HVLP or Conventional gun???? (& water in the airfeed)

[Grizzly]

Also iv found out that not adding thinners to the clear coats stops the orange peel effect so no need for loads of sanding bck and repolishing
.

You got that the right way round?? if you add lots of thinners to 2k it goes flatter but you run into problems with excessive solvent (Shine drops and you get Micro blisters) if you don\'t put any Thinners in it goes on like stone chip and you have to over apply it to get a nice flat finish. That said the better clear does not need allot of Thinners as the proper quality Reducer is allot stronger than your usall Thinners.

[Grizzly]

Hi Grizzly - thank you for the info!!  I have no idea of the make of gun - it\'s a hand me down from my dad, who got it from his mate...

I\'m happy to buy a new gun if it will help, but this is for amateur-home-one-car-every-couple-of-years-maybe use, so £500 is way in excess of what I would like to pay.  Obviously money can equal results and I\'d love to be in a position to really go to town, but given this is going to be on a budget, what tools would you recommend to get the best finish in the paint possible.  Currently I have a siphon fed gun (so not HVLP), 50L compressor that is electric and noisy as hell, a water trap at the end of the hose and am looking to get an IR lamp to mount in the garage.  

I am considering getting an HVLP gun, but given I don\'t know what I don\'t know about this, what other advice would one give about equipment or technique...

Thanks guys, this is becoming really useful and learning new stuff!!

 don\'t!!!  I wanna learn about this!!!!

the thing i have found when working at home is to get a Good Balance of Comp and Gun, TBH HVLP don\'t mean allot when your painting a car in you garage at home, you would be better buying a second hand Devilbiss GTI of Ebay than spending the same money on a new halfords gun for example, a good gun thats well looked after will last a long time (i\'ve got a GTI that have used every day for the last 10 years with out a problem) Old gti\'s are the best  there called pre ITW guns (if its got ITW stamped on it its not as good) this is the sort of thing http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Devilbiss-Gti-Gravity-Spray-Gun_W0QQitemZ230210330834QQihZ013QQcategoryZ30923QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem if i was on a Buget it would defo be the way i\'d go.

The other thing is use need to really be using a Drop feeder (gravity feed gun) the Suction feed guns need more air pressure to keep a nice constant supply of paint where as the Gravity gun doesn\'t have to work quite so hard as its not having to draw the paint up, also a Suction feed gun requires the paint to be on the thinner side so you may see more of a Gloss drop. Plus there Allot more heavy if you are doing some thing on the big side, the Drop feeder is more ballanced and doesn\'t make your arm ache quite so badly.

BTW IR lamp is Good!!!! just not too close

[Grizzly]

Ooops............

[interloper393]

well i use u pol clear so sometimes add just a little lol.. but 50/50 with hardner.

[Grizzly]

well i use u pol clear so sometimes add just a little lol.. but 50/50 with hardner.

I admit i don\'t know allot about Upol clear but most of the clears i\'ve used are 2.1 and the Spies Hecker i use at the moment is mixed 3.1 so you are proberly right about adding no thinner, 1.1 is quite allot of Hardner.

[Grizzly]

well i use u pol clear so sometimes add just a little lol.. but 50/50 with hardner.

Thinking about it, are you using MS clear? its just the two are Applied in different ways.

The HS i use can\'t be Built up like you here people say "i put 6 coats of Clear on my car" it don\'t work like that, With MS as long as you give it enough flash between coats its ok to apply 5 or 6, Because the HS builds ALLOT more in one coat (or should i say it doesn\'t contain as much Solvent so the Film thickness does not really change Wet-Dry) it would never Cure and you would get the Over application Problems (Popping,Gloss drop,Skinning/trapped solvent,Lifting) if i was in a Hurry or i was painting something at home i would give it a Gripper and a Ripper (Half triggered  Light coat not trying to cover the job but making sure it was all even, 30 seconds to a min to flash then hit with one full coat and hit bake. Done. You could do this with MS but because there is no Film thickness there will also be no Depth.

[interloper393]

soz thats 2-1 for the upol.. lol sorry guys me heads up ma arse at the mo.. 2-1 with no or almost no thinners lol.
Then u cn apply a coat, 15-20mins later another and so on..