Paint - Can I do it?

[DDY RCKT]

Ok, I want to paint a car, specifically the LeManiac. I know I'm a ways off from it, but now is the time to prepare. So I have a 8.6 cfm at 40 psi compressor, and no gun yet. I rent my house, so I can't add a 220 V outlet, and I have the higest flow 110 compressor that I could find. So given my equipment and restrictions, can I actually paint a car?

[2Bad4Ya]

Not a pro, but I would look at the tech sheets of the paint you plan to use. Those sheets tell you tip size, cfm at compressor and gun tip. Example from a House of Kolor tech sheet:
GUN SET UP
• Conventional Gun = 45 to 55 PSI
• HVLP Gun = 10 PSI at the cap
(Refer to spray gun manufacturer's recommendations)
• Needle/Nozzle = 1.3 to 1.5
(Depending on the size of object being painted)
• Trigger Pull = 50% to 75%
• Air Brush: Follow gun manufacturer's recommendations

The paint gun will have requirments also I think. The cfm advertised on air compressors are based on short intermittant(sp?) use, and not extended use I think, but someone may correct me.

[DDY RCKT]

Ok, well, if anyone can suggest paint and guns to be able to use what I have, I would like that muchly!

Anyone know about water based paints?

[Spiffav8]

Of course you can paint the car! The real question is how well can you paint the car. I've wondered how good of a job I could do. Please post pictures as you do this. Crossing my fingers for you.

[kennyd]

yes you can ! the biggest problem would be what color you try to spray .and how patients you have .
your compressor is fine . i would not recomend you go buy a 600 dollar gun to spray with . if you were doing alot of painting then buy a nice gun . you can shop for a sata look-alike and do just fine .

what color do you want to spray ?

[DDY RCKT]

I've got patience, for sure. I just worry about the requirements. This month, all the car mags have their paint and body specials, and they're calling for a lot of cfm.

I rest easy knowing my purpose for this build is a drivable car, not a weekend show circuit car. I want it to look nice, for sure, but I don't need a flawless paint job.

I was considering black, with some form of accent stripe. But I'm thinking maybe a yellow with black stripes of some sort. I've never had a yellow car.

Or maybe orange....

[XcYZ]

Originally Posted by DDY RCKT

I rent my house, so I can't add a 220 V outlet, and I have the higest flow 110 compressor that I could find.

Maybe you could borrow a friend's 110V compressor and T the two together. Twice the volume and capacity.

[DOOM]

You really need to keep the air preasure up! If you doing base/clear ,mainly for the clear.You do'nt want the preasure going up and down to much it could be a disaster

[DDY RCKT]

Originally Posted by XcYZ

Maybe you could borrow a friend's 110V compressor and T the two together. Twice the volume and capacity.

But I don't have any friends...

[2Bad4Ya]

"Anyone have an idea what something like this would cost in a 2 stage system ? I've seen other threads where it looks like about 4 - 5 K just for materials needed."

You can spend 4k if you want on dupont or ppg, and some do because they get used to a paint system and stick to it and never try anything different. However you can spend around 1k on SPI or even house of Kolor and get as good if not better paint job imo.

The BIG paint co's cater to the automtive refinishing system as their bread and butter, smaller co's like SPI & HoK are not bound to the refinish industry as much and are perfect for the small shop or shadetree.

Then if you want to spend even less you can hit tcpglobal and get the restoration shop brand and come out around 500.00, these paints are similar to the omni, nasson line of paints.

" was seriously considering going with the Duplicolor Paint Shop products. Premixed primer, color, and clear. Not going to say it's the best product you can buy, but for what I need, I'd think it'd be perfect."

Dont do it, look at SPI single stage or hell even Eastwood co. single stage. Duplicolor is laquer that has been reforumulated so it passes environmental rules. SPI & even Eastwood are acrylic urethane paints. Urethane is alot more durable than laquer in my opinion. I mean clearcoats are urethane after all.

He could get away with shooting a SS as base then come over it with a 50/50 mix of clear & SS with his little compressor perhaps? I know alot of guys will do that for the last 2 coats simply to add more uv protection.

As for a paint gun you can get away with a northern tool/lowes gun for doing solids, but I would not risk that on a metallic shot. The issue with your compressor is your tank is only 26 gal, that will empty pretty quick so you may get a panel done at a time, but doing long spray runs across an assembled car from bumper to bumper would not happen.

It it were me and I was going to try it with your compressor...
Disassemble the car (front end, doors, trunl lid, spoilers, ec.. off the car) and:

shoot driver quarter/door jamb
shoot rear valance
shoot rear deck
shoot driver sail panel
shoot roof
shoot pillar arms/cowl area
shoot passenger sail panel
shoot passenger quarter
shoot parts you removed

Repeat process until full coverage and done. Since its disassembled you take care of door jambs, cowl, trunk edges when painting car. However for the things like underside of trunk/hood/inside doors/etc... I would shoot them a day before I did the car.

Now someone else may correct me, but if in a pinch that would be how I would try to tackle your problem.