First paint job

Finally got around to priming my project bike's parts using my paint gun. I guess I had been procrastinating on this part of the project from fear of the unknown. I had never painted with a gun and after reading a book on the subject was scared so many things could go wrong... fish eyes, runs, sags, overspray, underspray... the book made it sound like you needed to be smart to paint... anyway, I did the body work several weeks ago and set the stuff up on card board boxes with strategically placed pieces of 4x4 for "racks". I used the respirator mask I bought even though I worked outside and practiced a tad on my trash can which allowed me to adjust the air volume on the gun as well as the pattern of the paint and volume of the paint. It really wasn't hard to do... I had bought a Harbor Freight el cheapo detail gun on sale months back. I set my compressor to 50 PSI and shot the parts in primer. They came out fine. I will need at least one more primer coat before shooting in base coat. I bought the 4:1 primer (four parts paint and one part hardener or whatever it is called) at NAPA. It is their value line paint (their cheap stuff) called Cross Fire brand. It took about 2 hours to do the first shoot since I had to take extra time to read the gun instructions and set the gun up but the second shoot will go faster I think. I also mixed too much paint... had enough to do another shoot but it was starting to dry some in the pot so I washed it out and tossed it. Anyway, if this works out, I will be also painting the Barney carb test bike in the near future as it looks kind of ratty as the rattle can purple didn't hold up well... The only problem I had was when I took the front fender off the "rack"... I picked it up too quick and put a big thumb print in the paint. Will have to sand that out and was going to put another coat of primer on anyway...

I'm watching you George...I'm on the brink of painting two bikes...best to learn from a Master (or from another's mistakes)

Oh Yeah, WG!
I'm going to repaint all of the body work on my Voyager XII this Fall/Winter.
I was thinking about going with rattle can paint. Seen lots of good results from the guys on this site. But I have a small compressor, so maybe I'll just try it with a gun.
Keep us posted.

This is my first paint job. It's 2007 Corvette orange. Im a painter by trade, but not vehicles. (industrial) The key is getting your gun set up right. Test fire some random piece before basecoating, and do the same before clear. Make sure the paint is going on and flowing the way you want it to. Most of all TAKE YOUR TIME! My neighbor that owns a HARLEY got me this basecoat for free, normally it's 400.00 a quart. Some harley guys ant bad after all.

Post edited by: ZED, at: 2006/10/09 11:32

here we go

I have rattle-canned dozens of bikes in the past and while it may look nice initially; especially if you take your time and do it right, it won't hold up as well as paint with hardeners shot from a gun. The small gun I got requires 50 PSI / 4 CFM (memory) so you don't need a huge compressor. I have two compressors and the bigger has a decent sized tank and I never outshot the air in the tank... believe it is 30 or 40 gallons. I have another compressor that holds 1 gallon I use for little bitty jobs and I think it would have been out of breath constantly...

As far as the tip on setting up the gun, I was pretty careful to get the pattern and flow I was comfy with on my trash can. I guess it needs done every time you use the gun since the nozzle needs to be disassembled. I found the .9mm nozzle about right. I think a little bigger gun would be helpful as I had to reload some primer prior to finishing all the pieces due to the small medium container but other than that, it worked pretty nicely. When I do some more sanding, I will shoot at least one more coat of primer/sealer...

WG - Did you use one of those HVLP spray guns or a standard one? Just curious since I'm going to be attempting the same thing this winter.

Post edited by: hmondo, at: 2006/10/10 23:47

Regular gun (not HVLP)... it is a detail gun which puts on less paint than a normal gun as well. This size gun seems to work well on bike parts. I bought it because it was on sale and real cheap at Harbor Freight. May spring for a bit more expensive and better quality gun if I decide I want to continue painting and continue using this gun just for primer. The detail size gun would also be the next gun I bought and I might spring for an HVLP gun just to see if saves paint as its supposed to do. I bought a quart of primer/sealer and it appears to be enough to do at least 10 bikes if you sprayed each a couple times. I used NAPA "value line" Cross Fire primer/sealer. I used this paint as I didn't feel like chasing into town to buy some other brand. It is also pretty inexpensive compared to other brands and while I don't want to cheap out too much, this is just an experiment at this stage.


One last thing... I haven't noticed anyone saying much about it but the thing that is most critical is the light. I can't tell how much paint has gone on if I paint under flourescent light... even bright light. The only way I can see the paint going on well is under bright sunlight. Not sure if anyone else has noticed that... maybe because I am an old geezer with bad eyes hehe If I were setting up a paint booth, I would definitely use a LOT of bright lights. from different angles.

Post edited by: wiredgeorge, at: 2006/10/11 09:45

you might also want to get a water filter, the place that you get the paint from sells a small filter that you put on the gun, they work great , havent had any water issues since I started using them

dont you live around the san antonio area?
I have a job starting up there, will be spending a few weeks up that way

del

Already got a dessicant filter. I didn't use it for the first coat as I couldn't get the filter to work. Turns out it has plugs in BOTH ends from the factory bwhahaha I now have it figure out... that plastic thing stuck in the one end needs to be pulled out...

I do live near San Antonio... about 25 miles outside Loop 1604 and about 40 miles from the center of town. I live out near Medina Lake towards the southwest end of the lake. We are in Medina County.

When I looked at the HF ad for the HVLP gun, I remembered one of the reasons I decided against...
Required air pressure: 15-50 PSI
Air consumption: 9.5-14.8 CFM
Air inlet: 1/4''

With almost 15 CFM at 50 PSI, I wasn't sure my compressor would cut the mustard. Not sure what it will do at 50 PSI but that seems kind of high to me.


JMKZHI posted some comments regarding the HVLP gun. While the comments sounded positive, I am not sure I understood much of the comments regarding gun use. When I adjust the gun, I fiddle with the nozzle on the end that adjusts the pattern, the amount of paint that is adjusted by a knob on the rear of the gun and the air pressure knob on the bottom to find a pattern that paints fairly slowly and evenly when I open the gun's trigger all the way. For the time being, I am going to have to leave the scientific to the experts and just keep fiddling... cheers!