Hey, I'm new to painting with compressors and spray guns. I used to Plasti-Dip cars and didn't really need any of that stuff until now. I decided to finally graduate in the painting world and try my hand at AutoFlexing one of my cars so I bought a 60 Gallon Husky Air Compressor from here: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-60-gal ... lsrc=aw.ds

And the spray gun I got was here: https://www.dipyourcar.com/collections/ ... -combo-kit

Now the only problem I have is I'm having fish eye on my car. How I am getting this I have no clue, I tried googling and doing research some say it's cause the cars surface wasn't clean enough but the night before I thoroughly cleaned it and let it dry over night. So it can't be that, some were saying maybe it's the paint, well I bought different spray wrap pro base gallons and that didn't work either. Some are saying it's possibly the spray gun, well my gun was brand new and the second I used it it started doing that so now I'm left out of options but I do have some concern areas and this is where I need your guys help.

What exactly connects from the air compressor to the gun? Meaning from the start of where the air compressor hole is to the end of the gun what exactly do I need?

Here are images of my current setup, and the fish eyes on my car:















Btw, I'm only going to be using this air compressor to paint cars so a setup just for that would be perfect. Thanks. Hope you guys can help!

First off your water trap/filter is way too close to the compressor. Generally you will need about 20' of copper line to cool the air and allow the moisture to condense before your water trap.

Next you should have particle filter/regulator set up on the wall of your paint booth to control and filter the air to the gun. Generally I have my compressor regulator set to 150 psi and my wall regulator set to 100 psi. This will insure steady air supply to the gun. You then adjust the pressure at the gun with the trigger pulled full open.

Did you get the upgraded gun with the 1.3 tip or the standard with the 1.8 tip? 1.8 would be used for 2k build primers and polyester primers.

Your compressor is borderline too small for that spray gun. The specs say 11. SCFM but manufacturers are known for fudging the numbers to the high side. The spray gun requires up to 12.5 SCFM to operate correctly so you will be working that compressor to death trying to keep up. This is important because the more and longer the compressor runs the more heat, moisture and oil it will put into the air supply.

This brings us to the fish eye problem. Generally it is from contaminants either on the metal or in the air supply. Did you clean your new gun thoroughly before painted with it?

To check if the problem is in the air supply put a blow gun on the end of your painting hose and blow some air through a clean white rag. The rag should remain clean and dry even when the compressor is running.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:First off your water trap/filter is way too close to the compressor. Generally you will need about 20' of copper line to cool the air and allow the moisture to condense before your water trap.

Next you should have particle filter/regulator set up on the wall of your paint booth to control and filter the air to the gun. Generally I have my compressor regulator set to 150 psi and my wall regulator set to 100 psi. This will insure steady air supply to the gun. You then adjust the pressure at the gun with the trigger pulled full open.

Did you get the upgraded gun with the 1.3 tip or the standard with the 1.8 tip? 1.8 would be used for 2k build primers and polyester primers.

Your compressor is borderline too small for that spray gun. The specs say 11. SCFM but manufacturers are known for fudging the numbers to the high side. The spray gun requires up to 12.5 SCFM to operate correctly so you will be working that compressor to death trying to keep up. This is important because the more and longer the compressor runs the more heat, moisture and oil it will put into the air supply.

This brings us to the fish eye problem. Generally it is from contaminants either on the metal or in the air supply. Did you clean your new gun thoroughly before painted with it?

To check if the problem is in the air supply put a blow gun on the end of your painting hose and blow some air through a clean white rag. The rag should remain clean and dry even when the compressor is running.

I called the company that makes the AutoFlex they said the piping doesn't have to be that long and the specs for the spray gun and the compressor they said is fine. They told me to get that gun with a minimum 60 gallon air compressor. So I don't think that's the major issue. For the fish eye I cleaned the surface of the car thoroughly, I usually do the best prep work and make sure there isn't a single clean spot on the car, as far as cleaning the gun no I never did just because it's a brand new gun. I'm using a 1.8 tip for the base coats at 20 PSI (this is what the company that sells the AutoFlex told me to do) then a 1.3 tip for the Gloss at 30 PSI. I checked what you told me as far as blowing and nothing came up the in the tube where the air flows. :/

Okay, good luck with that!

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:Okay, good luck with that!

Haha scratch that I'm actually being told to make the flow from the compressor to the filter a lot longer so props to you on that sir thank you. I will be setting that up tomorrow hopefully it fixes my issue.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:Okay, good luck with that!

Fixed the fish eye issue with what you said running a longer line. Fixed that issue but now another issue came about. I seem to be having gun spraying issue. The material seems to come out only for a few seconds then stops. I'm running it at 20 PSI like the AutoFlex manufacturer said. Now I don't know if it's the gun or something wrong with the paint which I highly doubt as I tried different gallons and got the same problem.

Congrats on finding a new Hobby of painting cars likely to save a few bucks painting your own car and even make a buck or two down the road that's how most of us get into it. First off There is no such thing as a Good cheap paint job and there is nothing cheap about painting cars plane or Boats. you are gonna get out of it what you put into it. That's not a Bad starter compressor by the way and that gun is not to shabby either.
Jim Gave you good advise! But a word of advise Don't believe every thing you are told by a sales person or what you read on the internet about this hobby or the tools & or the Materials.

Just like who ever told you to spray Base with a 1.8 fluid tip WOW! that's Big for base coat! (and Wrong In My opinion!)
I am gonna say you didn't have a Fish eye problem BUT an Air entrapment problem probably from using such a Big Fluid tip but more on that Later.

I am not familiar with the Paint you mentioned BUT MOST of the Paint Manufactures out there are not going to give a recommendation for a fluid tip size and if they do expect that to be only a recommendation for the the most common guns sold in the industry as it would be impossible to test and recommend on all, and if they do give a recommendation its still just a recommendation & a starting point and not set in stone. There are way to many variables involved As already recommended a rule of thumb would be a 1.8 for Hi build Primer & a 1.8-2.2 for Polly Primers, 1.2, 1.3-1.4 for Base coats and Clears coats some Epoxy's and Sealer's.

Your Air set up is way off in those pics, Every ones set up is different and some are good & some are bad a good set up will have 3/4-1 inch pipe coming out of the compressor and stay the same size through out whole plumbing system with No restrictions (small fittings) with some way to cool the air before entering a water trap. whether you use extra lengths of pipe to do it or use a cooler of some sort you have to cool the hot air so the compressed water will condensate and allow itself to be trapped. After a water trap you still need to eliminate oil and filter the air which means more filters in the system. (and in my system the use of an air drier as well.)
Again some guys will swear you don't need all that as they get away with much less which is great for them you need to pick and chose who you listen too, some of us have very elaborate systems for eliminating all contaminants from our air source others just a Motor guard air filter Paint is way to expensive to chance on contamination in my opinion when prevention is cheaper and easier especially when you start spraying base coats that cost $400-$1200 a gallon

Another tid bit of good advice is use New air hoses dedicated for just painting not the same air hoses you just plug into the compressor to fill your cars tires or to do sanding with, Use a dedicated air hose that only gets used for painting.

Also use Hi flow fittings on your gun and air hoses so you don't get pressure drop or flow restrictions Paint guns work best with Hi AIR FLOW. Your 3/8 air hose quick disconnect at the compressor is likely just a regular old 3/8 air hose quick disconnect as are the rest of your air hose fittings I bet.

http://www.devilbiss.com/portals/2/repo ... ts_air.pdf
Here is web page showing a comparison of regular and Hi flow fittings side by side
http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/sho ... hp?t=30396
http://www.tptools.com/Hi-Flow-Coupler-Kit,172.html

Your Paint Problem is Not Fish eye, Fish eyes are a contamination issue Your looks more like Air entrapment problem to me check this page out.
http://www.martinsenour-autopaint.com/d ... gGuide.pdf
Too large of a Fluid tip would be one cause of air entrapment I bet

This is My final air filter system at my Paint booth.
http://www.devilbiss.com/products/air-c ... ts/dad-500
This is Way after a very elaborate system of Air cooling and multiple Water traps and filtering which does 99% The DAD500 is final stage and my insurance to perfect clean dry air.

There are many more things to know about contamination and cleaning.
Here is another:
W&G removers
One is Water born the other a solvent both remove different contaminants.
Sweat and Oils from your skin cannot be fully removed with a Solvent type W/G remover a Water born type must be used. Do both need to be used together? that's up to the user in my opinion and I will say its imperative that the substrate being painted needs to be clean and free of all oil and contamination I don't use both at the same time or one after the other but I do have both on my shelves and I will leave it at that.

Again congratulations on choosing a great Hobby and the great new tools and sorry about your learning failures there will be many more to come though without good research and advise you've chosen a great resource hear at Auto body 101 to learn from there are many Pro's here and master Hobbyist to help.

Something is up with the gun.

Maybe it needs a good cleaning. Maybe a seal isn't seating correctly.

Take the little strainer out of the cup and strain the paint when you pour it in the cup.

Just some things to start with.