I'm getting ready to paint my 240 next month and I had a few questions. I painted a couple of cars many years ago and the paint went on and stayed on fine but there was a lot of orange peel( think it was the equipment that I used). I plan on either buying a compressor from sears-6hp 33gal tank, or renting a 11 hp gas unit. Is the sears compressor large enough number one and will it handle a hvlp gun? Also does a hvlp gun make that much of a difference over a conventional gun? As far as paint I've been told to use the base coat / clear coat type because that is the easiest one to get a good finish with. Is the urethane paint better to use than the acrylic? Lastly is metalics and kandys that much harder to shoot evenly compared to solid colors? Im very open to any suggestions anyone might have! Sorry for all the questions but if someone could answer one or two of them it would help greatly!

Thanks,

Mark

Orange peel has quite a few causes. You might not have been spraying at the right pressure, the materials might not have been reduced (thinned) enough, etc etc. Personally I would go with the base coat/clear coat system and you won't have to worry as much. If there is a lot of orange peel you can sand and buff the clear coat to be smooth as glass. And stick with the new urethane stuff. Acrylic laquer is nice, but just not as durable as the new stuff. I prefer PPG as it's fairly easy to spray.

The 6HP compressor can't keep up for spraying an entire car. Unless you plan on using the compressor for other stuff and painting yer car a piece at a time, I'd say rent the 11HP one.

HVLP guns? That's all I've ever used really so I can't comment on the other guns. I just know HVLP is always advertised as more efficient with better material savings.

Metallics are fairly easy to spray, just don't spray it really wet or the metallic will run and look ugly. Practice on some parts first to get the hang of it. I've never sprayed kandy before (yet) but I've heard it is more difficult (and expensive!).

Good luck painting your car!

An interesting message board whose subject is all auto body work and painting is: Autobody Message Board . I'm trying to learn about painting too, and it seems to have some professional body and paint guys answering questions (not that our board might not have people that know the answers too, but ... )

Good luck.

mdbrandy- Thanx, I needed a site like that.

<-Studying on sparying paint

Thanks for the input! I was going to use the compressor for other stuff too, but I'll hold off of that one and rent the other compressor if it will do a better job. I was looking at PPG paints and maybe I'll try a metalic one if it is not that much harder to shoot.

Thanks again,

Mark

I never really responded to the uneven spraying part. Metallics will show an uneven spray pattern much more than a solid color. Just remember when you're spraying to spray over 50% of your previous run; that should insure an even distribution.