CyborgGT

I'm needing to paint my carbon hood. Long story short: I screwed up trying to get by with rattle cans; the cans of Desert Silver I ordered just spit all over the panel... it's worth stressing that I REALLY don't care about this thing looking perfect, it just needs to look good enough at a glance. Local shops all want about $600 for the job, which I think is a bit ridiculous after Maaco (long since shut down locally) did a great job painting my Type R wing six years ago for $120. I've got access to a friend's air compressor, so I'd like to know if I can tackle this with decent result while not spending more than a few hundred bucks on tools and materials. Paint and clear I can pick up for about $100 online.

The specs on the compressor I've got access to:

- 2 hp
- 26 gal
- 4 scfm @ 90 psi
- 5 scfm @ 40 psi

I've been using this compressor with a DA sander to remove the old flaking clear, and it feels like it would have enough air supply to keep up with painting the panel.


I look at paint gun specs and they call for cfm, not scfm, so that's all a bit confusing to me. The main one I'm looking at is the DeVilbiss StartingLine (HVLP) kit, based on a reviewer saying it did well with a similar compressor to mine:

https://www.eastwood.com/devilbiss-a...up-system.html


The guy in the video below recommends against using HVLP guns for budget home jobs, saying you can get better results with... some other type of gun, I don't know. He specifically recommends a DeVilbiss FLG-5 that isn't available in the US. Honestly, I'm looking into this stuff and my head starts swimming when I see all these technical specs and jargon that I'm not familiar with.



I also know I need to keep water out of the gun, but don't know if I need one of the expensive dryers or can get away with picking up a few of these throw-away filters for a job so small. After this hood, I'm not likely to paint anything else for a very long time:

https://www.eastwood.com/disposable-...ir-filter.html


Thoughts? Am I missing anything, as far as proper operation of the gun is concerned? Once it stops raining and warms back up (would you believe we just got snow last night?!), I'll be laying down a bit of filler for some pockmarks in the carbon weave, and then using rattle cans for the primer since that'll be sanded anyway, so the gun only has to be good for laying down the base coat and clear.

Thanks for any help.