I'm going to be attempting a paint job of my own this summer and I will need a spray gun, but my problem is that I don't own an air compressor to operate it. Are there any good electrically powered guns out there?

Any other options?

Thanks alot to any suggestions given.

 

Do you have a rent-a-bay/booth anywhere nearby?

 

No, never heard of that. I'll probably do it in my driveway or something, maybe rig up some kind of tarp though, I just need to get a spray gun.

 

what you NEED is an aircompressor. The Turbine guns are not suitable without significant mods for spraying automotive paint. I suppose you could thin down some lacquer or enamel paint (rustoleum) and use a wagner power painter or a foam roller; but I wont comment on the hackery and halfassedness that usually results from that.

As far as a gun goes, since you asked. ASTRO makes a fine and dandy set of LVLP and HVLP knockoffs that are actually EXTREMELY good for the hobbyist. About 70 bucks a gun from various sources. Spraygunworld is the cheapest BUT sometimes they take a month to ship (they wait for a specified number of orders before they ship) BUT you seem to have some time; so Id suggest that route, and THEN go get yourself a 60gal compressor, or find a place to rent one for 2-3 days

 

But I will......

I had amazing results with an el-cheapo un-modded wagner power painter. And to be honest, one of the best paint jobs I've ever seen in person was applied with what?........a rag! Yep, you read it right. There's not much that a good wet sand and buff wont fix if you do happen to screw up.

Check out the link in my sig for pics of my wagner painter spray job.

 

Is the wagner power painter electrically powered?

 

You can rent an air compressor from Home Depot for about $49 a day. Paint guns are cheap, Princess Auto has a decent HVLP for 49.95.

I used a $500 Anest Iwata HVLP and I still had to wet sand and buff it. So unless you're paying someone top dollar, be prepared to do some work.

 

Yes. All you have to do is pour your paint in it, plug it in, and pull the trigger.

 

Alright I looked into Fyrchkn's paintjob and he did a great job on a non-existent budget. So I'll probably follow that and do a rustoleum paintjob. Thanks for the input, if that doesn't work out I'll probably do as Kevman suggested and rent an air compressor and purchase a spray gun, 45 a day doesn't sound bad at all.

 

yes yes yes...a guy here and 2 more over there have applied paint with rags, sponges, rollers, power painters and probably a few rat rodders and even some people here have used a shop broom and DutchBoy for their cars. Using an Alkyd Enamel (Rustoleum)is asking for trouble if you ever want to step out of the bush league. The color holdout is bad, nothing sticks to them after awhile, they dont sand or strip well either. Im begging you check AutoBody101.com and search for the threads on roller paintjobs and ones on Rustoleum or Alkyd Enamels. The paint is junk. Hell you can buy Catalyzed enamel for about 40 bucks a gallon incl the hardener and reducer...if you insist on using a house painter to paint your car, at LEAST use a product meant for cars...on a car.

I guess Im just a paint snob, no offense to fyrechkn and the 3 or 4 other people who pulled this off...9 times out of 10 it looks like ***

If you insist on using junk paint on your pride and joy...at least mix however many cans of paint you get...the batches of paint can sometimes be way off...at least you'll have a fighting chance.

Also, the Princess Auto / Harbor Freight 43430 is an okay gun, Ive painted a few cars with it and still use it for slinging primer...but its an absolute airhog. The Astro guns are a much better product for a few bucks more

Im trying guys, but sometimes its hard to wrap my head around some of the stuff people expect to get on a 12dollar budget. Now is the time to invest in solid equipment from things like auctions. My Campbell Hausfield a/c is older than dirt but it can handle everything I need and I got it for 70 bucks at an auction. My paint guns I bought used at first and rebuilt them, the same with my 8" grinder I bought a dewalt remanufactured one.

Instead of investing in junk to get something done with a high risk of unsatisfactory results, buy low cost but solid quality tools that will last a long time. Just 1 guys thoughts

 

I agree with the half *** argument....If you calculate the cost of spraying with a wagner or whatever and compare it to a quick splash with real paint from a local shop you might be surprised.
Also if you eye the body supply store they mis mix paints sometimes and you could get a gallon (should be enough) for dirt cheap (the hardeners/reducers might not be super cheap but well worth it for shine and durability)
Prep yourself but beware prep is tough work and costly to do right. Wherever you skimp will end up showing in the final result. If none of the about concerns you have fun with the rustoleum and like the previous poster suggested....I hope you never have to paint it again.

 

36 dollars a gallon. 59.99 wagner paint gun. -25 mineral spirit. 10 sand paper.

 

you can get small 5-10 gallon compressor for surprisingly cheap and cheap paint guns go on sale all the time, you dont need a $200 devilbiss to get decent paint. and like mentioned before you can get a gallon of paint for dirt cheap that was mixed wrong. but i have to say fyrchkns paint looks pretty decent.

 

After reading all this and you still want to do a super cheap job with crap paint... You might as well take it to maaco and have it back the next day. It'll look better.

There's an old motto that goes something like "There's no job worth doing, thats not worth doing right". If you're bent on doing the job yourself... and I'm all for you doing it yourself, at least do your homework and learn how to do it right. Thats a lesson you can use on all the cars in your future. Same with the tools you buy. Good tools will last a lifetime. There are some corners you can cut, especially on your first paint job, to save a few bucks. But the biggest savings over having a good shop do it is the labor. Prep labor is the same wether you shoot the best quality automotive paint on it or something barely suitable for your mailbox or swingset. Go to an autobody supply store and tell them what you're looking for and what you expect out of your paint job. Just talk to them ... they know their stuff.

 

The problem is that it looks good in the pics to the untrained eye.

And when I read about people color sanding and buffing an alkyd or synthetic enamel paint job I just cringe. And then to make matters even worse they say they wax it the same day ... OMG!

 

I think Fyrchkn's looks great, and I have heard many testimonies on here that say their rustoleum paint job lasts years.

 

It did look great, and there are others on this board that have seen it personally that can also testify to it. The paint job got numerous complements just about everywhere I went and everybody would throw out the when I told them it was Rustoleum sprayed with a Wagner. But, a few months ago I did a complete color change because the cops kept hassling me.

From the time I did the rustoleum job last May/June until November I got pulled over 8 times and twice I got speeding tickets. Funny thing is, when it was wearing the crappy looking faded stock paint I never even got looked at. After I painted it white all my troubles ended once again.

Contrary to what everyone that has never used this paint says it does sand off fairly easy. All it takes is a few 80 grit pads on a DA sander. I stripped off all the red Rusto in about 4 hours.

I repainted it white with Valspar implement paint from Tractor Supply. It runs $28/gallon and $13 for hardener. It's MUCH better paint than the rustoleum. Once it's dry it's hard to scratch with a key. I sprayed it with a Harbor Freight HVLP gun and a 20 gallon Craftsman compressor. The 20 gallon kinda struggled to keep up with the HVLP gun so I highly doubt a 5-10 gallon would stand a chance with an HLVP, but it would work with a siphon fed gun.

I now have the car completely torn down, stripped, and primed once again since I finally decided on a color scheme. I'll be using the same setup that I used when I sprayed the implement paint, and yes I'll be spraying the same paint again.

Rustoleum is an OK paint, but it requires regular waxing to keep it looking good and protected since it doesn't have the UV protection. It can scratch easily if there is no hardener added. But, at the time I did it I wanted to test it out to see what kind of results I could get. I figured it couldn't look any worse than it already did. I used the Wagner because I already had it on hand and my compressor had just taken a crap on me. I couldn't justify the cost of another one at the time.

Maaco or any other place was simply not an option for me. Their price was still at least 3-4 times higher than what my out of pocket cost was...yes, I checked around. Not to mention the quality of work that I saw was terrible. One place didn't even wash the cars they painted, they just painted right over the bird $h!t on the hood.

Sorry for temporarily hijacking your thread, but I needed to clear a few things up.

 

fyrchkn...can we see some pics of your white paint? how many coats of the valspar did you put on? how orange peeled was it? did you have to sand inbetween coats? thinned to what?..sorry for all the questions..im doing the same thing and i think im gonna end up going with white

 

and what spray gun? thanks!

 

I can't remember the actual amount that I thinned it, I just followed the directions on the back of the can. I sprayed 3 coats and it laid down very nicely with little to no orange peel. No sanding between coats.








This is what it looked like before I stripped it down. I never got around to wet sanding or buffing at all. This is only the paint sprayed on and that's it. Oh, and about 5 minutes after I painted it a freak cold front blew in and dropped the temp from 75 to 40 and it rained on the car....That's why I'm having to re-paint it now that it's warmed up.

When I'm done with the new paint I'll start a new thread detailing everything. It's going to be a couple of weeks though.

 

what gun was it?

 

I've painted at least 10-15 cars per year with rustoleum or tractor enamel for the past ten years.

Of course most of them aren't daily drivers. This is a good example of one, no prep whatsoever was done, didn't even clean the dirt off of it.





I have some pics of it during paint also. I would say it's durable and easy on the wallet but i spray it out of a regular HVLP gun also. I've painted a few drivers for people who wanted something presentable for next to no cash.

I paint my personal vehicles with automotive paint but if i wanted something that looked good cheap and fast i'd have no problem with tractor enamel or rustoleum.

 

No problem man, I'm glad you posted that, it helps alot.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat you were, my current stock paint is chipping horribly in many places and can't look much worse.

I don't understand why everyone's making such a big deal about it, if I don't like the rustoleum job I'll just sand it off and leave it at a primer or something.

 

I dont have a problem with it. Simply put 'it aint mine.' Heres my position: For every guy with natural painting talent and the skills that mr Fyrechkn has; theres a dozen people with seriously jacked up looking cars with SERIOUS orange peel, dry spots, fish eyes, painted over rust and mud, who used uncatalyzed enamel (same stuff as in the rattlecan) that wonder why they need to re-invest money to fix something they had no business attempting in the first place. Maybe its because Im 28, or that my Dad is a retired autoshop teacher; I cant stand gnarly paint on an otherwise NICE car.

If you paint it with rustoleum because your budget is sooo terribly razor thin, are you going to be able to afford to re-do it again? I only ask because I can usually only aford the time and money here in the rust belt to fix thing right the first time and I dont want to see you left unhappy with your 3rd Gen.

FYI, leaving your paint in primer isnt much better than leaving your car in bare metal. Well only slightly. Primer is supposed to give a stable flat colored surface for the paint to stick to. Its not really intended to protect the metal other than sealing it to keep from oxidizing TEMPORARILY. Heres the rub; Primer is PORUS to make the topcoat stick better to the PRIMER. Because of this, primer also absorbs water and the water grains pass through the primer onto the metal underneath. This will rust, only you wont see it because its covered by the primer...but I promise you....you will.

Acrylic Enamel (any enamel you add a catalyst or hardener to kind of like mixing Bondo) is really good paint for a budget. Its cheap ($40/gal or so from tractor supply or napa). But its not as quick to cure as todays modern super paints. What 1piece was talking about is if you color sand it (wet sand it with 1500 grit and then buff with buffing compound) tread somewhat carefully, this stuff stays soft for a LONG LONG time. I dont mean you'll leave fingerprints in it, but once the very top microscopic layer hardens, it takes longer and longer for it to cure. If you polish off that top layer of cured paint, you'll smell the fresh paint underneath...this is NORMAL for any paint. However, after that, you basically wait a month before you wax it to let all the solvents evaporate

The Harbor Freight/Princess Auto HVLP gun of choice used to be the 'purple gun' #43430. Its very solid, just disassemble it and clean the parts with solvent before you paint, sometimes theres an oily film or little bits of plastic in the inner workings (for any gun, not just cheap ones). If an HVLP gun (high volume, low pressure) air gun is too much for your compressor; I suggest you look at Astro or Vaper's line of LVLP guns. These use 4-6cfm of air at 30psi. Plenty to paint our cars with. Some better quality LVLP guns would be 'Anest Iwata' guns and the older series from Sharpe called the Platinum (avoid the HO series Platinum - it has a large tip and was designed for production bodyshops). The Platinum was also sold under the Snap-On line as the Excalibur LVLP. Also, you can get HVLP style siphon feed guns from spraygunworld.com from Astro for 20 bucks.

 

lets see some updated pictures!!!