Never painted a car in my life, mostly just used rattle cans for things i needed painting. I just got an 83 MC and decided that I would like to paint it if possible. My question is that I currently have a 33 gal 2hp oiless craftsman compressor, the vertical one. Will this be enough to do the job of painting my car?
Will my air compressor do the trick?
- Thread starter tngbody
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looks at the specs on your compressor and then see what your spray gun requires. And remember the 2 hp motor isn't really 2 hp....if you do use that compresor make sure it is on a circuit that won't trip the breaker.
I painted my car using a 5hp, 60 gallon upright compressor and it pretty much ran continuously.
Do yourself a favor and read up on technique. It's not that difficult. Prep is a critical factor.
Your 33 gal, 2hp should probably be sufficient enough. Get a decent gun and a good filtration system.
You may have to practice more patience with your setup. You want to maintain a sufficient amount of air.
Do yourself a favor and read up on technique. It's not that difficult. Prep is a critical factor.
Your 33 gal, 2hp should probably be sufficient enough. Get a decent gun and a good filtration system.
You may have to practice more patience with your setup. You want to maintain a sufficient amount of air.
Don't want to discourage you from trying to paint but you need to do a lot of investigating if not take a class in such. You also need some kind of a paint booth to do it in. I know you want your paint job to look professional but it will be hard to do w/o experience. I've painted several cars only to learn I'm not a painter. I have also taken a couple of cars to Macco for their specials and if you prep the car
(paint is only as good as the prep) you can get a GOOD paint job. With the price of paints and supplies now days your going to have a lot of money invested doing it yourself and you don't want to have to re-do. I did some painting on the Sonoma that looked good and wasn't that visible, but when it came to having the hood painted I paid the man his money. Then again we have to start somewhere.
(paint is only as good as the prep) you can get a GOOD paint job. With the price of paints and supplies now days your going to have a lot of money invested doing it yourself and you don't want to have to re-do. I did some painting on the Sonoma that looked good and wasn't that visible, but when it came to having the hood painted I paid the man his money. Then again we have to start somewhere.
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Lots of people have painted without a booth. I think that compressor will be a little small to do it comfortably without having to wait for it to catch up. I would NOT jump right in to painting your car on the first try. Grab a junk hood or fender and practice on that first. And before you even practice on the junk fender, set the gun up by spraying onto a piece of cardboard. If you have any mechanical skill, it really isn't too bad to learn. You may not be a professional body man by the time you're done, but for most of us the results will be reasonable.
Again, good advice! I couldn't agree more.
Painting a vehicle is quite an undertaking. Not for the faint of heart. I ended up making my own booth using clear Visqueen over the ceiling and covering the walls. I used a box fan in one window for exhaust and covered the opposite window with A/C filter elements.
Of course, I had to remove both of my other cars and a bunch of other garage fixtures. Fortunately, I had my wife help hold the plastic while I stapled it up. It was a time consuming job, I bullshit you not. It was alot easier to pull down everything after I got done.
Perhaps if you can do the prep work, or if you have a friend or two that can help with the bodywork and prep, maybe consider having Maaco shoot the car.
Why I chose to do it myself this time, because years back I had the car done at Maaco. It looked great for several years, but I cut corners as far as the prep was concerned and the paint started to peel. That's when I decided to take a crack at it.
Doing it yourself isn't going to save you much money. By the time you buy paint, primer and supplies, etc.etc. you have a sizable investment in this endeavor.
Lighting is very important. You can never have enough lighting....that's where i fell short.
Good paint, primer, clear, hardner, thinner, etc will cost you upwards of $600 or more. Really depends on color. My buddy painted a motorcycle tank and fenders only, material costs were $600 for House of Kolors paint! It totaled less than a quart of paint!
....and that was just for a motorcycle tank...
Yeah, the cost for supplies is eye opening to say the least. It also depends on the grade of paint, hardener, etc. I recall when Jim (Liquidh8) had his wagon painted, I think he used a new trick Corvette color...basecoat/ clearcoat. It was several hundred bucks a quart.... yowza! That was just paint alone.
I did my car in single stage urethane...nothing fancy...and it was around $600-700. for paint, hardener, and thinner. Not including tape, masking paper, sandpaper, a new spraygun, etc, etc, It wasn't a show quality paint job, but presentable enough.
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