On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 09:05:16 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:

All my life I've been reading most technical books I've found and I've *never*
found a good primer on basic spray painting with a gun, much less HVLP. Anyone
know of a good way to learn this other than to blow a bunch of money and time
experimenting or taking an auto painting class?

A class would probably be the best way,, though I've never taken one.
There are several books on Amazon, most of them inexpensive
paperbacks. Paint & Body Handbook, Don Taylor &Larry Hofer, HP
Books #204 has a couple of chapters on painting that might serve as
a good primer.

Like welding, there's no "magic answer". It does take some practice.

PPG/Ditzler used to have a lot of free literature that I found very
helpful, but I don't know if they still do. Auto paints are much
more expensive than something like Rustoleum, but if you follow the
detailed directions carefully for mixing and applying you can get
excellent results. A basecoat-clearcoat system is most expensive,
easiest to apply, and gives the best results. This would go over a
properly-prepped surface: metal-prep, epoxy primer, high-build
sanding primer, wetsand, perhaps a sealer, then color and then
clearcoat. I use cheap import guns for all but color and clearcoat.
The occasional burp, sputter, drip or sag don't matter much with
primer because you don't need to shoot it "wet" for gloss and you'll
wetsand the sanding primer anyway.

A good gun does help when you're after gloss. A cheap gun
sometimes works OK but a sputter or burp as the pot runs low can
screw up an otherwise good job. Good guns don't do that. They spray
consistently from full to nearly empty. My "good" guns were made
by Sharpe. They're considerably less pricey than Binks and
DeVilbiss, seem to work fine.

Basecoat-clearcoat is easier for a couple of reasons. You shoot the
color basecoat fairly dry. This avoids drips and sags, and it's a
lot easier to get metalflake uniform. The gloss comes from 3 or 4
full wet coats of clearcoat. It'll take some practice to get that
right -- good gloss and "definition of image" with no drips or sags.
It sure is gorgeous when you get it right, though. Seeing what was
an ugly old mutt of a car glow like a new Mercedes is quite a thrill.

I once bought my daughter a Rabbit for $300. It was in excellent
interior and mech condition and only 80K miles, but so ugly a
neighbor of the guy I bought it from thanked me for removing that toad
from their common alley. After I fixed all of the rust, replaced
the broken window and painted it, she had a friend tell her she wished
her daddy would let her paint her BMW like that. I had let her
choose the color at the paint store. She chose a blinding Chevy Geo
yellow. The thing looked like a glazed lemon drop. The paint cost
twice as much as the car. She drove it for several years.

Lacquer is easy to shoot and cheaper, but more work overall because
it must be "rubbed out" to get full gloss. Further, it doesn't wear
as well or resist UV as well. It can get dull in just a year or two
unless it's kept waxed and in a garage most of the time.

For jobs where you're not after a "showroom" finish, like steel
fabrications and machinery, RustOleum works fine. It is neither as
robust nor as glossy as good auto paint, but it's a whole lot cheaper
and it hides and protects OK.

For simple utility, I sometimes just shoot epoxy primer and let it go
at that. It's available in several colors (black, white, gray,
reddish and a sort of baby**** green-gray), dries to sort of a satin
finish. it adheres well and it's quite rugged. It's also pricey.
Use a cheap import gun because if you don't get it absolutely clean
afterwards you'll never get it clean after it cures and dries. Having
said that, I've been using the same $29.95 gun(s) for over 10 years.

For small jobs, a "jamb" gun works well. There are import copies of
the Binks jambgun. I've also used the little HVLP guns from HF (
$50) with good results. Less overspray, paint goes further.

Don't even think about shooting epoxy primer or urethane autopaint
without a good respirator and very good ventilation. If you can
smell it at all, you're not protected.