I have a 25 gallon 5.5hp Craftsman compressor that flows 8.4 CFM @40psi. What gun would be the best option for a complete repaint?

 

go iwata w400 1.4 tip.

 

Nice gun, but it requires more CFM than my compressor can put out. I am looking for something compatible with what I have.

 

i could sell you a SATA NR95 for $150 shipped. it has the SATA RPS cup adapter that you could sell if you only want to use a regular cup. I bought it a few years ago as a backup basecoat gun, but now i can't use it at all. I had to buy a brand new SATA 3000 with the WSB tip to spray waterborne basecoat. when i bought it, it came with a brand new SATA 1.3 tip that i unwrapped out of the plastic. since then, i've used the gun no more than about 5 times. it's the cleanest NR95 you'll find. i've used the gun with my 25 gal. Craftsman compressor at home and it worked fine.

 

I wouldn't have thought that would work since the manual says it needs 13 cfm at 43psi. Did you have to stop and wait for the compressor to fill in the middle of a job?

 

sometimes, yeah but it's really not a big deal. small jobs i was always able to do with no problem, and the one overall i did with it went fine as well. basecoat can go on as slowly as you want to apply it and with an overall (slow) hardener for the clear, you'll still have a wet edge by the time you get back around to it. nothing with base/clear is really that time sensitive that you can't stop for a minute or two to let the compressor fill up.

if you want an uninterrupted air supply, you'll have to step it up to a seriously huge compressor. we have a 10hp 80 gal. 3 phase air compressor just to feed the paint booth. now, granted we have to use LOTS more air because waterborne paint has to be sprayed at a higher pressure, and we have a massive system of air dryers and filters that the air has to go through because waterborne requires perfect dry air. those filters make the pressure drop a whole lot.

that kind of air supply is 100% overkill for home use, just spraying one project. if you want a perfect amount of air all the time, without fail you'll have to get a larger compressor, as no gun will be able to spray efficiently enough to let the compressor keep up with it. with yours though you shouldn't have a big problem. even a normal DA sander uses around 12 cfm of air, and i can run my DA at home with no problem.

 

I have 2 total repaints that need done on 97 and 98 Accord sedans. They both have peeling clear coat. The 98 has light hail damage, I plan on sanding the clear off and skimming with Rage Xtreme, then shooting primer on the panels that have putty. My current plan is to use acrylic urethane single stage and possibly clear. Any suggestions on cheap paint that would be best for my setup and lack of experience.

 

Im going bet you are not going to be able to do a overall using that compressor. At best your going to have to shoot one or two panels at a time. If your doing a overall your going to be spraying non stop for a few min while spraying clear. Something that you really cannot just stop mid way, or you will be doing alot of sanding/buffing...but most likely repainting.

I use Iwata LPH400's as my clear and base guns. I just bought another one, and at $540 your best bet is to get a better compressor and a cheaper gun than to go and get a $300-600 gun and still have it look like crap from a compressor that is going to pump out a ton of water, and not keep up.

 

So what size of compressor would you recommended? I have a cheap water separator, what else is necessary to keep the air dry enough?