Testing with Duplicolor Paint Shop paint.

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flyboy01

Its almost done!
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I did some practice this weekend, and made up a test panel with the etch, primer, base, and clear I will be painting my car with, I also wanted to get a feel for my paint gun, and how the paint sprays out and behaves. I learned a lot.
The gun I have I bought a few years ago, HVLP, it needs 8.4 CFM at 30 PSI, my compressor is not having a problem keeping up with the gun. It has a 1.5 tip, the spray pattern is very uneven, it comes out more oval than cigar shaped, and it has extra spray out the bottom, the spray out of it is a little too coarse, I think the paint droplets need to be finer.
I have a 20 Gallon Compressor, 25 gallon, 2 running HP, oil lubricated, large piston, fast recovery. 8.6 CFM at 40 psi. My compressor is able to keep up, just fine, the problem is, my gun was not atomizing fine enough. I spent a lot of time seting up, rechecking, and adjusting the spray pattern. Unfortunately I just could not get the spray fine enough, It gets finer when I turn down the mixture, but then I am hardly getting any paint, I tried higher pressure (40psi), but it did not work as well as 25-30psi. My paint calls for 1.3 to 1.5 tip, 25-30 PSI at the gun.
I ended up doing some test painting with the best settings I could manage, I ended up with a lot of orange peel. I sprayed primer, base, and clear, all with the same results.
I am almost sure it is the gun, so I went ahead and ordered an Astro EVO4014 LVLP gun from spraygunworld.com today along with a diaphram regulator for it. Hopefully it will give better atomization, also its requirements are below what my compressor can produce it is supposed to be comparable (almost a direct copy) of the Iwata $450 gun. It came highly recommended by a lot of paint pros.
Pictures of my test panel.
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I tried wet sanding my test panel today (i did the right side) and hand buffed it to see if I could get rid on the orange peel. It worked ok, its a lot shinyer now. Not perfect, but it was just a test.
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wow that looks as good as a MACCO job, and on the wet sanded side way better.

How durable is the paint? how well does it stand up to gas or carb cleaner?
It would suck to spend weeks painting and wet sanding just to have the paint wash off the first time you spilled gas on it at the pump.
I just bought some rayflex paint from trinity945 (enamel) I'll post pics when I get to my test panel. I went with the cheap stuff as this will be my first complete repaint and since I'll have the car a while it will probably get a few different paint jobs over the years.
 
im assuming that you sprayed it straight right out of the can as per the directions?? i just sprayed a whole car with that paint last weekend...thinning it down a little more with lacquer thinner helps alot with the orange peel..might not be your spray gun......
 
Do not spray primer with your finish gun. Primer is very course and abrasive and it wears out guns & nozzles. You need a dedicated gun for primer. Since you bought a new gun us it only for finish work and use you old gun for primer.

To fast of a reducer will also cause orange peel because it flashes before the paint has time to flow out.

Also do not thin enamel with lacquer thinner, use reducer


Chuck
 
Isn't the Duplicolor Paint Shop paint a lacquer paint?? So would you use a lacquer thinner with it instead of a reducer??
 
Its technically laquer, but it uses acetone as a base, so you thin it with acetone. This makes it much more environmentally friendlier, as acetone is heavier than air, it does not affect air quality. Also, it has very little smell, outside my garage, you could not tell I was painting.

And yes, the droplets coming out of the gun are way too big, I reduced the black by 20% to see how far I could go, still too much orange peel. I already bought the gun, hopefully it will make a huge difference. I am going to start priming the car next weekend. I might use the gun I have now for the primer.

I have been on the paint forums trying to get some good guidance, it really helps having people who know what they are doing giving you advice.
 
DUDE! That looks really good. I like it. This is something I want to do myself in the future on my Duster.
I've never done any body work on cars before, so a total newb I am.

Gotta tip/forum to bookmark?
 
Plain n simple. You need to run a lot more air pressure in the line. It is usually advertized under rated. I used a cheap Harbor Freight spray gun to do my car. (In avatar) with House of Kolor paint. Came out fine. Up that air pressure in the line up to 45-60psi and you'll be fine. More air will equal finer atomization. IF you go too high with the psi, you'll just have lots of overspray and wasted paint, trick is to find that psi that gives you a good finish without wasting too much paint.

Hope this helps,
Eric
 
Me too. That's what I found with my Harbor Freight gun. Higher psi to get rid of the droplet/orange peel effect. Took a few passes to figure it out. I'm blacking out a a spare hood of mine. Let us know how things turn out fly.
 
DUDE! That looks really good. I like it. This is something I want to do myself in the future on my Duster.
I've never done any body work on cars before, so a total newb I am.

Gotta tip/forum to bookmark?

autobody101 is a good forum to start with.
 
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