be able to decide what your going to chip in to get what you need.