Stanced_b20

thewrai6th

No, it is extremely difficult to spray on a good paint job. I painted my sons car a few weeks ago to test my skills (rattle can blue to Milano red), and it wasn't until I had painted the entire chassis twice (had to sand it ALL down again), all the trim, the hood and trunk that I figured out what I was doing. The bumpers look good though, they are the last thing I painted .
You can't do it right without an immaculately clean booth, build or borrow one. Make sure there are no sources of flame (water heater pilot light, etc.) My booth cost me $100 in 2x4s and $100 for a thick clear plastic roll)
You can't do it with a $20 paint gun
You can't do it with a <40gal / <4HP air compressor
You can't do it without a wall mounted in-line dryer with a capacity of at least a cup of desiccant to soak the water. An inline filter from Home Depot will do nothing at all.
Most importantly, you can't do this without the proper safety equipment. Clear coat WILL KILL YOU on the spot if you breathe it, and there is no remedy the ER can give you. Full face mask and all skin covered is a requirement.

Here are some of the things I learned:
Lighting is very important. If you can't see what your coat looks like, you have no idea if it's "wet" or "dry". Your lights have to be clean and dust free. 3 ceiling and 4 side lights would do well.
"Wet coat" means as thick as you can lay it down without running
If you didn't final sand with >300 grit, you're going to see the sanding marks
Wipe down the dry overspray with a tack towel between coats, or you will have a crunchy (think wrinkle job on a valve cover) finish
Be careful with anything and everything that could touch the wet paint, the hose and your coveralls specifically
Paint the roof first, half at a time. Don't paint one side then go back to the other half of the roof
If you use anything thin like a garbage bag to cover things, you will regret it. The 2nd time you come back over the garbage bag area, its going to shoot paint chips all over the pace and into your fresh paint.
Home depot painters tape is NOT the correct type of tape, not only will it bleed, but it will leave sticky residue that has to be cleaned off somehow
Do not use a solvent like acetone as a pre-paint prep, you can easily wipe your last coat of paint off
Don't run out of paint in the middle of a session. 1 gal of paint is enough to paint the entire car and door jambs with 2 coats. If you screw up once, you will run out of paint.
Make sure to have enough airflow in the booth, not necessarily for your sake, but to move the over spray floating around in the air out of the booth. They always told me to pull air out, not push it in.
Activator Slow/Med/Fast means don't spray if the ambient temp is not within the spec.
Feel with your hands for any imperfections. Anything your hands can feel will show up when you clear/polish.

I'm sure there are a lot more things I screwed up on, so you can get an idea of how difficult it actually is. There is no question about it, it's a form of artwork.