spridgets
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: auto painting, compressors,

To: Toby Atwater <tob@taltec.net>
Subject: Re: auto painting, compressors,
From: Rick/Carolyn <walters@mail.softcom.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 16:30:31 -0700
Cc: Sprite Mailing List <spridgets@autox.team.net>
References: <00e001be933f$c561db60$8355fea9@r.atwate>
Reply-to: Rick/Carolyn <walters@mail.softcom.net>
Sender: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net
Hi Toby,

I sprayed mine last year.  If I remember right, You are in CA, Los
Angeles area.  Bad Idea,  It's real hard to paint with the new VOC
paints.  Most old style paints you aren't going to find without a major
road trip.  I have a hour trip to get mine, you would have to go to
Vagas I guess.  

If you haven't read about these wonderful marvelous paints of the
ecology concious society.  They are a real pain in the neck to use. 
First the vapor is real Dangerous to inhale, and a simple mask won't
work.  I even used a canister type and still could taste the nastie
vapor.  It is a two part mix paint, like epoxy glue.  I did come up with
a solution.  Since I have a Non-oil compressor, I run a slight positive
pressure under my hood.  I bleed a little compressed air under my hood
and let my Mask take the remaining vapor out of the air.  This helps a
lot.  Maybe you should wear your scuba tank?  I thought about using one
of our SCBA systems from work but they were too expencive for me to
purchase.  

The room you build must be spotless or it will end up in the paint.  It
was recomended to rinse the room out with water a couple of days before
use.  Then circulate filtered air through the room.  Use the lint free
coveralls and hood, they will save you hours of rework.  Pick a simple
single stage paint.  Follow the instructions to a T on the paint can. 
If your mix is wrong, you guessed it, go back to go and start over.  

For paint guns I'm using a HVLP gravity feed gun.  I found a diviblis
copy that was hundreds less.  Ask your paint supplier for hints on which
gun they recommend.  Clean the gun imaculately or it ends up in the
paint as dirt.  I soak my nozzle continuously in cleaning solution.  

Prep. is every thing.  If you use Bondo a sealer must be used to keep it
from bleeding through.  Mosture is a big killer on home machines.  I
ended up using a good moisture seperator, but it was still letting the
condensation through.  The best I found was a system we use on
Emmissions.

Take a bucket of ice water and run a piece of copper tubing through it. 
Place this in line before the seperator.  This will condense any vapors
that are in your air system.  The seperator then is able to extract 98%
of the water vapor and it doesn't end up on you paint job making
blotches.

When spraying use the overlap method of about 60% new 40 overlap.  I was
taught to spray one direction for the first coat.  Next coat is at 90
degrees and so on, so that there is no visable mismatch, stripes.  

Good luck

Rick


Toby Atwater wrote:
> 
> List.... body work gurus....
> 
>     I have finally decided to undertake the task of spraying my sprite, I do
> have 2 compressors that have seen 20 years of disuse, So I imagine that
> rebuilding these would be a priority. I SCUBA dive, and on SUCBA tanks, you
> must get them inspected every so often, same thing with compressors air
> tanks?
> 
> I also ordered the book "how to paint your car" which seems like it would
> help me, It had good reviews at Amazon.com so we will see.
> 
> Also, my garage is SUPER dusty... I don't know what it is, but you leave
> something out for a few hours, and it has a coat of dust on it, So I guess
> building a booth would be a good idea.
> 
> ALSO... what paint gun to get? I see a big variaty, from $20 to $200+
> 
> Has anybody done a in house spray job? I would like to get thier comments
> and suggestions and what can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong....
> 
> By the way, it looks like my sprite has had a "recent" paint job, but the
> paint comes off really easily. All this paint is going to have to go. How
> can I avoid this on my future paint job? I understand clear coating is
> popular?
> 
> Thanks in advance....
> 
> Thanks...
> 
> Toby

-- 
52 MGTD,Sparky    74 MGB, B-tris    76 XJ12 Coupe, Jacque
60 Bugeye, Puddles      58 MGA Coupe, Ruby
http://www.softcom.net/users/walters
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/4644

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>