I just purchased the Astro Pneumatic Evo4014 LVLP gun. I understand everything that the manual is talking about expect where it refers to the Air Adj. Valve (at the bottom of the gun right beside the air inlet). It says in the instructions:
Pull the trigger and adjust the dynamic inlet pressure: Evo-T 15-23 psi. There are several says to do it (Note: The air adjusting valve set must be fully open for maximum efficiency).
i) Adjust the pressure using a micrometer directed connected to the air nipple
ii) Without a micrometer, roughlyset the required pressure from the source and compensate the pressure drop about 9psi higher per 10 meter.
I am thoroughly confused about this. I painted my base coat today just using an old fashioned regulator. Please advise on how I should be setting up the gun for clear.
So far nice job, HERES A TIP: splash a shot of reducer in the clear/paint when you mix it. It will really help lay paint/clear really flat with alot less orange peel.
seriously try it lol, My paint guy always told me to but never wanted to cause that not what it said on the instructions. But hey it really works.
Reducer will indeed make it lay down smoother as it thins your clear/base. But be more careful because now that its thinner, it will have more of a tendency to run.
Alright so a couple weeks delayed but here are some more painting pics and the results after (before wetsanding and polish, still have to do that; been delaying because so much work haha)
After clearing the car
My setup for all the plastic pieces
After base
after clear
The result! Finally!
Thoughts of black roof?
Okay now onto the flaws:
This was the fender I had hanging up, obviously a rookie mistake on the curve, lots of sanding to do here
Rubbed against with my paint suit, another rookie mistake
Not very smooth here
Tried to get a picture of the orange peel, not nearly as bad as the roof (thanks to the better gun), but still not perfect
More runs
Got so hot when I was painting that my respirator dripped some water, right onto the hood, doh!
Little fly, hardly noticeable, this is the cost of painting outdoors
Really didn’t see the need to remove any of those if the color is not being changed; my old paint wasn’t in bad condition at all, where there wasn’t rust that is. And yes, the spoiler as well as emblems will be making an appearance soon.
Today I started wetsanding the bad fender: Here are the results:
Obviously I sanded through on the edge, doh.
On the last picture you can see some very fine white dots where the runs used to be, is this from oversanding or from the painting process/runs itself. I want to avoid this on the rest of the car if possible.
But overall the wetsand / polish turned out well I’d say, it’s just as shiny as the rest (if not more) and very smooth
yea, same color… but it would still look a bit better along those edges.
my car was painted like that too, they masked the shit out of glass & window trim but painted over everything else.
didn’t remove door trim or the piece of trim/rubber where the outside of the door meets the window (either masked it like you did or painted over it). painted over door locks.
and every place they did that you can tell.
things move a bit on a car, if you didn’t remove the trim the paint could crack/chip along where the trim meets the body panel, same could happen with the door handles, locks and antenna.
I mean my paint job was probably cheap/shit to begin with but the lack of care taken with the details made it completely worthless with all the paint flaking off everywhere they masked instead of just removing the pieces.
paint looks great everywhere else but all anyone sees is the fucked-up edges.
it was done before i bought the car, thought about re-painting it myself.
Depending on what grit you are using to wet sand 1500 or 2000. Just use tape on the edges if you are super worried about burning through then after do what was taped. remember you don’t have to get ALL of the orange peel out unless you are going for a completely flat surface in which case you should be wet sanding with 2000 grit only. (mostly only used in classic hot rods and show cars)
On the few runs you can attempt take a razor blade and slowly take down the surface and try and wet sand it out. I have done it in the past definitely easier when the paint isn’t all the way dry.
looks decent though with a good polish it should shine good
Quite possibly that is the metallic in the paint due to your overlap, distance and or speed could have been off causing what what is known as tiger stripes. just think of it as everything is off centered
but its very hard to tell from the picture what they actually are. Who knows it could just have been dust and such in the air when you sprayed the car.
Yes, you need more prep work. Yes, the flaking is a problem and you would have to take it down to the primer in those areas. The last step before you paint is to wet sand the entire area so that it feels very smooth.
