Ok, got a question about spraypaint

[71rat]

I'm painting my hood again, and im having some problems getting it to look smooth.

So heres my question, in the pics, you can kinda see how it looks like there are stripes in it. I'm spraying a light coat so that its barely covering the primer, then doing one or two coats to cover the primer completely. Im getting ready to wet sand it now, and then i gotta do the final coat. Any suggestions?

 

[Sam_Fear]

Get out of the sun! Do it at the coolest temp you can without a lot of dampness. Keep a wet edge. My guess is the paint is starting to dry on one pass as you start the next pass. So your overspray is not blending in with wet paint, but ends up setting on top of it. Make sure your hood isn't warmed up either.

If you want to do better, go to Harbor Freight and by a cheap 20$ HVLP and then get a gallon of industrial flat black paint (60$ at SW). My guess is that rattle can black is going to turn grey in a year.

What kind of paint are you using? I don't think the cheap stuff covers very well compared to Duplicolor or Rustoleum. I hear the Rustoleum stuff doesn't stick well because it uses fish-oils or some such - at least its not good if you plan to eventually do serious paint. <-could be a wives tale though.

 

[71rat]

Alright i'll try that tomorrow. I'll just wet sand it and do it in the garage in the morning.

The whole truck is painted with rustoleum semi-gloss enamel paint. its been painted for about 6 months or so, i wash it with whatever car soap i can find that doesent leave water spots and had wax in it, every weekend or so.

 

[71rat]

as for paint guns, i found one at harbor frieght for 27.99, it has the tank under the actual gun. I've always been told to get a gun with the tank above the gun.

It says Sprays light, medium, and heavy stains; varnishes, oil-based paint and latex, but will it spray car paint (enamel i think?)?

 

[35Mastr]

They have the HVLP guns also. Like 10.00 most of the time. They work great too. I have them also.

You are never going to get rid of the tiger stripes using the rattle cans. The paint coming out of them is too dry. You will never get any overlap you need with them.

That is why you are seeing the lines. Paint it with a gun.

 

[71rat]

So as far as actual painting goes, should i be fine doing nothing more than wet sanding the truck and getting all the imperfections out of it, then shooting it with a gun ontop of the enamel spraypaint thats already on it, then wet sanding that coat, then shooting a final coat and leaving it?

If not, how do i get the last coat to look Semi-gloss or satin after i painted it?

 

[Sam_Fear]

Keep in mind if you use an actual air compressor gun you'll have more overspray drift than with rattle can.

You might wanna start another thread to get an answer on that last questions. The real painters probably won't check a thread about spraypaint.

My very un-pro opinion is that you'll be no worse off than just rattlebombing it. You may want to let the paint on there cure a couple days before putting anything else on it.

Come to think of it, if you rattlecanned the whole truck already, you may be getting yourself into a spiral by switching up now: The paint might not match up. You may want a clear coat. $$ For gun paint and reducer. Might need to remove old paint. You can get in real deep real fast. Ask me how I know.

The hood is just a PITA anyhow since it's such a large area. You might do good enough by leaning it up against a wall and painting that way with rattle cans.

I would hate to have led you into something more than you wanted - thus my wishy washyness.

 

[donsrods]

Some people knock HF spray guns, but I love em. especially the ones with the tank on top. Easy to clean, put down a great pattern, and CHEAP. I buy both the full size and detail guns and end up painting most stuff with the detail guns. They run sales all the time, I just bought a new gun the other day that is normally like $ 24 for $ 9.95.

Sometimes when I am done shooting late at night and too tired to mess around cleaning the equipment, I just toss the gun away. Couldn't do that with an expensive one.

Don

 

[71rat]

well i sprayed the hood standin on end, and it came out better. I decided it was good and went on to painting my Scallops on the hood. I'll post pics tomorow or whenever the white dries enough to tape off and re paint the black (damn gaps in my masking....).

 

[71rat]

Heres the hood. I gotta fix all the white overspray then put it back on the truck. I know its not great but i laid out the lines with electrical tape. haha.

 

[58sled]

that hood came out good i like the scallops

 

[Shea Laking]

That hood came out looking pretty good...nice choice of scallop design, not too overkill, simple and effective. Outlining them with some sort of fairly bright colour striping would really make 'em "POP" off the black.

A tip about rattlebombs. Most folks run 'em down, there are good reasons for that. HOWEVER, I painted my old daily driver (three cars ago) completely with Tremclad gloss white spraybombs-one panel at a time, as I could afford a can of paint. It actually came out REALLY nice, folks couldn't believe it was spraycans. The trick I'd like to offer you, is this-Spray it as WET as possible. Do about 4-5 coats, progressively thicker as you go. Leave about 15-20 minutes flash time between the first 2-3 coats. Then, coat 4 and 5, lay that stuff on so THICK that it's about to run. Do coat 4, then IMMEDIATELY do coat 5, same technique.

Why thick paint? This way, it flows out really nice and you end up with a quite smooth finish, almost as good as conventional "gun applied" paint.

As for durability, I drove the car for two years after I did the paintjob and the paint did get a bit dull, but a bit of cutting compound and little effort brought it right back as shiny as day one.

Results may not be as good with darker colours. I wouldn't try it with metallics, too much chance of splotchy, uneven "sparkles."

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Shea