I have been painting bits of motorcycles as part of my hobby restoring old big Kawasakis.

Initially it was suggested to me that I should get a smart repair gun. I bought a SATA mini jet 3000 with 1.0 nozzle and a really cheap and nasty copy for putting on primer. I am in the middle of painting all the body parts of an '83 GPZ1100 unitrak and when I put the high build primer (2K Max Meyer) I had a lot of issues with dried over spray making the finish really lumpy. I bought a full size gun (El cheapo £30) with a 1.8 nozzle and used that for the fairing primer and that was a massive improvement.

I want to get a bigger good gun for the clearcoat and had settled on a SATA 1000 B HVLP, but no one on the net seems to stock the HVLP only the RP. I have just ordered a 1.2 nozzle for my SATA minijet 3000 for the base coat.

I want to stick with SATA because only they seem to have the fan control on the side and painting bikes I find I am constantly adjusting the fan especially with wheels, engines etc.

I am not an experienced painter and have no interest in painting professionally, but would like to achieve the best finish possible with my meagre talent.

The cost of the SATA 1000 gun is very much pushing my budget; should I hold out for a HVLP gun or would I get on alright with RP, bearing in mind my mini jet and primer guns are HVLP?

Any help would be much appreciated.

RP is much better than HVLP, in my opinion. In some locales, HVLP is mandated in order to meet environmental laws - but I can't really think of a single painter (including myself) who would prefer an HVLP over RP for clearcoat.