Started spraying with a compressor now.

[SimonP]

After teaching myself how to spray well using cans, I thought I'd best progress onto using a spray gun and spraying properly.

Now, I've not used 2k here, but acrylic, better than crappy cellulose, but not as good as 2k. Anyway, only really practicing.

I've had this old tailgate from a Cavalier lying around that I was going to put on my old one before I sold it. Anyway, since I'm friends with the new owner, I said I'd spray and fit the new one. Been meaning to get down into my little workshop/mess house for some time now.

Original colour was a rather faiding and scratched diamond black. I'm respraying it lagoon blue.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any good progress pics, but this is the spoiler from the tailgate which needs spraying, so you can get an idea of what it looked like before. Grubby, faided, old, just tatty looking.




This is the little compressor I'm using and spray gun. Pretty good really. The spray gun leaks a bit and needs a new seal really. So have to be careful when spraying.



After spending an age stripping it down and sanding down the inside of of it, I sprayed it in base coat metallic. Mixed with 1 part thinners and 1 part base coat.

As you can see a good even coating.



After leaving it for 48hrs I applied the clear coat. Which you put straight into the gun with no thinners.

Here's it is shortly after spraying. Not going to bother flatting this back and cutting it back. It's only an inside panel. But not bad for a first attempt.



I have to do the tailgate in 2 stages as I don't have a frame to mount it on. So thought I'd best do the inside first.

I'll do the spoiler when I spray the top of the lid. I'll only 'finish off' the new paint on the lid and the spoiler as the rest will either be inside or hidden by trim.

[Paul]

Looks a nice job, just take your time pal.
May want to watch the temps in your garage, its getting cold now.

Paul

[SimonP]

I've got a heater in mine. Warms it up quite quickly.

[richie00boy]

Looking good. I bet it was a git sanding down that inside side.

I was going to ask you how you were getting on with this. Keep us posted, I'll be watching

[SimonP]

Cheers Rich, I'm gonna spray the top lid over the weekend. By Sunday it should be hard enough to flat back.

Yeah it was a git doing the inside. Got through shed loads of sand paper. Can't use a block for doing the insides. Looking forward to doing the lid though. Shouldn't take as long to prep and I'm sure it'll be more rewarding.

Might be spraying a Nova in the Summer, so this is kinda practice. No doubt I'll use 2k when I've tought myself using the cheaper paints.

[Benn]

48hours to dry?
your only really ment to leave 2k max of 8hours between paint and laquaring,
just a lil tip,
looks good tho,
no runs,no patches

[SimonP]

Dude, it's NOT 2k! lmao

I only left it 48hrs because I couldn't be bothered to do it that evening. Had other commitments so just left it. It's only the inside anyway. Not really going to be subject to much weathering.

When I paint normally, I apply clearcoat within a few hours of applying basecoat.

[Benn]

oh soz,thought you said it was..lol

[SimonP]

Narrr, I'm practicing with cheap paints. Will get round to using 2k when I've honed my skills a bit more.

Quite happy with the end result for first attempt. There are zero runs or dark patches, so happy. Can't really tell from the photo. I'll take some pics of the lid outside when I've finished it.

[wayne451]

Need breathing gear for 2 pac! Looks like little hooks under a microscope and really shags your lungs!

Looks a nice job! Petty I cant see much on the pics as they are so small!

[CraigGreen]

Yeah you can spray my Nova Si.

Sod the masks with 2pak, just stand back & drink some milk afterwards (LOL)

Good result there though, inside looks better than factory...........

[JamesMcbride]

i think thats the same compressor as i have got... seems to do the job really well.. spray work looks good there si

[M0j0]

what sort of power's your compressor?

Thinking of getting one and needs to see what power does what

your painting looks good

[lauren chappell]

what sort of power's your compressor?

Thinking of getting one and needs to see what power does what

your painting looks good

I am pretty sure that the writing on the side that says

COSMO
Air 2 horse - midi

should give you the answer! lmao

You can use use anything down to a .6 HP compressor and still use a spray proper size spray gun with it.

However the HVLP gravity fed ones mostly require 3HP.

[SimonP]

Not very good I'm afraid, I rushed it a bit. But it looks ok. Really need to invest in a decent mop I think. It would make a much better finish of hand polishing.

Anyway, here are the fruits of my efforts. There is still polish in the corners which is what the haze is as I've not finished it yet.

[richie00boy]

Been waiting with baited breath for an update to this. I have high expectations Can't really tell from pics like that too much. What do you think to the acrylic so far? I think we used RAL make when we did my van, dad reckoned it was OK.

[SimonP]

Yeah crap pictures. It's difficult trying to capture shine in an artificial environment.

Acrylic seems ok. The spoiler came up a tad strange, will end up re-doing that. I think there was a bit of moisture about. Seemed nice to spray. Coverage was good. But really want a mop though, I could get a really good shine on that if I had one.

[JamesMcbride]

Looks good simon. It should be able to get a "perfect" finish out of the job without the need to mop/polish it. I have found that spraying temp, mix ratio and obviously how think you put it on makes a huge difference.
In the summer i did the rear 1/4 of a vectra hatch in the garage which was about 20°c then left a couple of 500w halogen lamps on it for a couple of hours and it came out pretty much perfect without polish etc.

on the other hand last week i tried spyaing a corsa bonnet and it came out really bad, took ages with a mop to get it looking good.

[SimonP]

James were you using 2k? It does spray a lot better than single pack paints.

[JamesMcbride]

yeah, admitedly i was using 2k... although i have had good out of the gun results with single pac as well

[SimonP]

Yeah, the top pics are after no mopping, I did notice a marked difference though between warming the garage up.

I had a small fan heater on when I did the inside and that did come up very well. But tried it without for the main lid and it didn't spray anywhere near as well. I had to work quite hard on it to get the shine I did get.

Heat will obviously make the paint a bit more viscous, especially if it's landing on a warm panel as opposed to a cold panel meaning it'll lay a lot better.

[JamesMcbride]

if you are interested here are a couple of fairly poor pics of the door that i did on the vectra as well.. none of the final job unfortunately, but this is the final layer of laquer out of the gun:
http://www.ytcuk.co.uk/pics/DSCN7816.JPG
http://www.ytcuk.co.uk/pics/DSCN7815.JPG
http://www.ytcuk.co.uk/pics/DSCN7814.JPG
http://www.ytcuk.co.uk/pics/DSCN7813.JPG

they are quite big, so im leaving the img tags out.

[SimonP]

Yeah very nice James. Do wanna start using 2k soon. Much better finish from the gun. I'll wait till the Summer as I'll have a friend's Nova to spray and hopefully my own Nova as and when I get one.

[Violet]

I'm hopefully getting the same compressor as you soon, I don't really have anywhere to spray though.
I used to use rattle cans, outside in the summer, and just keep an eye out for flies and things. Did a good job, but terrible compared to compressor spraying. It is virtually impossible to get a good finish.

[scooby80uk]

looks good mate