savewave

If any of you have suggestions on equipment needed or legal issues to be considered, please add them here.

MYBAD79

Legal issues: if your neighbors call the cops while you're painting and they arrive in time to witness the fumes and see that cloud travelling down the street.... yes, you might spend a few hours in jail.....

OMG

Quick question.

I already have a 90 gal compressor.

I plan on pickup up this kit: http://www.ketone.com/proddetail.php...c2affffd341f24

Already got a respirator thanks to some helpful forum members.

What do I need in my garage?

I'm thinking of putting up some of that heavy blue tarp to keep from accidently painting all over my garage. And two box fans on the side door to blow the fumes. And thanks for the tip of at doing this at night.

I don't plan on painting my car just small panels and stuff.

REDC4CORVETTE

I use a Master Power compressor by cooper tools ,purchased at COSCO $149.00,has a built in regulator and up to 150 psi so you can turn it up or down on the presure multi use.
2 top loader guns one for primer the other for paint,I got those at the local pawn shop both for $40.00.I got my water seperater from NAPA about $30.00 with a longer hose.
Make sure you wet down your grage floor to keep the dust from flying all over.Buy a large fan and get the largest furnace filters you can find.Wet the filters and only spray at night so you get no complaints.
In some states you can blow up to a pint out doors of paint.
I think equal to what 2 cans of spray paint would produce,
Not sure but every hour.
I usually section my car off and paint one section at a time unless I think I can get away painting the whole thing.
If I use metalic paint ,it smells so bad that I can only do a hood and a 1/4 panel at a time or everyone will look at you in the neighbor hood.
The sanding no one seems to bother you.I do keep a vaccum handy to keep the mess at a minium.
Hope this helps

BondoKing

For your compressors its not the size of the tank but how many cfms it puts out at certain pressures.. DA's eat up air, as do some of your high end guns.. I have a gun that uses 16cfm and that is way more than any cheap compressor will put out..

Pay attention to this when looking for a spray gun as well.. If you have a small compressor, you can still paint with it, but you are going to be much better off with a low volume low pressure gun.. You can go much further before your compressor will get tired

Astro sells inexpensive guns that are good quality for a one time paint jobber.. If you plan on doing this as a hobby from here on out, I would also suggest you buy a higher end gun.. They do make a difference

Products are continually on the rise as well.. depending on the level of finish that you want you can spend allot of money on products


1. Base 1 gallon $250-600 depending on color.. or less if it is white or black
2. clear 2 gallons $ 200 and up depending on manufacture.. I say 2 gallons because if you are doing jambs and everything on the car it does not take long to go thru a gallon.. You will also need to put on 3-4 coats to color sand and buff, and have good UV protection afterward
3. Epoxy 1-2 gallons $130 and up depeding on man.. I use this from the bottom and also to seal my 2k primer before base
4. 2k a.k.a. Urethane Primer Surfacer 2-3 gallons $ 100 and up.. I would not use cheap primer here and get the brands under 100 dollars.. JMO

That is just your paint, not including your filler if any, and you will need some, sand paper from at least 80 grit all the way to 2000 for color sanding.. Then you have:
Buffer
Pads
Compound
Tape
Mask Paper
spray guns
compressor
DA
Blocks of various sizes to get the panels perfectly straight

Lots of stuff needed to put out a slick paint job IMO.. and of course it depends on what you consider slick and acceptable.. Do your panels have to be perfectly straight or is close enough ok.. Do you want to spend the time stripping off all the old layers of paint, or do you just want to freshen the look without all the added labor.. Lots of variables to consider

gator79

I would not even consider spraying clear witout a fresh air supplied respirator. there is some bad stuff in there that will never get out of your lungs.

CharlesPeoples

Corvette painter getting out ,to many dumb shi5s with there nose in the air . Going back to the simple life ,Airbrushing and pinstrippin'.want no memory of ever spraying a corvette .Body tools ,spray guns .Body work DVDs the PRO-TEAM way.How not to get burn't on your paint job (Notice how I put them 2 sentences together) complete with images .Oh yea ,the cost more than you think ,like your health .

redvtt

First of all, in California, we can pant an area 2ftx2ft in a residential garage, legally.
And, one can store up to 5 gallons of paint stuff, legally.
Having said that, if you wanted to do some repairs, this is how I'd build a booth and some of the equipment, if so inclined:

You can build a cheap booth inside a 2 car garage using 2x2a and 2x4s (or staple it to the rafters, sheet rock, etc.), then line it with the plastic that they use in the shops for bagging the cars: about $35 for a huge roll. The beauty of this stuff is the paint mist will stick to it and not become powder when it dries. When you're finished, just roll it up and throw away.
At the intake end, build a small grid of furnace filters.
At the exhaust end, build a box that'll suck the air out. Pulling the air out from underneath the car is optimal. It pulls the fumes down and under the car, away from the paint work.
Build this box so you can force the air through filters and fish aquarium charcoal to filter the air (the power coating guys are doing this-where this idea came from). You won't get the cloud and the charcoal will clean up the air somewhat.

Lighting: Home Depot, 4 foot fluorescent, line the ceiling with 2 to 3 on each side. I can have a car in the sun, but when I pull it under these lights, suddenly all the surface scratches appear. Also, good light is essential for doing good work.

Breathing: Filter the air you breath. If I started all over again, I'd have worked on this the most. Get a setup with a full face mask, if you paint in any enclosed area. Make sure the filtered air pump is set away from your paint exhaust. Also, wear a "bunny" suit. Keeps stuff out of the paint.

Compressor: the more volume, the better. Don't forget air filters.
I've seen some nice work from a 40gallon/5hp-cast iron/110vac/~6cfm compressor. I would call that a minimum. You do have to wait for it to catch up - not an ideal industrial application (or if you plan to do several cars).

The best for home would be 240/3phase 15amp 10hp motor (use a 2phase to 3 phase converter), 100 gallon tank, with a twin cylinder 2 stage compressor head (my next one! ), which would be about 12-15cfm.

That should give you an idea of what to expect, and get you started.

oldalaskaman

My vote, high volume / low pressure (HVLP) spray gun, minimal overspray, paint drops almost before it travels, waterborn paint, not much smell , hasent bothered the neighbors......yet