My compressor would definitely not keep up with a paint gun. I have one of the knockoff Fuji siphon guns, the kind with its own little standalone blower. Are there any auto paints that would be appropriate to use with this thing? They should be the right consistency to work really well with it, only issues are the lack of drying, and my lack of skill, which can probably be overcome with extra sanding and buffing.

 

You don’t need a mechanical dryer for hobby level paint work. You can get away with attaching 50’ of plastic air hose high on the wall between the compressor and an in-line filter with condensate blowdown. This will condense a lot of the moisture out of the compressed air. Then, use a throwaway inline filter/dryer at the gun air inlet.

 

I've used the inline dryers before with a friend's compressor to do Gator Guard, they work fine. My current issue is I'd need to buy a compressor that can feed a standard paint gun, and I don't really want a bigger compressor. Mine's small enough it's not unreasonable to move and can feed my nailguns fine.

Borrowing my buddy's compressor long enough to paint a whole car is not a reasonable thing to ask, especially because I've never done it so it will probably take twice as long, and he actually uses high flow air tools.

 

OK, what is your question?

You need enough airflow and pressure to operate the gun. If your compressor is small, you may be limited to one panel at a time.

 

There are a ton of new automotive paint chemistries since I was in school for this (and it wasn't bodywork school so there was only like a day on paint). Do any of them not require bone-dry air?

The siphon gun I have has its own blower that works basically like the output side of a shopvac. It's got a particle filter and it sprays real nice, but it's spraying with whatever moisture content is in the surrounding air. It's not compressing so there's no extra moisture or droplets or anything getting into the line, maybe that's all I need for any automotive paint in the first place. But I don't know, so I'm asking instead of just shooting a horrible flaky paintjob onto a car I care about.

 

OK, I see. I don’t think there is going to be anything special about the paint you use. The point of the dryer in a compressed air system is that moisture condenses out of pressurized air as it cools. If you are not pressurizing the air, then the moisture in the air should not condense and not be an issue.

As far as how that gun will spray, I have no idea. May want to try out a little bit of cheap paint from Napa before buying any good paint products.

 

Harbor Freight has a desiccant filter so its a traditional water/oil filter and then a desiccant filter (it has those little beads that absorb water in it), I got fish eyes in my paint event tough I already had two of the cheap dryers and one at the gun until I added it. Those are like $60.

As for the siphon gun... buy a can of the dupli color shop paint or rustolem car paint, go to the junkyard and ask them to sell you a damaged hood for scrap metal cost. And give it a try. prefect the technique, if you like it then try better paint, if you still like it, paint your car.

 

Do I need to try for a fender or something with a weird shape? Or is "big and mostly flat" the hardest thing?

My neighbor had 2 car doors on his lawn labeled "free for scrap" yesterday. I was going to ask him if he'd care if I only took or even deskinned the good one since I'm low on space, by the time I got home someone had already done precisely that. Seemed kind of dickish to do without saying anything because he had the "free" sign sharpied onto that skin and obviously wanted them gone.

Maybe trying to paint the inside of the door would be better practice and I should grab the other door?

 

In my opinion, hoods are the hardest things to paint. You have to stretch while painting and trying not to get your hose\clothes in the paint, and maintain a good pattern\distance, etc. It's a PITA.

 

I would go get a dented hood off a Civic or Grand am something cheap. Practice painting it standing up not laying flat. You can buy some cheap bondo. You can pick up a cheap harbor freight hammer and dolly set. Practice body work etc. Go by a body shop or paint store and see if the have any bad mixes or out of date paint and primer they will sell you cheap. Or left overs of the same type ( mix them together ).

If you have the funds buy the ugliest car on Craigslist you can find that is mechanically sound and paint it, then sell it. Late 90s civics, Corollas can be had cheap in miss matched paint and just making it one color is usually enough to sell it for more.

The cheap cloth carports harbor freight sells ($100 or so) makes a decent paint booth.

 

Thanks, those are really good ideas, wouldn't have thought of asking for bad paint! I have a standalone garage too, probably enough room and spare wood to grab some 1/4" light drywall and light frame in a booth. Any ideas for cheap fume extraction? I have a respirator with both particulate filters and OV cartridges, but I'd still like to avoid working in a gas chamber.

I'm unfortunately really good at diagnosis once I get my hands on something. I wouldn't feel right knowing what little things were wrong and trying to sell it without fixing all those too. But maybe I could offer on craigslist to paint for others, tell them directly I'm trying to get good but the first probably won't come out perfect, let them pay for the supplies.

And just when I thought I was unlucky because junkyards around here would only sell me full price hoods, found a guy on Craigslist selling a 82 T/A hood and some other parts that I needed!

 

I would actually recommend painting a spare hood flat if you're going to practice with a spare hood. It's way harder to paint it flat than it is standing up. If you can learn to paint with your arm way out from your body on a perpendicular surface and maintain a good pattern, speed, and overlap, painting horizontal surfaces will be a breeze.

 

I painted the primer, filler and seal coats while my hood was flat. But will paint the top coat hanging off a stand I got on eBay.

 

Orientation doesn't matter too much if its a non-metallic, non-pearl color. If it does have metallic or pearl, you'll want to paint it exactly how it'll be on the car. Otherwise the colors won't look the same when looking at two panels from the same angle due to the metallics\pearls standing\settling differently.

 

Just gloss black for me. No pearls, etc.

 

Horizontal you can go wetter with the paint before it runs. Vertical you get less dirt in it as it dries. The wetter you can lay the paint down the less orange peel you will have. So it really for me comes down to what do you want to sand out before you buff. And how clean your spray area is of dust and pollen etc as it dries.

Solids usually don't look different based on spray orientation, but as said metallic is.