Car painting Hep

[Sal Lubrano]

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

This summer I will be painting an old beater car pretty much for practice. It will be my first full car paint job. I am not expecting a great job heck I am not even expecting an ok job but I would likme some input as to which spray gun to get. I have seen them on harbor frieght from $15 to over $100. I would like to know how does these $15 guns stack up to the more expensive one? Can I get by with the cheaper one? What benefit will there from buying a better on other than its service life?
Thanks for the help.

[GNcollectables]

My buddy bought an airgun from HF awhile back. HVLP (the purple handle one with white bottle). It was on sale for like 30-40 bucks (normally about $80?). JUNK. Do yourself a favor, if you're going to use the gun more than once, buy a good one. And after watching my friend struggle with that one, I'd recommend even if you're going to use it just ONE time (as he did), still don't buy it. It wouldn't hold the adjustment for more than 5 minutes at a time (= lots of wasted paint + time & aggravation). He said it wasn't even worth "practicing" with (it's hard to learn how to do or use something when the variables keep changing!). You have to be careful buying stuff from HF, some of it is real garbage. I've bought a few things from there, but mostly for "one-time use" projects.

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[supercoupe5]

a better gun will give you better atomization. i dont know where you are but in some places you have to get an hlvp gun. i spent $600 on my gun last year and am still to use it, but i know when i do i will have no problems with it. one of the most important things about painting a car is the compressor. if it wont make enough air to keep the preasure up you will start with full preasure then it will drop and your paint will not lay on smooth throughout your cup of paint. dave

[jamesgs4]

for my very first gun i got a grav feed hvlp sharpe sgf98 off of ebay years ago for about 200 bucks new. it still works great still too. you just have to clean them every time you are finished, and they will last. you can still find a decent gun for pretty cheap there too. stay away from those cheap guns, i bought one to spray an epoxy sealer once and it was garbage. the pattern was inconsistent, and the flow sucked. if you are painting the beater to practice, prep is the key, it will determine how your paint ends up. practice on a junk fender first, to learn how to adjust the pattern and flow. also, get a respirator with cartridges for paint, modern paints are way more toxic than the enamels of the old days. you can find a disposable one for like 20-25 bucks from 3m.

[Project TNX]

The crappiest gun you should even consider for running the top coat through is the $99.00 Gravity Fed HVLP Sears gun.

Primer can be shot through a crappy gun though, hard to mess up primer. I still wouldn't recommend it, but I see you are on a budget and looking to learn (I guess.)

Buy yourself 2 guns, the $50.00 one (Primer) and the $99-129.00 gun for your Paint.

[turbofish38]

Originally Posted by GNcollectables

My buddy bought an airgun from HF awhile back. HVLP (the purple handle one with white bottle). It was on sale for like 30-40 bucks (normally about $80?). JUNK.

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I cant believe I just read that! The purple HVLP was one of the best guns ever. Do a search. Punch in purple Harbour Freight HVLP. There are a few sites that have some instructions on how to set up those cheap HF guns. I've got a HF cheapey that I use from time to time. I thought it was junk too but than I figured out I just wasn't setting it up right.

If it was me I'd invest the money and go with the two gun beginners set from Eastwood. I think they have a special on the $129 set for $99. If you are like me you'll want to do more projects after you get the hang of it. The HF guns are okay, they just wont last 5 years like the name brand stuff.

[turbofish38]

Here's one link I was talking about.

HVLP Spray Gun Setup