Over the past few weeks, I've been doing body work on my daily driver pickup. Things had been coming together pretty well, and today was the big day. I skipped work, and painted the truck. It came out horrible... possibly the worst fucking paint job I've ever seen. It looks like one giant coat of orange peel. Can someone tell me where I went wrong? Next weekend I'm going to wetsand it and try again. I used Duplicolor black enamel, thinned 4:1 as specified on the can, and sprayed it through the purple Harbor Freight gun. FWIW, the primer came out looking like this too, but that was wetsanded before I painted the top coat. adjusted the gun every which way, sprayed heavy, sprayed thin, etc. I'm at a loss.
Looks like too much volume(aircap and needle incorrect)... If you got too much orange peel on the first coat, you usually can't get it to flow, no matter what you do.
ON the reshoot....thinner mixture, faster passes, less trigger pull....have you ever used a zahn cup? All paintjobs can benfit from this method. Zahn cup measures viscosity for the perfect mixture. Under reduction caused opeel and over reduction causes dieback(flattening of color)
Hatch, Thanks for the reply, but please excuse my ignorance. This is only my second paint job, and the first was 5 or 6 years ago! The gun came with a 1.4 needle. Does this sound right for single stage enamel and primer? What is an air cap? Zahn cup? Thanks, Ed
Classic Dryspray and Orange Peel bro OK... im going to attempt to explain this for all who care... Possible Variables are this... 1.) Too high or too low an atomization pressure... adjust the air pressure against a test Panel. You don't do this everyday so get a good feel for the paint your spraying and the gun. 2.) The gun is either too close or too far from your work. Make sure that you keep within the pinky to thumb rule. 6 to 8" away from the panel. 3.) Fluid not thinned enough. Make sure you have the mixing ratio's right... if not add more thinner dont be afraid to experiment. 4.) Surface prep... but you already said it was wetsanded before... 5.) Gun strokes too fast. SLOW IT DOWN with each pass... just not so slow you hang curtians [tm]. (RUNS) watch the paint go on. DELIBERATE SLOW STROKES... the slow wack like your watching a porn[tm] 6.) Overspray striking a previously sprayed surface... by the looks of the top of the box this might be the case, you make a pass and the overspray from that pass will fall on a previous pass. ( you need better air flow ) There is a proceedure to this ill describe below cool??? 7.) too low humidity... but i doubt thats it... There are some tricks to handleing that gun dude... BARN FAN First you need a good cross draft in your Garage. BIG FAN on one side or window/door etc and a open air source on the other side. Start painting from the oppisite side of the fan and work twards the fan.. this keeps the flow ----> going along with your dryspray twards the door. COOL? always work tward the fan. On a complete this gets more complex but its a spot repair so ill skip that... Ok... SPRAYING ---Hold your gun 6-8 inchs from the box side ---hold the gun LEVEL and perpendicular to the surface ---The gun should be moving before the trigger is pulled ---do not FAN the gun and do not use your WRIST.. thats for when your board looking at PORN instead of the hamb aiiite? ---Watch the paint go on... use a deliberate steady pass...think brain surgery... 1 foot per second is the homo rule. ---release thetregger at the end of each pass, then pull back trigger when starting... Proper triggering involves (4) EASY steps 1,2,3,4.. ready? 1.) begin spraying ABOVE that boxside... like spray across in thin air... but only trigger half way releasing air. 2.) when you reach the starting edge of the box side, squeeze the trigger all the way to release the paint... 3.) Release the trigger halfway to stop paint flow when directly over the finishing edge, and then... 4.) Continue the stroke several more inches before reversing the direction and repeating it again... OVERLAP each coat 45% this is important. OK? I hope this helps you can get a pro finish in your garage! now get to work! call me if ya got a question... im planning on picking up your chev quarters in a couple weeks so i need to talk to ya cool? Tuck
Tuck, That's a lot of info, man. I know this is a real tough question to answer in a post, but how thick should I be spraying the stuff? It seemed to get glossier if sprayed thicker, but that led to more peel. Oh thanks for the ventilation tips, but I'm spraying outside. Ed
ed can you spray INSIDE? that might help, if you can get a cross flow... spraying outside your gonna have dryspray/orange peel. I think you need to add more reducer... it orangepeels because of the above reasons and that its too thick a viscosity. Hatchs tool might work for you ... i just eyeball it off the stick. you can wetsand and buff this ya know? just make sure you get the paint think enough and dont sand thru... you should route the panel from top to bottom and make sure you get everywhere... I noticed that the paint looks thin inside the tail light housing. What I do is spray the inner wheel lips and turn signal housings first... spray the bottoms, the top and edges so you know you have good coverage on all those areas... THEN concentrate on the flat panel.... ya dig? its hard to explain this in type... much easier if I could just explain it gun in hand. -tuck
I'll prolly catch it from the "real superstar painters" like Tuck, but.....The last coat I thin a LOT and melt it in.
Here's a general rule of thumb I learned from a seminar put on by HOK. The easiest way to remember how your pattern should look. The fan should be 6" high at 6" away from the material you are spraying. 6 at 6.
what root?? I might do that... its just a ford truck im no superstar... not yet anyways im working on my first book. "How to paint a traditional hot rod" "Use your wrist and squirt curtians like a star" not sure on the title yet... hey i got my scoops from ya root... THANKS!
I always grab 3or4 test panels and make sure the paint is going on right before I get to my parts or car I can tell ya its not fun having to sand and repaint. A good point is if you got enough paint on the truck color sand and rub and polish. I've made some crap look like I was a pro by doing that--TV
Well My friend and I came up with a bad ass paint job. It was pretty much VELVET when it dried...the next big thing! Sprayable velvet
Haas, you joke but they used to spray "suede" and it wasn'tbase coat with no clear. It was suede....lick flocked wallpaper!
There are a million variables on a paint job. If you follow the manufacturers data sheet as a baseline, you will probably do OK. A Zahn cup(#4 if I remember correctly) is a cup with a hole in the bottom. You dip the cup into your reduced paint and "time" how many seconds it takes to drain. Product data sheets should tell how many seconds for your particular paint. Paint temp and room temp will change the viscosity and the cup lets you tailor your mix accordingly. A good paint supply store sells them for a couple of bucks. If you want to mix all you paint in advance so you can just concentrate on shooting, the cup works great. Of course, if you are using a catalyst, don't add that until you are ready. Air caps and needles(front of gun)are what determines how much paint volume during spraying. I prefer the smaller and do more passes as opposed to larger with fewer passes. If you have only one cap and needle, then use it. Spraying enamel is tricky to learn....I learned to paint with acrylic lacquer, which has a killer finish when polished and is more easily sprayed....unfortunately it's illegal in some states. Are you looking for a shiny or flat finish? If you are looking for shiny, I don't recommend overreduction to promote gloss...long term results will be chalking or premature dulling. If you are doing a solid color, you can make the job more controlable by painting one panel at a time...more work, but probably an easier way to get a great finish. I have seen some great first time finishes....go for it and ask more questions if needed.
Guys, Thanks for all the replies. I WILL be a rockstar with a paint gun... I just need a little practice. Tuck: Unfortunately, there's not enough room in my garage to paint the truck. It wont even fit in lengthwise without hanging out the door! Hatch: I'm looking for a shiny finish. That being said, it's just my beater work truck and I really don't care if looks like shit. The whole reason I'm painting it is to gain experience. I'm going to keep trying until I get it right. The extra work sucks, but how else am I going to learn? TV: Are wet-sanding and color-sanding the same thing? If so, I'm pretty sure I'll blow through the paint by the time I get a smooth finish. Root: Thanks for the 6-on-6 advice. Ed
colorsand / wetsand are the same thing... but... when you colorsand you use 1200 grit then polish with a vairiable speed buffer i pm'd ya about the quarters tuck
I would most likely use 400(wet block) on your mess prior to the retry....then just "touch up spray" the areas where you went to the bare metal, with a coat of etch primer or sealer....then,reshoot your topcoat. It was mentioned earlier to watch your recoat instructions(product data sheet) and FOLLOW them...you could have even a bigger mess(lifting)if you don't...once again, maybe shoot one panel at a time and dial in your method on the first one.
Hey ed, do you have a different gun you can try? I have one of the Harbor Freight purple guns....and no matter what I do it ends up looking EXACTLY like yours. I think I don't have enough air volume for the gun...don't know what the cfm or my compressor is..but it was free so I'm not complaining. Resprayed the truck with a reqular siphon feed gun and it came out slick as a cat's ass.... Brian
Good point k52...I have only used one really great gravity feed...sata jet 90. I always seem to fall back on my Devilbiss jga502 (siphon feed)...it wastes paint, but man does it work nice....viva la siphon!!!
I have aharbor freight green handle for primer and a Sata for color/clear. The Sata rocks but you can do a fine job with the other. Now when it's an HVLP and it says 10 psi...that's at the cap mind you.
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