Paint gun for hobbiest?

-
I'm interested in knowing what paint gun members here are using on their cars?

I only have a few paint jobs under my belt, but am planning to purchase a HVLP style gun to replace my old school (no-name) gun. I will be spraying metalic, clear and some basic single stage on various upcoming projects. I've read past posts that raved about Harbor deFreight guns as much as Sata, Devilbiss etc... but I'd like to hear from some DIY members who paint their own cars, but not necessarily a
professionally painter.
I have been painting cars for over 40 years. I have mostly used Devilbiss guns. I Currently have two Devilbiss guns and an Iwata Super Nova. They all work great. My friend Mark saw the new HF Black Widow guns and bought on. They have been getting rave reviews. Just go on YouTube and see. Anyway, we are painting his 56 Studebaker Power Hawk now (actually I am doing the painting while Mark mixes the paint), and he wanted me to use the HF Black Widow gun. I am very impressed with it. Here are a few pictures of the results with the Black Widow gun.

135.JPG
136.JPG
137.JPG
138.JPG


139.JPG
 
I started out with Devilbiss guns until they were banned in Massachusetts and only allowed HPLV guns. I had a lot invested with those guns. A guy I worked with bought all Sata guns. Big $$$. I had a mortgage, 3 kids, 2 in daycare. I bought 4 ADT $40 guns and different nozzles. 1 for primer only, 1 for Clearcoat only, 1 for base color only, 1 for single stage urethanes only. Every time I painted a car my buddy would come over and say (Another ATD award winning finish) He had 3 Sata guns and couldn't tell the difference in quality of the finish.
A lot goes into a good paint job. The right tip, paint thinned properly, air pressure, spraying technic, keeping your guns clean and so on. As I said in post 8 this set did the job for both my cars and still work fine today without breaking the bank. If money is no problem, go buy a Sata or other high-quality brand.
https://www.amazon.com/Tools-6900-9-Piece-HVLP-Spray/dp/B000M61KKG/?tag=fabo03-20
 
I have been painting cars for over 40 years. I have mostly used Devilbiss guns. I Currently have two Devilbiss guns and an Iwata Super Nova. They all work great. My friend Mark saw the new HF Black Widow guns and bought on. They have been getting rave reviews. Just go on YouTube and see. Anyway, we are painting his 56 Studebaker Power Hawk now (actually I am doing the painting while Mark mixes the paint), and he wanted me to use the HF Black Widow gun. I am very impressed with it. Here are a few pictures of the results with the Black Widow gun.
That looks nice. I see they sell a primer gun too. I just like having an option for changing the tip sizes. I don't see any for that style. This gun looks similar and has different tip sizes included.
https://www.amazon.com/AEROPRO-R500-Regulator-A610-Automotive/dp/B0BMNWDL3X/?tag=fabo03-20
 
I've had good luck with the Astro EVOT. It's a good budget gun and atomizes much better than the harbor freight guns I've used. Nice wide spray pattern too.
 
Home painters. NOT everyone can spend the $ to send their classic out to paint jail and spend $8-10,000 for body/paint for their "baby" that will not be worth more than even the paint work if that when "restored". How many spend their $$ and then actually drive and enjoy their classic? Get a scratch or gravel peck and maybe poop in their pants?

For guys that will do the body/paint on more than one car, the incentive and challenge is to develop the skills to actually do a better job each time, in the realm of what you have to work with.
What do I see as the requirements to do a paint job to meet a person's expectations? A clean and SAFE area to prime/paint and be able to maintain proper temperatures, adequate KNOWLEDGE and experience for the entire process, a compressor that gives constant, clean, and adequate air, and guns to meet the persons skill and expectations. Like said, a competent person can do some really good work with not so expensive guns.\ Could he do better with a better gun. Some guys can. Maybe.

I see so many people today, that want a perfect classic car, they can't or will not do really any of the work, and they want it for pennies on the dollar. These same types cannot or will not even change their oil.
 
You can get good prices at SprayGunsDirect on name brand guns. Also check out gunman on Youtube for reviews. The Gunman
 
Last edited:
For the price, you can’t beat it, a while ago they had them on sale buy one get one half off.
I totally agree. I saw that sale, and almost bought one, but I have three good guns already. Here is the gun I have been using on my friends car. I sprayed the roof white today, and it came out pretty good.

IMG_8284.jpeg
IMG_8285.jpeg
IMG_8288.jpeg
IMG_8289.jpeg
 
If you don't have a large air compressor the lvlp guns might work good for you.
Sprayit or it's copies are among the best as well as europro i think from astro pneumatic. The lvlp
guns also reduce waiste and overspray.

I agree with this. You can get an lvlp kit like this for barely over $100 with multiple tips that work with a small compressor. Go to youtube and there are lots of videos of guys painting and gettting good results with lvlp guns.

 
I like how fabo hijacked the link i posted and put their affiliate code on it so they make money if someone clicks and buys. Classy.
 
I've researched guns for 4 months to paint my Dart, since I won't pay $15,000 for a paint job. The Paint Society on Youtube is an excellent source of information. I just got my Drizzle D1 from Amazon on Monday. LVLP gun with 3 tips, and an adapter to use the 3M PPS 1.0 disposable cups. $100 kit. I've only shot primer so far, but it turned out great, almost like I know what I'm doing. I just looked up sam69sat's recommendation. It's the exact gun I bought.
 
You don't shoot primer with a paint gun.

You use your old worn out paint gun for that.

Let me try that again,

You don't shoot paint with your primer gun.
 
You don't shoot primer with a paint gun.

You use your old worn out paint gun for that.

Let me try that again,

You don't shoot paint with your primer gun.
X2 the old wore out paint gun, is the primer gun.
 
One thing I think is worth mentioning is make sure you have high flow air hose couplings. Otherwise paint gun won't get enough volume to atomize the paint and end up with rough texture.

I have done several cars for my kids and I do all the rust dent repair, body work, block sanding and get the cars smooth down with 400 grit. Then I hand them over to a guy who has paint booth in his barn with 30 years experience and let him spray the base clear. Since the cars are stripped of all trim and fully prepped ready to spray the guy can turn the car around in one to two days and usually $1400 in labor plus cost of paint. End product looks like a pro did the whole job. It typically cost me around $2,000 in materials to prep the car cause I am inefficient etc.

Since I don't have a paint booth and other equipment like a pro painter would have the $1400 or so I pay in labor and the time it saves is well worth it to me.

I been using the Harbor Freight guns for epoxy and surfacer primer. I can get them to lay primer down flat and smooth. But the guns are usually only good for one car then they seem to become uncleanable and have to get thrown out.

Picture of my daughters '93 Civic Si I did a few years back. It had bad rust around both rear wheel wells and dents on every panel. Factory black car. My paint guy would come over to my garage look at car and say "nope body work not good enough for black" and "would be ok for any other color but black" and tell me "keep blocking you need a higher level of prep for black". He refused to take the car for final paint until it was done to where he thought it needed to be. Yeah that was fun.....avoid black cars if at all possible.....

And my local auto paint store supplier he knows who in the area can take a fully prepped car and do a great job. So if you establish a relationship with a local auto paint store supplier they have a lot of connections to help you find someone who can spray the base/clear if you want to go that route.

Finished-rear1.jpg
 
I like how fabo hijacked the link i posted and put their affiliate code on it so they make money if someone clicks and buys. Classy.
Would you make the money if they didnt?
 
Knew a guy who owned a shop in the same town I ran a shop in and he collected SATA limited edition spray guns. Had them hanging on the walls in the hallway between his office and mixing room. Had one he paid $4000 for. Never used it...

Of all the guns I used over the years my go-to ended up being a Binks M1-G with the 3M PPS cup system. Cheapish, easy to use, easy to clean, durable and the 1.4 tip sprays just about everything I use except hi-build. And I have a cheap old Fleet Farm gravity feed for that. Now that I'm out of the business I don't really need the high end gun$ any more.
 
I guess I don't understand. What is an Affiliate Code?

Ok, maybe hijacked was the wrong terminology. It's nothing to worry about really. It's the "fabo03-20" that got added to the amazon link above. If you click on that and bought that product, fabo would receive a commission from amazon. It doesn't make the item more expensive. I was just surprised it added that to a link i posted. It's alright i guess. It'll add a little money to the fabo coffers if someone clicks that link and makes a purchase. A person could always just to go amazon.com and search the product directly if they don't like it.

Would you make the money if they didnt?

No, because i'm not an amazon affiliate and i wouldn't do that even if i was. But it's normal for websites to do that when they list amazon products on their website. I was just surprised it added that to a link posted by a member.
 
Knew a guy who owned a shop in the same town I ran a shop in and he collected SATA limited edition spray guns. Had them hanging on the walls in the hallway between his office and mixing room. Had one he paid $4000 for. Never used it...

Of all the guns I used over the years my go-to ended up being a Binks M1-G with the 3M PPS cup system. Cheapish, easy to use, easy to clean, durable and the 1.4 tip sprays just about everything I use except hi-build. And I have a cheap old Fleet Farm gravity feed for that. Now that I'm out of the business I don't really need the high end gun$ any more.
I'm old enough to remember when a Binks #7 was the "it" gun to have....lol. I have a Harbor Freight purple gun that I can spray single stage with, and it turns out slicker'n cat poop on linoleum! My DeVilbiss Teckna Pro Lite is my go-to for base/clear.
 
Ok, maybe hijacked was the wrong terminology. It's nothing to worry about really. It's the "fabo03-20" that got added to the amazon link above. If you click on that and bought that product, fabo would receive a commission from amazon. It doesn't make the item more expensive. I was just surprised it added that to a link i posted. It's alright i guess. It'll add a little money to the fabo coffers if someone clicks that link and makes a purchase. A person could always just to go amazon.com and search the product directly if they don't like it.
OK, thanks. Now I understand.
 
Ok, maybe hijacked was the wrong terminology. It's nothing to worry about really. It's the "fabo03-20" that got added to the amazon link above. If you click on that and bought that product, fabo would receive a commission from amazon. It doesn't make the item more expensive. I was just surprised it added that to a link i posted. It's alright i guess. It'll add a little money to the fabo coffers if someone clicks that link and makes a purchase. A person could always just to go amazon.com and search the product directly if they don't like it.



No, because i'm not an amazon affiliate and i wouldn't do that even if i was. But it's normal for websites to do that when they list amazon products on their website. I was just surprised it added that to a link posted by a member.
And yet you come here for free as a non gold member, not supporting the site, but seem to be miffed that the site might want to recoup something to help keep things running.
 
-
Back
Top