Painting Begins!

My first major paint day. Much time searching as to how, what equipment and procedures.

First...equipment. Garage compressor-what will work on normal house 220v (3hp that will deliver in excess of 8 cf)

Second.....a hlvp gun that will work not over working compressor. Found one @ Eastwood Systems..a concours model (4cf@29psi) w/1.2,1.4 & 1.8 tips

Third.....what paint that doesn't require major safety equip or you die. Talked with Dan @ Stewart areo paint in Casmere, WA (all water base..no VOC's). He had me bring my gun (he was interested as a lot of his home shop customers were having problems with not enough air) over to his hangar and shot some paint (I was concerned water base paint would be subpar relative to deep gloss I was looking for). I was very impressed with some of the painting taking place.

My first attempts resulted in runs....but are easy to fix. You will need to invest in a good gram scale...as the amount of h2o is extremely critical i.e. thinning process relative to your gun.

Another thing is a good garage air evac fan to get over spray away from your wife's in garage treasures. Found a rug drying fan 1hp @ HomeDepot Avaition Suppy to put in garage window (heated garage to 75...then opened door into house (which supplied warm air during paint process). Wife inquired why was the house getting cool.....just not technical...told her I was testing heat recovery of furnace.

3 hp is a little light. 5hp with at least 30 gal will give you better results.

A lot of lower end HVLP spray guns are not really HVLP. Even with a high end HVLP gun, getting a good finish will take some work. Depending on the regs in your state a compliant/hybrid gun may give you better results. They will also use less cfm of your air. A good choice is a Devilbiss JGA670 Plus.

KTM520guy said:

3 hp is a little light. 5hp with at least 30 gal will give you better results.

A lot of lower end HVLP spray guns are not really HVLP. Even with a high end HVLP gun, getting a good finish will take some work. Depending on the regs in your state a compliant/hybrid gun may give you better results. They will also use less cfm of your air. A good choice is a Devilbiss JGA670 Plus.

Click to expand...

Your points are well taken.....however; a 5hp/60gal compressor will run $1600-$1800. The high end gun another $450-$500. For us one time/one use guys...that's a little pricy. Granted the gun I found won't spray the volume the more air hungry guns will....the spray fan is fine (no tiger strips). And my 3hp compressor doesn't short cycle. The biggest problem is technique.....I.e. Getting stroke and timing (and positioning your work to allow flow of application). Standing on head inside cockpit with minimal space is a bummer.

Try a dedicated all in one HVLP setup with an axial compressor. I found one online for $600. I haven 't used it for at least 5 years, so if someone wants the setup I'll sell it for $200. If anyone is interested send me a note and I'll take some pics this weekend.

would you share some photos of your set up?

You might want to add some filters on the output air to remove any oil and water in the line. I found out the Stewart paint does not like compressor water added to it when you are spraying. I now use a 3 stage Devilbiss filter system to get clean, dry air when painting.

John Salak
RV-12 #120116

I have a 5hp 80gal two stage compressor. Bought via craigslist for $300. I don't run out of air. I added a water separator at the tank and a water separator & filter at the booth. I also have use one of those disposable plastic disposable filters at the gun.

I was having real problems with my paint application. I finally went to the local hot rod shop and asked "the old guy" what gun I should be using and if I needed an expensive gun, then so be it. He grabbed a plastic wrap gun off a hook and said "here", this is what I use. $35. Then he took me out into the paint shop and asked me how I maintained my paint gun. He laughed. Then he showed me how he cares for his guns.

I've use that $35 gun to shoot urethanes, water base, lacquer, automotive base coat, metallic, and clear coat. Painted metal, wood, and plastics.

example of a finished propeller

Not all things can be had for low money. While I have about $500 in my equipment, the paint is another story. A gallon of solid along with catalyst and possibly reducer can be $200 and can be much more depending on color.

Finally, as a music producer recently reminded me, there is a lot that you can "fix in the mix". DanH has written a log of helpful tips for cutting and buffing. My of my results owe a lot to Dan's contributions.

humptybump said:

Then he took me out into the paint shop and asked me how I maintained my paint gun. He laughed. Then he showed me how he cares for his guns.

Click to expand...

Any special pointers?

To answer an earlier question ...

my tank - http://thesalmonfarm.org/blog/p/1219
my plumbing - http://thesalmonfarm.org/blog/p/4788
my gun - http://thesalmonfarm.org/blog/p/2349

Here's what "the old guy" said ...


The whole cleaning takes about 2 minutes! More important is that it works!

The only thing I do different is that when I know I will not use the gun for an extended period, I empty out the lacquer thinner, spray the gun out, disconnect the air, pour several drops of 3-in-1 oil in the bottom of the hopper, pull the trigger and let it leak out the nozzle.

Good job Ric,
I painted mine as well and before this I could not even use a spray can.
Lots of mistakes. I painted all mine in pieces. Some pieces had runs and some were dry. A very large learning curve. For the wings and fuse I gave up on using the garage as I could not keep the dirt out of the paint. Used a friends auto paint booth.
Mine is not a show quaility job but it makes me proud to say I did it.
You'll have fun!

12vaitor said:

You might want to add some filters on the output air to remove any oil and water in the line. I found out the Stewart paint does not like compressor water added to it when you are spraying. I now use a 3 stage Devilbiss filter system to get clean, dry air when painting.

John Salak
RV-12 #120116

Click to expand...

Ditto....ask me how I know. Found a single stage combination drier/oil cartridge unit that (because of reduced air flow) works great.

ben barron said:

would you share some photos of your set up?

Click to expand...

Which one of us?

MarkW said:

Good job Ric,
I painted mine as well and before this I could not even use a spray can.
Lots of mistakes. I painted all mine in pieces. Some pieces had runs and some were dry. A very large learning curve. For the wings and fuse I gave up on using the garage as I could not keep the dirt out of the paint. Used a friends auto paint booth.
Mine is not a show quaility job but it makes me proud to say I did it.
You'll have fun!

Click to expand...

A trick shared by an"old" hand @ home garage painting is to wet the floor just before spaying...that and my rug fan seems to work.

RFSchaller said:

Try a dedicated all in one HVLP setup with an axial compressor. I found one online for $600. I haven 't used it for at least 5 years, so if someone wants the setup I'll sell it for $200. If anyone is interested send me a note and I'll take some pics this weekend.

Click to expand...

The only problem I found was....(checking the blogs) is that if you don't get the pricier units they heat the air after some run time....and that will raise havick with your paint job.

I did wet the floor and I am sure that helped. If nothing else it helped from painting the floor a new color.
I used base/clear so the clear stays tacky for about 15 minutes. Hard to keep the dirt/bugs out for that long here in Florida.
I used a large fan to pull air out a garage door and then put filters in a couple of windows. That worked OK until I used clear and oversprayed my truck 50' away. Then I started putting filters on the exhaust too.
I also used the Eastwood gun and had good luck with it.
Except when I used one of the cheap hose filters at the gun and screwed a few parts up before I realized I wasn't getting enough air to the gun.

Good luck.

MarkW said:

Good job Ric,
I painted mine as well and before this I could not even use a spray can.
Lots of mistakes. I painted all mine in pieces. Some pieces had runs and some were dry. A very large learning curve. For the wings and fuse I gave up on using the garage as I could not keep the dirt out of the paint. Used a friends auto paint booth.
Mine is not a show quaility job but it makes me proud to say I did it.
You'll have fun!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the words of encouragement Mark....this total project has probably been the most fun I've had in my life. All emotions from frustration to total nervona(sp). The plane, so far, looks fantastic. I'll keep at it (paint that is) till it satisfies me....or should I say my wife! If she be happy...I don't think anyone else will snicker.

MarkW said:

I did wet the floor and I am sure that helped. If nothing else it helped from painting the floor a new color.
I used base/clear so the clear stays tacky for about 15 minutes. Hard to keep the dirt/bugs out for that long here in Florida.
I used a large fan to pull air out a garage door and then put filters in a couple of windows. That worked OK until I used clear and oversprayed my truck 50' away. Then I started putting filters on the exhaust too.
I also used the Eastwood gun and had good luck with it.
Except when I used one of the cheap hose filters at the gun and screwed a few parts up before I realized I wasn't getting enough air to the gun.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

I was going to go with base/clear coat....but read about similar problems (though I love the looks)....the Stewart Systems water base (if properly applied and buffed out) looks really good. Getting it properly mixed and applied....(with "no" moisture in the air and correct timing between coats is the bugger).

The inside of the cockpit was a trial by fire....however; now that I'm on to stuff that can be sprayed in a vertical or horizontal orientation, it's looking great...like glass!!

Highly recommend the Stewart System paints.