Advice on spraying a car and equipment

jozi

Been talking with my brother about spraying cars. He's into his mini's and is nearing completion of a restoration and will need painting it. My sister also has a mini that she wants sprayed a different color, I'd like to give my car a re-spray somewhere down the line and now a mate will need a re-spray also once the work on his mini is finished.

So with the above in mind I would be more economical to invest in spraying equipment and let them practice on the mini's before doing a great job on my car

I've been keeping an eye out for spray guns here and there and they seem to start from about 60-70 Euro and go all the way over the 100's.

Neither of us know much about what compressor to go for, brother has been told minimum 100 litters which get really expensive. I think a 2hp belt driven compressor will just cut it and 3hp to be more adequate. Obviously the gun needs to be matched to a compressor.

Brother was told about some system that pre-heats the paint before it leaves the gun. The guy who was telling him seems to praise the system a lot. I have my doubts about it up open to arguments for it.

I'm after doing a bit of googling on the above but haven't really found much appart from what I typed above.

I know there are going to be comments about a heated spray booth etc but thats not what I'm after, what I'm looking for is advice on the gun, compressors and what ever else is needed before you you can paint.

Jozi

Nforce

99% of a good paint job is in the preparation. I'd recommend practicing welding,filling,sanding etc too.

jozi

Very true but thats for a different thread.

My brother has some experience with some of the above, he's restoring an old mini shell and they rust. He's done a lot of welding, qualified, of rusty patches as well as de-seaming the whole shell. Plenty of welding, filling and sanding to get that looking smooth. I've done a bit of prepping to get a bonnett and wing sprayed as well as dad having some experience here (aren't dads great :rolleyes: )

Run_to_da_hills

Not trying to burst your bubble, DIY spraying of cars is becoming increasingly difficult or if not impossible thanks to new EU "environmental" regulations.

New water based paints were introduced last year and older 2k paint were phased out and I believe is now illegal.

You also need special low pressure spraying equipment for this new paint. A decent gravity spray gun like the DEvilbis GTI would set our back a few hundred squids but you might find a copy of it cheaper. Ideal drying usually involves air fans or ovens and if done outside you can expect flies etc to be well embedded into the paint work before it dries. .

You can still buy 2K primer of which you could prep the car yourself before getting it sprayed.

jozi

We're building a bit of an extension to the garage with part of it as a spraying area in mind. airtight and well ventilated.

The guy painting my bonnet and wing used a solvent based (i think) paint, the place he gets it apparently within legal limits with whats permitted

Were thinking about it because there's at least 3 cars here (4 counting mine) that will be getting a respray. And to spend a couple hundred on equipment would work out cheaper than getting 3/4 cars re-sprayed. On top of that a compressor would be handy for things like tyre inflation and some of the tools dad has stored away.

Mr Benevolent

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Not trying to burst your bubble, DIY spraying of cars is becoming increasingly difficult or if not impossible thanks to new EU "environmental" regulations.

New water based paints were introduced last year and older 2k paint were phased out and I believe is now illegal.

You also need special low pressure spraying equipment for this new paint. A decent gravity spray gun like the DEvilbis GTI would set our back a few hundred squids but you might find a copy of it cheaper. Ideal drying usually involves air fans or ovens and if done outside you can expect flies etc to be well embedded into the paint work before it dries. .

You can still buy 2K primer of which you could prep the car yourself before getting it sprayed.

Wait, wait. RTDH posting something that doesn't focus on conspiracies?

spraying of cars is becoming increasingly difficult or if not impossible thanks to new EU "environmental" regulations.

Ah. Spoke too soon.

OP, I think IK09 sprayed his Lancer a few months ago with good results, search the forum and you'll find the thread.

Edit: Here it is. It's a long thread but there's stuff on compressors etc.

jozi

I found another thread were someone was talking about doing it but it stopped and I did remember someone doing it them selves. Thanks for the link! Will give it a read later tomorrow.