My son bought his first truck. It's a 1994 Dodge Dakota. The body is in excellent condition. It's going to be a father/son project. We have sanded it down to remove the clear coat. In some areas, the paint was peeling, so I took it down to primer. This is an older truck and a first vehicle for my son, so we're not looking to put a lot of money into this.

I've never painted a vehicle before, but I've done some research up to this point. I would appreciate feedback on my plans so far. I will list below the primer and paint I am looking at. I could also use some feedback on an economical HVLP gun. I list a couple that I am looking at down further.

1) I plan to primer the truck first. Here is the primer I am looking at:

Synthetic Enamel Non Sanding Grey Primer is a high quality, single component primer
http://www.paintforcars.com/primer_non_sanding.html

2) and then paint with single stage acrylic urethane. Here is what I am looking at:

http://www.paintforcars.com/kitu_midnightblue.html

I have heard that I shouldn't try and spray metallic paint for my first paint job. Is this true??

3) I've been looking at HVLP guns. Here are a couple that I have checked out. Are either of these better or is there another I should consider? Also, I am not sure what size nozzle I need for spraying primer and paint. Is this same nozzle used for both? What size/s nozzle should I be looking for?

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-oz-h...gun-69705.html
>> I am not sure what size nozzle is on this gun. I sent an email to their support people to find out.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-G...&keywords=hvlp

Once I figure out the primer, paint and hvlp gun, I'll post again about technique.

Hi tmaxx, I see this is your first post so let me say welcome and follow that with all things I say or suggest are just my personal opinions and there are painters on this forum with experience that makes mine pale in comparison so keep that in mind. First I would ask what you have for a compressor and what CFM does it produce. Reason is true HVLP guns are air hogs and you should keep that in mind. On the non-sanding primer, I have shot it a few times in years past on projects that were very straight and needed no primer filler work and or were projects that for lack of a better term were {good enough} not needing or expecting a high quality finished project. So for the pickup you describe it sounds like that is where you're at and non-sanding primer would be just fine. Certainly does save time and elbow grease. Your question on single stage metallic for a first time job gets a bit more complex. The reason you have been told that maybe not for first timers is multi reasoned. One is it takes a bit of practice to make the metallic do what you want, to heavy and it doesn't catch the light as well and the effect is not what you would hope for. Second, if shot to light or "dry" it will be rough and grainy and not the effect you want. Third, if you shoot to heavy and run a single stage metallic you won't be able to sand it out and buff it back to be the effect you want. None of these don't mean you won't have good success it you've got "the touch". Now for your question on guns. Some people have great success with the HF guns and some say they aren't worth unpacking. The one you listed comes with a 1.4 tip, and the tech sheet on the primer you plan to use calls for a 1.6 to 2.0 tip. The 1.4 will work but not optimal. The tech sheet for the paint calls for a 1.3 to 1.5 so OK there. I have a bunch of my old siphon feed guns but wanted to move to a gravity feed gun just for primer use with a 1.8 tip. I have a good gravity feed Devillbiss I use for BC/CC but didn't want to shoot primer through it so I bought the TCP Global G 7000 3 gun kit for about $80. Gave me a 1.8 primer gun, a 1.4 top coat gun and a 1.0 mini gun with regulator and other bits an pieces. Some will say they are junk and they may be right but for primer it fits my needs and gave me a couple back up guns I may or may not ever use. Not suggesting you buy them, I haven't used any of them yet but have a couple projects coming up that will give me a chance to pull the triggers on them and they require less CFM than the HF gun. If you look at the price of your paint products and if you think there might be other projects in the future, maybe worth thinking about. Sorry for the length of the reply and there will likely be other opinions that are worth considering. Good luck / Coy

Any other opinions on my suggested paint, primer and spray gun?

The other posted had some good advice.

If you are OK with using 2k products (the topcoat you have listed is 2k) then why don't you use a 2k primer? It will be much better.

You can spray metallic as a beginner if you take your time and do some practice, but it's one less thing to worry about if you go with solid colour.

If you went with 2k primer then a 1.8mm tip for that and 1.3mm tip for colour/clear would be normal.

richie00boy wrote:The other posted had some good advice.

If you are OK with using 2k products (the topcoat you have listed is 2k) then why don't you use a 2k primer? It will be much better.

You can spray metallic as a beginner if you take your time and do some practice, but it's one less thing to worry about if you go with solid colour.

If you went with 2k primer then a 1.8mm tip for that and 1.3mm tip for colour/clear would be normal.

The 2k primer costs twice as much as the primer I have listed. So what makes it worth the additional cost?
Also, it seems the harbor freight guns I have been looking at have either a small tip or larger tip but not both. So would I need two different guns or could I buy one gun and then buy the additional tip that I need?

This set from harbor freight contains 1.4mm and 1.8mm tips.

http://www.harborfreight.com/profession ... 94572.html