Electric Paint Gun

Anybody here ever use an electric paint gun to shoot auto paint or primer? I sold my house and I am in a temporary apartment, so I have no 220 to run my air compressor and therefore no way to use my regular old paint gun.

I'm looking to spray some DP90 primer on the underside of the my X1/9 and maybe topcoat with some single stage non-metallic urethane. After a lunchtime trip to Harbor Freight I picked up this beauty for the princely sum of $15.99:

It says on the box it sprays oil based paint. I figured for that price it was worth a shot. Anybody else try these type of shenanigans?

I painted my garage with one, but I dunno how well it's going to work for a car...I'd say you're going to get just a little bit of orange peel.

My father used one of the originals by Black and Decker to shoot single stage on the fender of a Ford Capri. It looked like E36 M3. Lots of orange peel and tiger striping. I think the operator was only a small part of the problem and the gun wasnt up to the task.

I bet it would work well for under coating or bed liner if it has a large enough nozzle orifice.

This is why I love GRM. "I just moved into an apartment, what's the best way to paint my car?"

I like the way you think.

It's gonna be rough. I support your commitment to the GRM aesthetic, but as someone who's painted a lot of bikes and a few cars - I truly believe a presentable job requires at minimum a 1/2 decent spray gun, a generous supply of clean, dry compressed air, and a hillbilly spray booth.

Undercoat comes in spray cans, undersides of cars don't so much matter. Paint on the shiny side is another matter.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking to paint the whole car. Just the area up under the car where the radiator goes and the nose from under the headlights down to the front spoiler.

If it just won't work I'll scrap it. I know GRM and Classic Motorsports have used the Nason spray cans filled with auto paint on a couple of projects and I reasoned this would be at least as good as a spray bomb.

I've done it. Not with that particular gun, but with an older Wagner. The results were lumpy and splotchy. The guns are very prone to spitting, making it look like someone hawked a loogie into the paint while you were spraying.

Rattle cans spray much better. Heck, I got much better results with a hand roller.

Clean-up of an electric sprayer is a bear.

Another vote for don't do it - they're not very good at it. IIRC Practical Classics here in the UK tested them and the only one that was quite usable was an HVLP gun that was connected to something that looked like a vacuum cleaner, a bit like this:

http://www.wagnerspraytech.com/portal/wagner_finespray_spray,43209,747.html

Don't think it was that particular one but that's the style.

Actually a little more rummaging around in what passes for my brain suggests that it might have been an older version of this: http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=8772&frostProductName=Apollo%20Spray%20Mate&catID=&frostCat=&frostSubCat=&subCatID=

Do not do this. I've used these; totally inadequate for anything approaching attractive on something other than a building.

Roller painting FTW, but you can't use automotive paint.

I hated it when I tried - on a house. Those things are terrible and cheap. It spat more paint on the walls than it did actual spraying.

I painted a 78 Olds Delta 88 with a Wagner. I used Sherman Williams industrial enamel. The results were fair. Orange peel is a problem. The spray isn't fine enough to get a smooth finish. It was better than nothing, but not by much.

Save your self now! toss that thing in the trash.

The internal tip will need to be changed so you can spray any solvent based paint @ $35 for two tips and it will still not spray worth a darn.

I couldn't get a wagner to spray stain nerver mind real paint.

Bottom line is they suck use a brush you'll have better luck.

Toyman01 wrote: i tried *insert whacky item or method here* ...It was better than nothing, but not by much.

this phrase can be applied to pretty much any situation ive ever encountered in my entire life

Don't listen to those guys.

For what you want to do, if it works like a Wagner, it'll be perfect.

I painted my S10 with white Tremclad, and a Wagner, and it turned out so good, nobody would believe it.

I also painted no less than a half dozen stock cars with the same gun. Some of them a few times. The results were ALWAYS satisfactory, excellent if you consider the equipment. If your gun is spitting, or otherwise not working, troubleshoot the problem. These guns work. I wouldn't paint a show car with one, but for primer, or industrial enamel, they work fine.

when my gun was spitting and coughing paint all over the place while painting the house i spent 3 days toubleshooting the problem...... and concluded that the gun was a piece of e36 m3. i then got out a brush and roller and finished the job in 2 days. i should have spent less time troubleshooting the wrong tool and more time doing the job with the right equipment.....

I know why mine spit. If you angle the gun more than about 20 degrees with the cup less than almost completely full, it sucks air and spits.

The guns were made for painting vertical surfaces. It shows in how they work when trying to paint horizontal surfaces.

One could modify the electric gun with a bit of flexible tubing and a pickup clunker.

One other thing... they dont'aerate the paint properly as they shoot it. Automotive paints need that fine aeration to do their job properly and adhere to the surface. To thick of a film while spraying (or too large of an individuyal pait globule) and the paint doesn't actually adhere properly.

From rollers to airless sprayers, my experience has always been thet the paint looks like hell and peels off in sheets rather easily. I had to fix way too many of those jobs done by ultra cheap amateurs when I had my shop.

Why bother if you've only got a small area to do? GRM is always talking about getting small quantities of paint mixed for them and injected into aerosol cans for spraying yourself. Why not do that, although I've no idea where to get them from.

Any good auto paint suply store can do that for you, or if you're in an area where the autobody supply places only sell to body shops, then you can get it at the body shop. Use the Preval sprayer to do the job.

In reply to Chris_V:

Strangely enough I have one of those Peval setups sitting on my desk at work right now. I will go with that instead. Back to horrible freight the electrical paint gun of death goes.

wow, for $20 you could have gotten HF's 2 gun hvlp package, lol. And i'm sure there is someplace you could plug your compressor into to spray your car.

I once ran 200 feet of hose down 3 flights of stairs to spray a car in the apartment parking lot. I also got bitched at for spraying the pavement a nice shade of yellow, but yeah. good times.

Andrew

I would have played kink the hose game . Nothing worse than doing something on the DL and have it bugger up .

In reply to digdug18:

Not so much. 1 120v oulet on the garage for the garage door opener. My compressor is 220V single phase, 20 amp circuit. I'm not going to re-wire my rented apartment that I'll be in only until June 30th.

I'll just use the preval setup I have or some Nason cans.

I have found the Preval setup gets too cold to hold and then stops spraying due to loss of pressure. let it warm up and it is fine again. I know what is happening, I just cant figgure out how to stop the problem.

porksboy wrote: I have found the Preval setup gets too cold to hold and then stops spraying due to loss of pressure. let it warm up and it is fine again. I know what is happening, I just cant figgure out how to stop the problem.

have hot water by your side place cold can in the hot water ~30sec and spray when you feel it start to slow warm it back up.