Im going to be painting parts of my car one at a time. Fenders doors and hood. Its going to be a pearl white.
im gonna be buying my stuff at harbor freight . I've never done this before but im gonna practice on a fender first.
My questions are
1. What kind of gun do I need?
2. Do I need separate guns for primer, base, pearl, clear? Or can I use one gun for any of those? I read I at least need a separate gun for primer.
3. What size compressor do I need? Remember these are small parts. Fender doors bumpers hood. Il be talking each off the car and painted one at a time

Pearl white might not be a great idea when painting panels separately. Best to stick with solid colors with that plan.

You should have a separate primer gun and base/clear gun. Of course you can get away with the same gun for the entire project, but it is always good to keep the primer gun separate. I'd go with a gravity fed HVLP gun for primer and a gravity fed RP gun for base and clear. I'm not too familiar with harbor freight products so I can't really help you pick from their guns; maybe others here can...

Compressor should be able to deliver approx 125% of the CFM requirement for the gun you are using. So if using a gun that takes 11 CFM then a compressor that can deliver 14 CFM would be about the minimum.

chris wrote:Pearl white might not be a great idea when painting panels separately. Best to stick with solid colors with that plan.

You should have a separate primer gun and base/clear gun. Of course you can get away with the same gun for the entire project, but it is always good to keep the primer gun separate. I'd go with a gravity fed HVLP gun for primer and a gravity fed RP gun for base and clear. I'm not too familiar with harbor freight products so I can't really help you pick from their guns; maybe others here can...

Compressor should be able to deliver approx 125% of the CFM requirement for the gun you are using. So if using a gun that takes 11 CFM then a compressor that can deliver 14 CFM would be about the minimum.

I forgot I made this thread and made another one. What is the reason for pearl white not being a good idea for doing parts separate? My car is pearl white so I don't really have a choice.
Also the hvlp gun is 6 cfm at 40 psi and the most I can find in my budget is the same cfm compressor. Will that work?
what is rp gun?

Pearl is generally sprayed in a mid-coat and it's just one more step to add to potential mismatch between parts if painting separately. I'm not saying it can't be done in pieces, I'm just saying I wouldn't try it.

6 CFM, if you believe it, should work with a 6 CFM compressor for short spraying sessions. Running the gun a lot will cause the compressor to run constantly which is not good.

RP means "reduced pressure", not quite the air hog that HVLP guns are but still very efficient and easier to use than HVLP.

chris wrote:Pearl is generally sprayed in a mid-coat and it's just one more step to add to potential mismatch between parts if painting separately. I'm not saying it can't be done in pieces, I'm just saying I wouldn't try it.

6 CFM, if you believe it, should work with a 6 CFM compressor for short spraying sessions. Running the gun a lot will cause the compressor to run constantly which is not good.

RP means "reduced pressure", not quite the air hog that HVLP guns are but still very efficient and easier to use than HVLP.

What im planning is to paint the front bumper hood fenders and doors. If I do them exactly the same they should match shouldn't they?

So if I get 6 cfm gun and compressor I should be ok if im doing short sessions correct? What problems would running the compressor to much cause?

chris wrote:Pearl is generally sprayed in a mid-coat and it's just one more step to add to potential mismatch between parts if painting separately. I'm not saying it can't be done in pieces, I'm just saying I wouldn't try it.

6 CFM, if you believe it, should work with a 6 CFM compressor for short spraying sessions. Running the gun a lot will cause the compressor to run constantly which is not good.

RP means "reduced pressure", not quite the air hog that HVLP guns are but still very efficient and easier to use than HVLP.

Would low pressure gun be the same as rp?

Guys can you help me out. Im planning on tackling this job. I need a little bit of guidance and im not asking impossible question to answer or at least guide me to a better forum.

And Chris thanks for taking time out to answer. Im just saying other people can chime in.

I plan to paint my car in "stages". I'll try to limit it to 2. Reason being is the booth I built inside the workshop is not overly too wide. A little over 9.5 feet of usable inside space. And I'm thinking I'll have to use wheel dollies to roll the car from one side to the other. I think your plan can be done and still match fine although I never tackled painting a whole car like this with a tri-coat (base/mid/clearcoat). Midcoat being the transparent pearl coat. But I have sprayed a pearl white from lexus before. I would definitely keep track of everything and how you sprayed the parts. PSI at the regulator at the gun, exactly how the fluid is dialed in and fan pattern. You can have a spray sheet taped to the wall and get your settings dialed in like how you want them. And take note of all the settings from the first go around, then do your best to replicate it the same way on the next parts. Something I didn't know until after I bought an Iwata gun is that on the back of the dials, it is marked out in numbers so someone could keep track at where they had their setting at.

myistar wrote:I plan to paint my car in "stages". I'll try to limit it to 2. Reason being is the booth I built inside the workshop is not overly too wide. A little over 9.5 feet of usable inside space. And I'm thinking I'll have to use wheel dollies to roll the car from one side to the other. I think your plan can be done and still match fine although I never tackled painting a whole car like this with a tri-coat (base/mid/clearcoat). Midcoat being the transparent pearl coat. But I have sprayed a pearl white from lexus before. I would definitely keep track of everything and how you sprayed the parts. PSI at the regulator at the gun, exactly how the fluid is dialed in and fan pattern. You can have a spray sheet taped to the wall and get your settings dialed in like how you want them. And take note of all the settings from the first go around, then do your best to replicate it the same way on the next parts. Something I didn't know until after I bought an Iwata gun is that on the back of the dials, it is marked out in numbers so someone could keep track at where they had their setting at.

Yea I figured if I match everything I do to all parts I should be ok. The problem is I won't be doing this in a day or two, it will be done with matter of weeks with all the parts im doing and spare time I have. Will outside temperature make a difference? My spray booth is gonna be outside.

I would assume too big of a difference in temperature might make a difference. According to some stuff I read, people were commenting that temperatures can affect how metallics lay down. But I don't think it would be a problem as long as temps are too drastically different in extreme hot then cold. Just use the proper type of reducer that's needed.