# Automotive Painting



## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

2 questions:

1. The air compressors used for spraying the paint, is it ok to use an oil consuming compressor? Or will that somehow mix in with the air feed/paint?

2. Anyone had any experience with the 35 bucks a gallon paint sold on ebay? Granted the term you get what you pay for, but if the ebay paint is decent id rather save the money and not buy 3 gallons of House of Kolor paint.

3. Anyone done their own paintjobs, and if so, how nice did they come out? I have access to a dust free environment, and I can use a hardener in the paint to prevent any stray dust particles that enter the area while we are spraying, just wondering what your input on this is.

I guess that makes 3 questions


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## nak1 (May 17, 2002)

its all about prep work.

and dont get too close or you will get drips.


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## cranium (Oct 8, 2002)

i paint as a hobby, mostly on my own cars. not show quality but good. my se-r has been 3 different colors and in about 3 week will be the final color.

as far as the compressor you need to get a water trap and an oil trap that goes inline of the hose. i don't have the oil problem but i do have a water problem in the form of condinsation in the tank, thus the water trap. i paid about $100 for my water trap but there are other that are not as expencive. 

i have no idea what paint they sell on ebay but i use OMNI Coat which is a budget paint made by PPG. omni coat can be mixed in just about any color that any other paint can at about 1/3 of the cost. the only trade off is that the paint "may" oxidize sooner and fade sooner. by sooner i mean (as it has been explained to me) in about 3 or so years vs. quite a bit longer for the "premium" PPG. if there is any type of paint store around you for automotive you may want to check there first, so you know exactly what you are getting.

as far as the "hardener", that only chemicly hardens the paint once the drying process has begun, it will not prevent the dust from sticking to the paint while you are shooting it.

if i was to make a recommendation you could use a base coat/clear coat system. if you go with the omni coat some of the item you will need to purchace would be:

paint: MBC (base coat) or MAU (single stage, urethane) or MAE (single stage, enamel)

clear coat: MC260 quick clear

*note* "fast"= sub-70*, medium=70* to 90*, slow=90* and above.

reducer: MR185 fast reducer or MR186 medium reducer or MR187 slow reducer 

hardener (for either single stage or for the clear coat): MH167 fast hardener or MH168 medium hardener or MH169 slow hardener. 

and for the bumper covers you want to add a "flex additive" to the primer and the paint (if you use single stage) and to the clear coat (if you use a base coat/clear coat system). IIRC the number is MX193.

as far as a paint gun you will want to get a decent gravity feed HVLP (high volume low pressure) gun. a gun will run from about $100 to above $500. i have a couple of Astra guns that were about $100 each and are very good for the money. the different tips you can get with the guns are measured in millimeters so the smaller the number the finer the spray. one of my guns is a 1.5 mm and the other is 1.3mm. i prefer the 1.3mm cause it slows me down and doesn't let me rush my paint job but that is just my opinion. clean the gun very good when done (disasemble and scrub it). if you get some solvent, MS100, this will allow you not to use as much of you reducer for clean up.

sorry for the long post but as you can see i like to paint hope this helps.


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## LlUSPEED (Mar 27, 2003)

i paint my butt


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## NissanTuner (Dec 1, 2002)

Actually Cranium thats extremely helpful, and I would appreciate it if you could PM me with some tips on how to do a colorchange nicely. I dont need a 5 thousand dollar paintjob, I just want a good one, that I can do myself. How much all in all do you think ill have to spend to buy everything I needed to take on a project like this, assuming I had no painting supplies yet.


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## Blu200SX (Jul 22, 2002)

cranium, you answered most of my questions...nice job...but do you know how many layers of primer, paint and then clearcoat they use in factory paintjobs?


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## landlord (Jun 11, 2002)

Blu200SX said:


> *cranium, you answered most of my questions...nice job...but do you know how many layers of primer, paint and then clearcoat they use in factory paintjobs? *


i always used at least three. it cost me once 180.00 in materials to pant a hood and a fender but that was that damn slate grey pearl. paint has lasted like three years and no fading cracking anything. a tip i found helpfull, i did mine in my garage, keep the floor wet, it will help with dust and overspray getting into your paint.


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## g200sx (Apr 18, 2003)

what is the reducer used for?


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## kbrassfi (Aug 1, 2002)

reducer is used with the paint, it actually is usually matched to the conditions in which you will be painting, weather etc, but it is actually mixed with the paint in equal parts. Word of advice, I've watched the complete process from body work to prep to paint, unless you've done it before or have money to spend a few times to get it right, its probably better to let someone else do it, or practice on something else first, anything you miss will show up once you put your paint and clear on. But if you do paint, and your not in a booth, make sure to tack rag it between coats and try to do on a day that is not windy or not near a place with a lot of bugs or debris. Also put enough clear coats on and you can color buff and sand a lot of little imperfections out


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## landlord (Jun 11, 2002)

watch out for the little nats or whatever they are, thell come out when you start to put your clear coat on, i think there attracted to it or somthing when i painted my car hundreds of them came out of nowhere when i was doing my clear, and they love to get stuck in the clear too.


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## pearsont74 (Oct 1, 2002)

wwo...nice info...wish I had a bigger garage or a dust free place to try my own paint job. I have always wanted to try it.


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## g200sx (Apr 18, 2003)

hey cranium would this type of paint hold up if i painted my headlights and corner lights? or would the temperature of the lights be too hot?


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

An oil compressor doesn't put oil into the air so you don't have to worry about that. However if there is an oiler installed inline before the hose, then you need to remove the oiler and use a hose that hasn't had oil run though it. Most people don't do that though, they put smaller oilers on the tools themselves. You can use a small inline drier that costs about $7 that is color indicated and turns from blue to pink as it becomes less effective. You can put it just before the coupling at the end of your hose. The further you away from the compressor you put the drier, the better it works, because it gives the air a chance to cool, thus allowing the moisture to condensate and allows the drier to be more effective. I have a $100+ drier as well and have never installed it, I've painted several cars with the $7 ones and never had a problem. 

The thing about paint is that some are really forgiving and some aren't. I've literally spent years doing paint prep and I've also spent just a few days. You'd be surprised how well cheap paint will stick to a poorly prepped surface. I once painted my wife's car for $90 in paint and it came out pretty decent for a weeks worth of work. If you don't have a lot of bodywork to do, then prep shouldn't be that bad. I'd say use a DA sander and 320 grit paper and knock the whole car down. Then use a hand block, and rubber and foam pads to get the nooks and crannies, which takes a lot of time. You'll have to sand just before you paint to open up the surface and allow for proper bonding but if you've done a lot of sanding already, a gray scotchbrite pad will do the trick. Once you've got the car ready for priming, you'll want to blow it off with air and tack it off with either clean rags or cheesecloth (swiffer rags or the like will work fine, don't use a resin coated tack cloth, it's too easy to leave a residue). I'd use a primer sealer, or an epoxy one if you can afford it. Don't use a high build unless you've done body work because you'll just have to block it off again. A cheap high build primer I like is Morton Easkwork 2K. The only Omni product I've used was the bare metal primer OMNI 88 I think it was and no matter what I did it'd fisheye, so I've never used it since. But the Omni line is a good bang for the buck line, just like Cranium said. I'm using RM Diamont and Limco Supreme Clear on my truck right now and it's just damn expensive. Unless your weather is pretty steady, don't buy the reducer until you're ready to paint, as mentioned, you'll want to get the right temp range reducer. As far as guns go, go to www.spraygunworld.com and look at the Astro Star Gravity feed guns, I think these are the same ones Cranium was mentioning. I bought both the 1.4 and 2.0 orifice guns, the first being for my base and clear coat and the latter for my high build. They are nice guns, come with metal cups and for $55 a piece you'd be hard pressed to find them cheaper. I know several professionals who use these guns at home for their own projects and side work.

EDIT: Damn, my bad, this thread is ancient! The guy has probably already painted his car!


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## landlord (Jun 11, 2002)

how do you guys feel about using a sand blaster to remove the paint. thats what i used when i painted my car, i still had to sand it down when i was done but cut the time in half. hell with the "nooks and crannies" sand blaster makes quick work of this. then i re-sanded the metal, did the body work (whats that 3m stuff, fill and sand? anyway i love that stuff). primered and painted. any way i love using the sand blaster, theres allot of clean up work after, but it beats getting sore arms.


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## toolapcfan (Jul 10, 2002)

I don't like it because it pits the hell out of the metal. Now baking soda or other media blasting, that might be alright. If you have to get down to bare metal then paint stripper is the way to go.


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## cranium (Oct 8, 2002)

well i finally got my car painted the daytona blue like the 350z's have, but it is completely striped for racing and weighs approx 2050lbs. but when i have nothing left to strip i will have to sandblast the paint off cause i figure with the years of practicing on my car i have about 80lbs of primer and paint on it


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