Airless sprayer for auto painting?

** ATTENTION **

Any further Off Topic posts and you will be Post Banned.

a reply to: visitors

um, no that`s not gonna happen i plan on spraying in my yard with a tarp like tent around it, and i live on an island with lots wind, sand, bugs etc. good, bad or ugly i`ll definitely post a pic when i`m done.
i`ve heard that a lot of hand sanding with 1200 grit paper can fix most problems so i`m going to give it a go.
i was planning on priming it this weekend but i got an e-mail today saying the primer is back ordered.They better get the primer quick or i`ll get it from somewhere else because, god willing and the creek don`t rise ,i`m going to paint it the first weekend of May.

I don`t expect it to look like a new truck I just want it to be all one color and have a shine to it.
If it doesn`t turn out good it won`t be for lack of prep, i`ve been hand sanding, grinding, and scraping for weeks now, getting ever bit of rust off,and all the cracked, loose paint off.

i`m planning on putting 2-3 coats of primer on it,wet sanding it and then 2-3 coats of paint and hand sanding that.
my biggest concern is making sure the paint stays on for more than just a few years I reckon I can take care of any other problems like orange peel with some dedicated hand sanding.

I got the truck real cheap and the engine and transmission are good.I already re-did the dash,new carpet,new (used seat from a 92 chevy) new door panels,new floor pans (the floor wasn`t real bad but rather than patch the holes i got floor pans) new speedometer,new speedometer cable,new dash printed circuit film, new light switch, new wiper switch,new ignition and door locks, new (used tahoe) rims and tires,new dome light,bondo on the rust around the wheel wells, etc.
I`m going to get a new radiator and transmissions lines after i paint it, all the chrome was gone off it so i bought all new chrome trim for it, new grille ( to replace the after market grille which is rusty and looks like #) i`m going to install it after i paint it. The tailgate isn`t original ( it`s from a 70`s chevy pickup not an 83 silverado) but i like it so i`m going to keep it.
I only use it to haul stuff to the dump ( we don`t have trash pick-up at our house) and haul stuff from lowes that won`t fit in my nissan,but i still want it to look half way decent.

This what it looked like about 5 months ago before I started prep`ing it for painting:


i`ll post a pic after i prime it and after I paint it, i`ve been waiting for the weather to get better and for the pollen to subside ( since i`m painting it outside).
I reckon with enough paint and enough sanding ( i can get rid of all the bugs and pollen) it will turn out ok.I`m planning on using a 13 year old stanley airless compressor ( that i got for free) with a 25 foot hose.
I`m an adventurer, i`ll try anything once just for the experience but I`ll tell ya I won`t be painting anymore vehicles after this, it`s a lot of work just preping it.

it`s all primed ,sanded and ready to go, just waiting for the weather to cooperate it`s been raining for the last 12 of 14 days and the other 2 days were too windy.

If anyone is still following this thread, I put the 4th and final coat of paint on the truck yesterday and gonna buff the bejesus out of it tomorrow.
I ran into a problem with the airless sprayer, after the first coat the sprayer quit on me, maybe the paint was too thick or too caustic and it ate up the diaphram in the sprayer.so, i put the final 3 coats on with a high density paint roller
the first 2 coats were badly orange peeled but the final 2 coats were a lot better,I think it will buff out real nice.
another major problem with the airless sprayer was that it used 3 quarts of paint for 1 coat,so an airless sprayer is not a good substitute for an air spraying system.I don`t think all 3 quarts went on the truck there was probably a quart still in the 25 foot hose.with an airless sprayer you have paint pushing paint so when the bucket is empty there is nothing to push the paint out of the hose.all the paint in hose is wasted paint.
Here`s what it looks like now:


i`ll buff it tomorrow and see if i can make it shine.

ETA: I left that strip across the middle of the tailgate unpainted because i`m going to paint it with white lacquer and leave the chevrolet letters blue.

here`s a picture after the first coat with the airless sprayer, you can see how bad the orange peel was:


one other thing, no bugs in the paint,I was surprised about that,maybe they just have a natural aversion to toxic cancer causing substances

so, I thought I could buff out the orange peel with some aggressive rubbing compound,but not gonna happen. I have to do it the hard way with lots of wet sanding by hand,probably another 4 or 5 days of sanding and buffing to finish it.
I had to start with 220 grit, then 600 grit and finally 2000 grit.
Here`s some of the parts that i have finished.

It`s as done as it`s going to get,i suppose it could use some more sanding with 2000-3000 grit sandpaper but i`m burned out on sanding it`s good enough for what i`m going to use the truck for and it only cost me about $300 for materials.







What it looked like when i started:

a reply to: Tardacus

It looks a damn sight better than before you started mate!

Glad all your effort pain off in the end.

a reply to: nonspecific

thanks,
I wouldn`t advise doing it this way unless you have a lot of free time and enjoy hand sanding, i spent over 100 hours hand sanding it. I only spent $800 for the truck so I just couldn`t justify spending that much or more to get it professionally painted.
if I had to do it again i would definately spend the money to get an air compressor and a proper spray gun.

The guy parked next to me at the store asked what year it was, i told him it`s a 1983, he said " that`s damn nice looking for a 33 year old truck"

a reply to: Tardacus

I do a lot of spraying but wood not up to car standards and have a big compressor and hvlp set up, I would like to have a crack at a car one day as also have a vinyl cutter for stencils and stuff.

With all that hard work I hope your carefull driving! Would not want to be the little old lady that rearends you and gets a an epic rage attack

a reply to: nonspecific
NOOO don`t say that, even jokingly, that would be a nightmare if someone ran into the truck or stole the truck.

Well we tried to warn you. HVLP gun is the way to go, tried and true. At least you know now. I hope you didnt drill any holes to pull out dents, as moisture will come in from behind. Always use a transformer style gun to weld on small pins and use a pull hammer. I had one more simester to go then I could open a shop, but I already have a great job, so I stopped after my third simester, and three 2 stage paint jobs. I dont go for orange peal, just glass. This npaint job has a gallon of clear on it
71 chevelle

originally posted by: Tardacus
a reply to: nonspecific
NOOO don`t say that, even jokingly, that would be a nightmare if someone ran into the truck or stole the truck.

Sorry mate I just know what the universe is like for pissing you off like that

If it ever does happen at least you have lots of practice and will be able to fix it!

a reply to: nonspecific How you doin Bro? I hope things are good. You will be back in the saddle before too long

a reply to: visitedbythem

I am good thank you brother, just about to do some spraying actually lol.