Cheap .vs. Quality

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Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:41 am

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:27 am
I am in the middle of reworking the bonnet on my XKE. If you are unfamiliar with their construction, they are pretty much all bolted together with certain pieces glued together with Sikaflex. When Jaguar produced these cars, The might have used primer between mating surfaces but it is hard to say as the mating surfaces are notorious for rusting out.

Anyway, all of the panels have been repaired as needed, the paint stripped, primed and the inner and mating surfaces are all being painted prior to reassembly. A coworker gave me a Harbor Freight purple spray gun a couple of years ago. I used them in the past when I was financially challenged and they worked decently. For this project though, I bought a Devilbiss GTI Pro Lite.

One evening this last week, I painted some of the bulkheads with the HF gun. Most of this will never see the light of day or will be covered in undercoating so I wasn't terribly concerned at the quality of the finish. The HF gun put out a decent pattern but the lid of the cup leaked and air leaked out as well. 3 C's.
Last night I painted with the Devilbiss. I won't say that there was a night and day difference, but the Devilbiss was certainly easier to use and the resulting finish was much better. It also seemed to clean up much easier.

If you are a home enthusiast like me, it doesn't seem to make much sense to spend a lot on a spray gun but if you want the best shot at a top quality paint job. Get the best tool that you can afford.

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