So I painted the bed of the truck today. I should have stopped at the primer. First I realized the wax and grease remover must have been an issue due to seeing the "swipe marks" on the coat of primer. Then I started spraying thinking maybe it would rectify itself, right! Way too embarrassing to post pictures of.

I know what I need to do is to sand 400-800 and flatten everything out.

My issue is direction for spraying Single Stage Kirker white paint with a 1.3 Iwata W400. How to set it up and test it out I have drips, orange peel on the majority of the paint. I paint so infrequent that I lose the gun set up thought process. The gun was spraying a perfect "football" pattern it had to be my speed or distance etc. Thankfully its just the bed I can work though sanding a lot quicker than the body of the truck. Thanks

I'm not trying to beat you up but you should have stopped when you saw that something was wrong. did you wipe the W/G remover with one rag then dry it off with a second rag, also the rags MUST be clean. I'm not sure what your going to do now as the solvents could be trapped under the primer. you may have to sand it down to the oem finish, I would. lets see what other people say. if your not sure about something ask here, it could save you a lot of misery.
Jay D.

Hi Jay, that is fine and yes I should have stopped when I saw that! I can sand it down. Yes I used clean lint free rags. The area I was speaking of was where I first started and might have missed wiping it off or the rest evaporated as I went over to check the gun settings again. It was just multiple failures.

I need to figure out how to spray this paint with this gun. I had it set at 30psi and when painting it seemed to be a lot higher pressure. So I have my compressor running at 100 or so the regulator at 70 and the gun pressure regulator at 30. I tried to stay 6” from the panels.

What causes orange peel? With single stage can I have orange peel and sand and buff like clear? I was assuming that once sprayed it should be flat and ready to buff. The entire paint job has orange peel. Nothing is smooth.

Questions:
What did you use for W&G remover?
Did you apply the W&G remover and then wipe it off with a clean towel before it dried?
How long did you wait before applying primer?
What primer did you use?
Did you sand the primer before applying color?
The Iwata W400 requires 10-13 cfm of air at 29-42 psi (at the gun with trigger pulled), does your compressor put out at least that much?

I used SEM w/g remover.
Yes I have the blue lint free towels and yes clean to wipe on, new clean to wipe off. That part only happens on the first section which leads me to believe I didn’t wait long enough to let it completely evaporate.

I have used this spray gun with this compressor to spray my mustang, that was BC/CC. I have never sprayed SS paint. The compressor is a 60 gallon 5hp 220v and it wasn’t cycling a whole lot.

I have begun sanding, it definitely was the primer that started the downfall. I have sanded to the primer (which is Eastwood) only in a few areas. This tells me I should have sprayed and sanded. My error again.

There is straight up horizontal drips, which spraying the mustang clear coat twice due to sand throughs, I never got.

Specs on air compressor:

Tank Size: 60 Gallon ASME*
Maximum Pressure: 135 PSI
CFM @ 40 PSI: 13.4
CFM @ 90 PSI: 11.5
Voltage: 240 Volt
Running HP: 3.7
Certifications: UL & CSA
Warranty: 2 Year Limited
Dimensions: 31” x 27” x 69.25”
Amps: 15

i've spent some time thinking about the root causes of orange peel, but the best I can come up with is the air/paint ratio is too heavy on the paint sde of the equation. Too much air or too little paint and you get dry spray. Too much fluid and not enough air and you get peel. Move even further in that direction and you get runs and sags.
So, f you have peel either reduce the air pressure or up the fluid control a touch. Of course air pressure should always be at, or above the guns recommended minimum.
The trouble is distance to the panel and travel speed are two more variables that have to be right to get a nice job.

If it were easy, everyone would do it!

kace wrote:i've spent some time thinking about the root causes of orange peel, but the best I can come up with is the air/paint ratio is too heavy on the paint sde of the equation. Too much air or too little paint and you get dry spray. Too much fluid and not enough air and you get peel. Move even further in that direction and you get runs and sags.
So, f you have peel either reduce the air pressure or up the fluid control a touch. Of course air pressure should always be at, or above the guns recommended minimum.
The trouble is distance to the panel and travel speed are two more variables that have to be right to get a nice job.

If it were easy, everyone would do it!

you should up the air press. and or come down with the fluid. O/P is caused by may things or a combination of things. and your right its not as easy as you might think but when you figure out how to adjust your gun, mixture and spray technique it becomes easier. it just takes practice!
Jay D.

Thanks! I have the bed/tailgate sanded. Will go over again in fine detail over the weekend. I have a hood I am going to practice on with flow/air pressure settings thankfully I have extra paint just in case can comfortably spray a quart and still have plenty.

So based on that, if I get the “perfect settings “ will the paint be flat immediately? Or close to it?

Also this is an 8ft bed, I was going all the way down one side back and forth, would you split it in two sections? With cab or the mustang I have defined sections then just change the overlap? My thinking is I can control distance and there’s less variables.

if you have everything right the paint should lay down flat and glossy that's the way I shoot it. trying to shoot the box full length in one pass ( walking the gun ) is a little difficult if your not use to it. I would shoot half then move to the other half because your using a solid color it will work good. and for sure load up the gun and try it out on that hood. play with your adjustments to see what they do. get your gun distance right, a good starting point is your thumb and middle finger stretched out.
Jay D.