New guy checking in with my first paint project.

S

StolenFox

Just wanted to say hello to everyone and post pics of my project. It's a 1983 BMW 533i that I put a Ford 5.0L and T5 manual trans in. The mechanical and rust repair are far enough along that I can finally work on the finish. The paint is BAD!! Multiple resprays with poor prep and 30 years of oxidation = total coating failure. I am going to strip it down and start from scratch. I'll be asking you all and SPI a ton of questions!

S.F.

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Sounds like you did good on the mechanics!!!
We are ready for the questions on the body work!
 
Barry;28198 said:
Sounds like you did good on the mechanics!!!
We are ready for the questions on the body work!

Okay, questions:

#1: My compressor is a 60 gallon, 3 h.p., 9.7scfm unit. Is this sufficient for HVLP equipment?

#2: After I get it down to bare metal, I need to spray your epoxy primer to protect the bare steel and provide a base for the high build primer / body filler but i have no spray equipment. Given that I am a hobyist, I cant justify big money on a professional grade gun. Ive seen posts advocating the "Vaper 2.3" from northern tool for primer work but I thought maybe it would be better to get the Finishline 4 so I'm covered for the actual color coats. Thinking a single stage hot rod black, pretty sure ive read that SPI offers that type product.

Bob Hollinshead;28199 said:
We need burnout pics.

It spins them pretty good but unfortunately the BMW has a independant rear suspension. Lean on it hard from a dead stop and it wheel hops hard! Once the car looks good I am going to upgrade the suspension bushings and rear end mount so it can hook better and not "pound the pavement".

S.F.
 
Your compressor is really marginal for any kind of serious bodywork and paint. It's certainly too small to paint a complete. I would suggest stripping and priming in stages, one to three panels at a time. A cheap gun will be OK for now, but once you have some time behind it you might want to try something better. A primer gun need not be fancy, though. SPI Hot Rod Black is pretty easy to handle, even I can make it look good, so the Finishline might be a good deal for what you are doing.
 
crashtech;28211 said:
Your compressor is really marginal for any kind of serious bodywork and paint. It's certainly too small to paint a complete. I would suggest stripping and priming in stages, one to three panels at a time. A cheap gun will be OK for now, but once you have some time behind it you might want to try something better. A primer gun need not be fancy, though. SPI Hot Rod Black is pretty easy to handle, even I can make it look good, so the Finishline might be a good deal for what you are doing.

Thank you for the information! I was thinking the same thing: strip and epoxy prime one panel at a time. I'll probably save my pennies to get the finishline 4 set rather than buying cheap junk only to end up replacing anyhow.

My compressor at work is a 25 h.p. 3phs rotary screw with a 100 gallon tank so its plenty powerfull. The problem is its inside a dirty mfg plant and i'd have to buiild some kind of temporary booth to spray in.

S.F.
 
If you plan on doing hobby work for many years, a better compressor would be a good investment. Working a small compressor really hard to get the job done also puts more moisture content in your air lines, which can cause lots of grief, as I was reminded of in this thread:

http://www.spiuserforum.com/showthread.php?2486-pits-in-universal-clear

If you are diligent, good stuff pops up on craigslist once in a while, like this Quincy:

http://denver.craigslist.org/tls/3794325358.html

Though I am not familiar with that particular model, Quincy is well regarded.

Sometimes a local compressor repair guy can set you up with something much better than a hardware store compressor for the same money or less, and then you will have a source for parts, repair and advice. Though I had to talk to a couple before I found one that was good.
 
crashtech;28220 said:
If you plan on doing hobby work for many years, a better compressor would be a good investment. Working a small compressor really hard to get the job done also puts more moisture content in your air lines, which can cause lots of grief, as I was reminded of in this thread:

http://www.spiuserforum.com/showthread.php?2486-pits-in-universal-clear

If you are diligent, good stuff pops up on craigslist once in a while, like this Quincy:

http://denver.craigslist.org/tls/3794325358.html

Though I am not familiar with that particular model, Quincy is well regarded.

Sometimes a local compressor repair guy can set you up with something much better than a hardware store compressor for the same money or less, and then you will have a source for parts, repair and advice. Though I had to talk to a couple before I found one that was good.

That is a great deal for the Quincy (provided the minor damage noted is indeed minor) and I'd love to snap it up but the cash has to go to a gun and paint supplies. After looking at my garage with its open wood truss construction I've determined that I would have create a temporary booth there as well. No way a finish could lay down in there without being full of trash so if I am constructing a temporary booth anyhow, it might as well be at work where I have plenty of air and don't have to worry about filling my house with fumes.

For single panel priming at home: As long as I am stripping and priming one panel at a time the duty cycle on the compressor shouldn't be bad. Low duty cycle should keep the air temps down and I'll put the proper air / water / oil separators in place along with a brand new air hose. I was thinking about building an air chiller out of some stainless tubing we have at work to help get the moisture to drop out.

S.F.
 
With satin/flattened finishes you'll want to shoot it all at the same time so the sheen is consistant, if it were a gloss black being sprayed the compressor would definitely be adequate shooting 2-3or 4 panels at a time. With an Iwata LPH400LV you might get away with doing the complete spray with that compressor-it seems to use a lot less air than others and advertised as able to run with as little as 6 cfm.
 
Bob, I recently shot a complete with SPI Hot Rod Black in two steps, hood (off the vehicle) and roof, then the sides and deck lid. Barry assured me I could get away with it, and amazingly it all looked exactly the same! Have you tried the new stuff?

Now I should say that someone new to painting should probably not try this, because I'm sure if there was enough variation in spray technique there could definitely be some gloss variance. But the new SPI stuff is as bulletproof as it gets, I am no longer worried at all about flattened finishes the way I used to be.
 
Bob Hollinshead;28225 said:
With satin/flattened finishes you'll want to shoot it all at the same time so the sheen is consistant, if it were a gloss black being sprayed the compressor would definitely be adequate shooting 2-3or 4 panels at a time. With an Iwata LPH400LV you might get away with doing the complete spray with that compressor-it seems to use a lot less air than others and advertised as able to run with as little as 6 cfm.

The plan is to only do the primer work in panels at home since my compressor may be marginal. Since its primer / filler that I will be block sanding anyhow, i dont have to worry much about contaminates from the garage ending up in the primers while spraying individual panels. The finish coats will be done all at once and in either a rented booth or a temporary one I'll contruct at work to take advantage of the 25 h.p. rotary screw compressor we have.

crashtech;28228 said:
Bob, I recently shot a complete with SPI Hot Rod Black in two steps, hood (off the vehicle) and roof, then the sides and deck lid. Barry assured me I could get away with it, and amazingly it all looked exactly the same! Have you tried the new stuff?

Now I should say that someone new to painting should probably not try this, because I'm sure if there was enough variation in spray technique there could definitely be some gloss variance. But the new SPI stuff is as bulletproof as it gets, I am no longer worried at all about flattened finishes the way I used to be.

Though I will be spraying the finish coats all at once, it is good to know that the SPI material is more forgiving. I figure if the professional can lay the material down at different times with the same sheen, a newbie like me has a better chance of a uniform finish when sprayed at once.

S.F.
 
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