I picked up a nice '73 Revenna green teener last fall that had been a stalled project. Mechanically she is back together and on the road, body is solid being a SOCAL car until the last 10 years and basically garaged for refreshing since then, but she does need paint.

I've done a bit of panel paint work, do a respectable job, and have decided to paint this car myself with the help of an experienced hobbyist painter. For this I'm looking to upgrade guns.

Given the local paint shop is a Dupont retailer, I plan to use their products, will be shooting base and clear, not single stage (don't even know if I can get single stage if I wanted it...). Will also be shooting primer with this gun.

Presently I have a 25 gallon compressor that is advertised to be 7.0 CFM at 90 PSI, but have no issues with upgrading my compressor now that I have a larger garage and plenty of 220 service.

Any recommendations for a decent gun setup?

Now that I have painted 3 cars I am not sure. I have bought several guns and I use different ones for different purposes. One thing I learned on the last go around was to play with all of the adjustments to get what you want, which may not be what the manual states. I wish I had spent $400 on a gun now because I have spent $4000 in paint. Also, a mini gun is indispensable in my experience. Hopefully Rick will chime in cause he and a few others here are real experts.

I have painted more than a few cars and panels and struggled with cheap guns. When I built up my 1929 Ford Roadster in 2000, I decided to spring for a good gun. I know that every one has their own preference as to type of gun so I won't get into that. I bought a Binks siphon feed gun that a child could do a good quality paint job with. A good gun is that easy to use. It was one of my best tool purchases ever!

Charlie

Thanks for the feedback worn and flyer86d.

I've done a lot of playing with my gun, AOM 5008WB, and as I mentioned I've had respectable luck with panel work, but it's a pain to find parts, and have to wonder about better results with a better gun.

Also I've found differences in materials, i.e. inexpensive paints typically don't spray well, at least for me.

Painted lots of cars with a cheap siphon feed gun. Lots of overspray and orange peel. Bought this and never looked back.

I've been using a Tekna Copper gun the past few years and it has been very good.

Guy

I used a Husky hvlp gun, I have a nice gun now but in reality you can find a gun that will give you 99% of a $500 gun for under 100.

I buy all my consumables and paint from www.tcpglobal.com and they have a great selection of guns as well.

Read the first half of my build thread for tips on paint and body.

Okay. Hold on a sec. Did you say Duron? That is house paint. I am a painter by trade with 32 years in the business and currently work for PPG automotive coatings. I would recommend base clear for every job! Because you can work with the color until you get it how you like it then lock it in with clear. Even if you use a single stage urethane I would integrate clear in the last coat for durability. As far as paint guns I would recommend a good quality HVLP if you have the compressor to handle the air volume. HVLP uses a lot of air at low pressure. I would also recommend using a gun with a 1.4 or 1.3 fluid tip. The "cheap" guns you can get typically have too big of a tip and will make for a less than stellar job. Like spraying with a garden hose. Any of the paint gun manufacturers guns will be a good choice. Data, Devilbiss, Iwata. They are more expensive but the results are very noticeably better.
I feel sure there is a good automotive paint supplier in your area that would be happy to assist. Also look on PPG automotive coatings website for tips and tutorials. Ppg A automotive also had great videos on you tube.
Good luck and let me know if I can help.
Bill

Oops, too much house painting going on with this "new" old house... Make that DuPont... And they are 40 miles away - kind of live in the sticks. They appear to be more of just a retailer than knowledgeable car painters, but that seems to be retail in general. And being a DuPont retailer they also sell Nason, but for me with my AOM HLVP gun (with 1.2 and 1.4 tips), I've had better results with DuPont Chromabase products.

Thanks for all the feedback to everyone. More to consider and more research.

No worries. Axalta (formerly DuPont) will work. Take the label off its just chemistry. Good luck
B

I had extremely bad luck with Nason painting Peters(malaga_red75 car). Read my paint thread for him on it in my sig. I wont use that product again.

Best gun out there for the money - Iwata LPH400. You'll pay about $400, but it is an awesome gun used by pros. Bonus when shooting PPG is that PPG gives you gun setup paramters FOR THAT ACTUAL GUN, because it is a pro gun.

I ran it with an 80 gallon compressor. No issues, painted the whole car beautifully.

Iwata is my gun of choice too. Looks awesome. What did you put on it?

Same gun I have. Very good gun, Sprayed my dads El Camino and Peters car with it.

A beginner will NOT notice the difference between it and a $100 gun, (I still have my Husky gun for quick jobs, good gun).

I like the PPG products. Also I think the idea of a base clear is a good one. I used single stage for my old cars out of a sense of period, but it seems a lot easier when I fix a ding on my wife's modern car with base clear.

Yes, I was driving the mini van when the ding occurred, but it was at least in the Harbor Freight parking lot.

I dont know about that.. Mix a couple drops of Color and an appropriate couple drops of hardner in a plastic cup, clean the chip with wax and grease remover, then get a couple of toothpicks and grab a drop and drop it into the chip. Wait a month (or 3 years in my case...) and wetsand it flat and polish by hand.

Saw a documentary of the Lamborghini factory painters, actually they ship the bodies 75 km away, since the factory doesn't have in-house painting facilities (!) There are two guys who shoot the panels simultaneously one guy does the inside the other guy does the outside in the opposite direction. Auto painting fascinates me, seems like there is magic involved.

PPG Envirobase, PPG Clear, color is AUBERGINE.

Like it!!!!

Thanks bro, I know you work for PPG, but honestly, with this build I did not want to screw around. I wanted the BEST. For me, that means PPG. Total cost of paint was $1400 with everything, hardeners, base, clear, strainers, One Choice cleaner, etc etc. Worth every penny.

This product is OUTSTANDING.

As I mentioned above, I will have help from an experienced hobbyist painter but my goal is to learn to paint better for the future thus I want him to help and teach, not paint my car, which also means acquiring a better gun than what I presently have. Sure, I have my friend's opinion, but I feel it's better to reach out to a wider community, which I'm glad to see has also branched out to paints also.

Thanks for the feedback.

I love and use PPG products myself. I have a gallon of single stage Zambezi green for my project. One problem is its 3 years old. I hope it's still good. All told I have $800 in 3 year old product.

PPG is a nice paint to lay on and gives a good finish of the gun (wet coat ),I personally use a Chinese knock off Iwata gravity gun and have been pleased with it,parts are way cheaper as well as the obvious lower purchase price.
I may be unlike others but I place more importance of a good constant dry clean supply of air to the gun,I prefer a 10-12 cfm compressor minimum,with a good water separator.
Don't stress too much about the end result as its down to the finish work with wet & dry and your buffer @ the end of the day.
I have noticed many don't put enough paint on so the finish work can suffer for that reason,nothing worse than sanding thru the clearcoat .
I steer away from 2 pac for health reasons,been poisoned once that's enough,for DYI single pack is a more friendly solution IMO.

Porsche tub brings up a good point.

My setup is a 7.5HP 80 gallon 2 stage compressor wired to 240 directly. I could paint a house with it. Have water separators, etc.

SAFETY wise, 2 part paint is a killer - or at least it can be. I paint in my garage, and have installed a 3500cfm explosion proof fan. The whole setup is negative pressure, and while it occasionally can get a little more dust than a positive pressure setup, at least no one in the house smells anything.

The air is filtered when it leaves the garage so no issues there.

I wear a full tyvek suit, and have a FULL face respirator with the 3M pink cartridges. These are rated for isocyanate paints IF they are changed out on a regular schedule. I use them for ONE application, then throw them away.

Your life is just not worth screwing around with. My setup is probably overkill but I have never gotten sick, and I spray safely and comfortably with lots of ventilation.

Great point!

IMHO DuPont is garbage.

Spies Hecker or PPG will be the best color match, best coverage. Lay out the best etc.

DUPONT Chromabase may take 5-6 coats for full coverage where PPG will take you 2-3 coats. Price each per quart, then do the math. You WILL end up spending just as much on cheap paint, and will spend twice the time spraying it. IMO Your car deserves a quality job with quality materials

The best way I have come up with to described it is this:


skim milk vs. whole milk


That tends to help anyone understand the difference

An expensive gun will not make you a good painter,

A cheap gun will not make a good painter a shitty painter.

SATA or Iwata are top shelf, but you'll pay for it. I have well over 3000.00 invested in guns. Each for it's own use. Either of those brands will run you 400-700.00 depending on how much you shop around

IMO The Devilbiss FInishline shown earlier is the best all around for the DIY-professional;.

There are no PRO PARAMETERS when painting. The supplier may give you a basic ground setup on air pressure and spray distance, but your area, temp, humidity, paint used, how you mix the paint, air flow in your "booth " how you personally spray etc, etc, etc...... will ALL change those magic PRO PARAMETERS

JMILL,My painter recently painted several panels with very old (10 yrs?) PPG single stage. He had no problems and the work tuned out very well.

Scotty B would obviously be the expert on this. Hope it works out.

Sounds like Spies Hecker or PPG are the way to go, now to look into their various products and retailers.

Also sounds like I might be buying a Devilbiss gun.

I concur that the tools and material don't make up for skill, knowledge, and experience, but from my experiences with house, boat, and car projects, they do help.

As for protection, I've been using 3M respirators for car panel work and boat bottom painting as well as for sanding - wouldn't think of doing such w/o a decent respirator.