The other option is: some body shops will rent out their booths. This, of course, includes use of their compressor. You'd just better be prepared to do it in a timely manor, and have your painting techniques down pat.

That reminds me of something. I took an automotive painting class at the nearby Community College. They had you bring your vehicles in as class projects. You did the body work and then rolled it into the booth for primer, back out to sand the primer and then into the booth for paint and clear coat. The instructor was there to help you fix any major mess ups.

chopolds wrote:The other option is: some body shops will rent out their booths. This, of course, includes use of their compressor. You'd just better be prepared to do it in a timely manor, and have your painting techniques down pat.

I remember as kid in the '70's there were "You Fix It" garages. You could rent a stall and bring your own tool--or rent theirs and most had a spray booth. There were a few times my Dad (who was a paint and body guy by trade years before) would let me into the booth and watch him spray--pretty sure neither of us had masks or much safety gear at all--times certainly have changed.

Fox rocks

You dont have to buy a new compressor used ones are out there I search Craigs list regularly and see acceptable size compressors all the time for much less than the price of brand new.
I had one like this and it worked well for decades not a bad deal $450 he would probably take $300-$350 cash when offered in person.
https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/tls/d/l ... 79372.html
I ran two of these tied together for years!

Their is also the option of building one, buy one with a wore out pump and replace the pump. or one that needs a new motor.
https://eatoncompressor.com/product/3hp ... mp-13-cfm/
https://eatoncompressor.com/product/5hp ... er-32-cfm/

I have a home built compressor myself with this pump:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools ... lsrc=aw.ds



Doing this as a Hobby or as a side business?
This is NOT a Cheap hobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT you dont have to buy everything brand new either! I buy a lot of stuff used second hand BUT I know what I am shopping for and what I am looking at! I always make sure Parts are available and its rebuildable before buying!

No matter how hard you try to pull it off a really nice first paint job is NOT gonna happen not on your first attempt! or your second! Its not gonna be cheap either! You will make mistakes those mistakes will have to be repaired, that drives up expense.

You also cannot do a first Paint job cheaper than an experienced set up person or shop!
Their is just to much to get right. Your balking at a few hundred on a compressor and we haven't even talked about building a good water separator OR Air filters or air driers yet!
I have this: https://www.amazon.com/DeVilbiss-DV1300 ... B000VNFU06
Do you need one like that? No their are cheaper ones available. yes.
But its just to give you an idea what your up against here.

Your having problems with the price of Paint guns as well.
Yes a LVLP gun can be used through the whole process, But you need all the Fluid tips that the paint system requires, generally a 1.8 for primer and a 1.3 or a 1.4 for base and clear. Here is an IWATA 9234 Airgunsa, 1.3 Gravity for $119
https://www.jbtools.com/iwata-9234-airg ... JNEALw_wcB
and additional fluid tips are available for it! That's a Hi quality gun worth the investment.

A quality paint system even with Axalta products for a complete paint job is gonna be around $1500 range for Primer base coat and clear, Are their cheaper paints out their? Yes but you get what you pay for! I have seen guys spend north of $4000 on Paint alone! Then theirs Masking products Sand paper,tape, Laq. thinner, W/G remover, Towels etc. alll of it is $$$$

I like other's here can save a few bucks painting my own cars because I have all the Toys and I have extra Materials all ready sitting on the shelf such as epoxy, Primer, Clear and sand papers. You cant save doing just doing one or two cars or even 3 it takes years.

You haven't thought about Cut and Buff yet either! While the Cut is done by hand with sand paper the Polishing part is another expense a good Variable speed buffer is around $300 and an elcheapo from Harbor fright is $40-$100. then their are the Buffing pads their are so many and prices all over the place! Then theirs the Buffing creams for polishing again prices all over the place even more $$$$

Very few of us listened to the experienced guy's when they first started!
The truth is those of us that have prevailed in this hobby all started out very much like you! head on making all the mistakes and then trying to fix those mistakes and then trying to prevent them! from happening again next time! Only to come full circle with the same advise we were given in the first place! when asked for advise, You need this! You need that! you have to have this! The biggest and the Main thing is an acceptable air compressor every thing else will come with time and money.

Thanks guys,

I appreciate all the awesome feedback and more importantly honesty. There are a lot of YouTube videos out there that do not want to tell people the truth. That goes for everything, not just painting vehicles and I fortunately learned the hard way, which I think was the best way.

So I do not know a whole lot about compressors. This little 20 Gallon Ingersoll Rand is the first one I have ever had. I also learned (just like everything else as well) I could have gotten it cheaper by buying it from another off brand. As Ingersoll did not make this one themselves but charged a premium price. I got talked into it though because I got a $100 off coupon and got it delivered free with lift gate.

Anyway, correct me if I am wrong but I would much rather buy or get a loan for a new one. I have heard of and seen horror stories. Like you get it home and the inside is rusted out or there are air leaks that someone temporarily fixed with with some green slime or something. You guys are welcome to give advice, just I would be nervous to spend even $400 on a nice large one and it crap on me from me not knowing how to look it over when buying.

Thanks again for the feedback this community seems pretty cool so far.

This subject has already turned into several other things so I am not certain if I should post in another thread. At this point I might even want to join a shop or electrician forum lol. So anyway I was talking to a friend about installing a 220v and he said that it was not difficult. Another plus is our electrical box is right beside where I would consider installing a large compressor.

I have always wanted a 220v outlet accessible for various tools. So I could consider doing that. I was told an electrician would do the job from $300-$500 and I could do it myself for about $100. Also if I was able to utilize some common sense and understand what I am doing then it is not hard.

You guys tell me what you think but I looked on our electric box and took some pictures. Unfortunately we only have a single 110v slot free. I understand that I need two to make it 220v. Is it possible that I can figure out what the other two on adjacent slots are and tie into one of them to achieve 220v? Certainly I would need to make certain it goes to something that I can make sure is not pulling power simultaneously.

I am NOT a certified electrician BUT I do know a thing or two about electric power.

That's a Old Box! Note that the Ground and Neutral are both on same side of box together newer boxes have them separated.
Its also Not the Main feed box with a meter its just a distribution box. So no need to get the electric company involved to shut off power, Hopefully? The Main meter box should have a Primary ckt breaker where you should be able too shut off power to the distribution Box.

I am also thinking it is less that a 200 amp service, Its probably a 100 Amp service or if it is and 200 amp its Pushing its limits maybe not by total current draw but by the total number of installed ckt breakers currently installed.

You are going to need a Pro Electrician to rewire a few circuits in my opinion to make room for a 220v Breaker as you only have one open slot for one 110V ckt breaker. OR replace that box entirely and update it to a Newer one with more circuits which would be my choice!
A newer Box would be much safer for your home! and family! and allow for more ckts to be added later if needed.
But I fully understand this work and could do it by myself without help.
I have seen over taxed boxes Burn up and actually catch fire gets ugly from there.

I would look on Craigslist under the services Tab and contact a few certified Journeyman electricians and discuss it with them. Make sure they are a certified Journeyman!

A 30 space 60 ckt box $150 its not too expensive to replace.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-Ho ... /300536546


I have a 400 Amp service on my home and a 200 amp service in my shop! lots of room to grow!
When I did my wiring I hired it out and I am glad I did! The guy who did my house also did my shop, He did it so fast it made my head spin! I was blown away at how fast he did both! there is no way I could have done it as fast as he did It! He was worth every penny I paid him in just trouble alone!

I bet you could buy that box and have an electrician install it and wire up a couple 220v outlets their by the box for a few hundred $.
Changing out a box isn't hard and shouldn't take more than a few hrs of their time so it shouldn't be very expensive, IF they wanna charge more than 3-4 hrs look for some one else their trying to bend you over! Seriously 3-4 hrs would be would what I would be willing to pay but no more because that is how long it would take me to do it.

My neighbor just replaced one of his the first guy wanted $7000 to do all the work I told him he was being rapped! to call another one he called two others and he was glad he did! he got all the work done with new boxes for $600

Notice the lower two breakers on the right side are doubles.

You could install another one of those thus creating an empty slot for your 220v line breaker.

What you need to be careful with is overloading that box. The total amperage rating of the box should be taken into consideration.

There is some flexibility if certain items are not in full time use.

You can also buy a box with a higher amperage rating but you need to consider where the box is being supplied power from and that it can handle the additional load.

You don't want to overheat anything and cause a fire.

Im in the same boat as you. I found i can rent a pretty robust gas powered compressor for about $60 a day. Im going to do that instead of fighting with the 2 HP compressor i have now. You should look into it.

Hey guys,

Sorry I have not been back here on the thread. I have had other things to do. I 'attempted' to go to a local junkyard here in hopes of finding a hood to match my Firebird. I also forgot that there is going to be a slim chance of me finding one too, because my Firebird was a little bit more rare of a model called a WS6. It uses what GM was calling "Ram Air" I believe and actually had real scopes on the hood to force air down into the intake. I believe that the other regular Firebirds are missing the scopes on the hood so I would have to find a perfect replacement.

Anyway, I am rambling like always but I wanted to stick to my original plan, which was buying a replacement hood and painting it and seeing what type of results I get. Preferably I would find an exact replacement to go onto my WS6 Firebird. So if I liked the result I could just finish the job and swap out the hood. Also I wanted to take a stencil/decal tracer and put a phoenix or something on the hood as well before spraying on clear coat. I thought that would be a cool touch.

So going back on this post a little bit if I attempt this with my little twenty gallon air compressor what would be my best bet? A LVLP spray gun as others have mentioned? I do not know if I mentioned it to you guys before but the car needs a lot of other things done to it and I do not want to start another project right now of upgrading my electric box and air compressor. That is something I would like to do progressively, especially since my side landscaping business is not making any money right now.

Firstly, I found this video on YouTube where this guy uses a smaller compressor than what I have to paint an entire car. I realize that I am not going to achieve perfect results and YouTube is not the best place to get advice. This guy did not even put clear coat on the car which has to be an enormous mistake for any motor vehicle used on the road. He also showed a couple areas that had some orange peel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8bVQ45Gy8&t=313s

Second I have also been doing some reading (I think it may have even been off here) but someone was trying to figure out if they should go for the LVLP gun or a HVLP gun and guessing they had a smaller compressor like me. I saw a couple people recommend the HVLP gun and said hope they achieve realistic results. It was close to the time that when I was on here but I looked at some of the guns and tips they were talking about which are now out of stock.

1.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CPQDCXH/?c ... _lig_dp_it
2.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJ17HFT/?c ... _lig_dp_it

They were both in stock last time I checked and much cheaper. One was suppose to be for primer and paint I believe and the other one is strictly for clear coat. I realize the tip is probably what is important here but having two guns would probably simplify cleaning and such.

Since this is already turning into a flood:

1.) Most of you guys are agreeing that I should go with a LVLP with my current setup instead of a HVLP?

2.) What paint do you guys recommend that I could I achieve decent results with? I think I am going to paint the car white again actually so I do not have to paint the inside of the door panels and other stuff as well.

3.) Should I consider other stuff like the air dryer thing you plug into your compressor? I have seen it in several videos and mentioned quite a few times.

I think I am still going to try to get a scrap hood (of any vehicle if necessary) and try my luck on that before I do anything paint related with this car.

Also if you want this cars life story which I think I mentioned a little about before it cannot pass inspection without some work. It has a bad tie rod and think I am going to replace them all before getting it lined up. It needs new tires which I am going to do at the same time and possibly swap wheels to a little larger ones to flare out the rear tires as well. It also needs a couple holes in the muffler patched as well.

Finally the biggest issue is the water pump is leaking and on these fourth generation Firebirds that is a big no no because it leaks right onto the Opti-Spark Distributor which is how most of these cars go to the junkyard from my understanding. The car is still running like a champ so I have been told that it is probably fine and all I need to do is cleanup the Opti, replace the water pump and I should be good to go. Anyway the car is definitely a project that I do not mind working on.

Trying to think about how I could possibly make this any longer.