I was on another site and the OP said that you need a compressor that has a minimum rating of 20cfm at 90 psi to spray automotive paint. but the only compressors I'm finding with those requirements are HUGE and like $2k. Is that guy going way overboard or is he preaching the truth?

i want to do a home paint job but for $2k just for the compressor I'd rather just pay a pro to do it.

 

gotta pay to play, i bought a snap-on 85 gallon with my father. thing is AMAZING, never runs out of air, we run mutliple lines off it, he can be painting and i can be using a grinder or whatever in another location obviously and it doenst struggle.

 

Yes yes, much air you will need.

I read on a hot rod forum once that in order to truly have enough air to paint a car you need a dual phase air compressor, which again is going to cost something like 2-3000 big ones.

The concept of having enough air is to be able to supply the gun with a constant, consistent air pressure. If air pressure changes while your painting, it could cause a bunch of other things to happen like transfer efficiency, which can lead to mis matched panels, the list goes on. So imagine a machine if you will that is able to (appropriately) produce 30 psi for one hour without stopping. It'll cost ya.

You could always rent one?

 

Or you can paint panel by panel...which sucks, but it can work. I'm planning on doing this, because my compressor can't handle a whole car, and my wallet can't handle a huge compressor.

 

thats def not true as long as your compressor can do roughly 9.0 cfm at 90psi you will have no problems painting a car. Dual stage are def nice though. Just make sure you go with a belt drive compressor and not a throwaway direct drive (POS) Ive painted cars for over 8 yrs. My compressor has a 60gal tank and puts out around 9.1cfm at 90psi. No problems with it

 

You need a big *** compressor, bottom line. I bought what i thought was a big one and it's still very far from enough.

IIRC it's 21 Gallon and 3hp.

 

i have a 33 gal 5hp

it dose ok i still wish i had a 60.

 

130 hp ingersol rand

 

80 gallon PorterCable