Ok guys, after all the anticipation, and all the waiting for a good warm sunny day, I set out today to finally get this hood painted. Everything was going good, I felt like I had gotten everything in order. So what happened you ask? Well, I mixed my paint, poured it in my gun, and as soon as I poured it in the gun, it started pouring out the tip like a waterfall! Literally! It took a second before I realized it, so I had paint all over the place! Ugh! I was able to stop the flow by tightening all the knobs. The trouble shooting guide said it was most likely the packing nut being too tight. I did have a similar issue when I primed the hood but not this extreme. It was dripping as a primed from the tip, putting dropplets on my hood. But at least I was able to sand those drops off.
This time I had the hood vertical, so I wasn’t going to get drops on the hood with the bc if it happened again. But I thought I had solved the problem. But all this problem with the gun isn’t my biggest issue, its that I have a very light basecoat on my perfectly sanded hood now! So a couple of questions...

1. What do I do with the hood now?
2. Do I sand it all again and start over?
3. What was wrong with the gun?
4. Did I lose a part(maybe a seal or washer) to the gun?

I did order a new gun which will arrive Thursday. I’m returning this one to Amazon

Devilbiss Finishline FLG4 is the gun. I was using 1.5 tip for the bc
I used a 1.8 last week for the primer.

Any help would be appreciated

Kenny One very upset new painter

I can't see the hood, but If its VERY light I would sand it off and start over. if you get on it the next day you might be able to just go right over it with the base depends on how smooth it is. as for the gun you probably have the packing nut to tight and or a dirty needle. they do make a lube for the needles, I usually use some every time I clean my gun. another thing that can cause your problem is a dirty fluid tip not letting the needle shut off all the way. did you lose a part? maybe, only you would know.
Jay D.

Sounds like Jay's been there before.

Yep, packing gland nut too tight is the most likely. It only needs to be lightly snicked up - just enough to stop air and fluid leaks. Finger tight and then maybe another 1/4 turn. If you're getting air bubbles coming up into the cup then tighten it a fraction more just until they stop. The needle should move easily with only slight resistance as you first push it through.

Your gun cleaning regimen should include cleaning the needle with a solvent soaked cloth and occasionally putting one small drop of light oil on the needle behind the packing gland nut.

On a Devilbiss gun also make sure you clean the joint in the neck where the cup joins the gun body. They are notorious for paint getting trapped in that area, drying out and then coming through next time as a whole pile of crap into your nice fresh paint job.

Lightly sand your bonnet (not coarser than P800) once it's dry and try again.

You're starting to understand the learning curve involved in spray painting - it's not quite as simple as it looks.

badsix wrote:I can't see the hood, but If its VERY light I would sand it off and start over. if you get on it the next day you might be able to just go right over it with the base depends on how smooth it is. as for the gun you probably have the packing nut to tight and or a dirty needle. they do make a lube for the needles, I usually use some every time I clean my gun. another thing that can cause your problem is a dirty fluid tip not letting the needle shut off all the way. did you lose a part? maybe, only you would know.
Jay D.

Here ya go Jay. As far as getting base on it today or tomorrow, probably wont happen until Saturday, maybe Friday. Seems like a pretty light coat but as you can see, it has some tiger striping on it. The underside of the hood I’m not too concerned about. The paint did seem to lay down a lot better under there. But on a 10 year old truck, I ain’t too worried how it turns out.
The gun, well, I’m getting a new one Thursday so I will be reading the manual better this time to get it set up.
I truly thought I had that packing nut exactly where it should have been after having issues laying the primer. But who knows? Maybe it was a defective gun.

I’ll most likely get my wife to read the set up instructions. She’s good at that stuff! LOL

Can someone tell me why my pics are sideways here? Story of my life! Ugh

have you taken the packing nut out of the gun? if so you may not have put the parts back in properly. i set it so its just tight enough for the needle to move freely then backed off just a wee bit.
might need a drop of oil on the needle,too.
does that gun have 2 different air caps for the 2 different needles? if so,did you have the right matchup- 1.8 tip and 1.8 air cap?

you can check for leaking when doing different things with some lacquer thinner/reducer in the cup instead of primer/paint.

you should sand the light coat of base off as your going to be out of the recoat time for the base and adhesion might be a problem.
Jay D.

tomsteve wrote:you can check for leaking when doing different things with some lacquer thinner/reducer in the cup instead of primer/paint.

Good tip. Ideal for initial setup of the gun and also to make sure that it's clean by flushing through anything that may be in the cup or fluid passages.

NFT5 wrote:

tomsteve wrote:you can check for leaking when doing different things with some lacquer thinner/reducer in the cup instead of primer/paint.

Good tip. Ideal for initial setup of the gun and also to make sure that it's clean by flushing through anything that may be in the cup or fluid passages.

guess how i learned that tip??
theres still primer drips on the floor of that garage.
and the bench.
a few on the pair of pants i was wearing.

If the gun worked ok when you used it with the 1.8 setup last time, then itt's not an Amazon/Devilbiss problem. You must've overlyt ightened the packing yourself. when you cleaned the gun.

Ok, so heres where I stand. When I get ready to paint again, I’ll definitely sand off that little bit of bc.

I did get the new gun yesterday. FOLLWED the set directions to the T! It said “Tighten the packing nut until fluid needle starts to bind in the packing” DID IT. Then “Loosen packing nut just enough so the fluid needle moves freely”. DID IT.

The directions also want me to flush some solvent through the gun to remove shipping oils. DID IT.
I basically did everything as it said to do this morning, took the gun to the side of the house to test it with some lacquer thinner in it to test it.

I wasn’t leaking like the paint did initially, but when I got the test pattern where I wanted it, and let off the trigger, fluid poured out. Like leftover fluid that was in the cap. Had I had the hood, and had that been paint, AGAIN it would have poured on the hood. Ugh!

I did play with it a little bit and I think I got it to stop doing that. So I kept spraying the rest of the solvent, but then ran out. My concern is, I cant afford to start painting again and that crap start happening on me.

I like to think I decent mechanically and can usually solve most mechanical issues. But this one has been a serious headache!

So when I’m ready, I’m going to get out there and give it a shot again.

For the record, I don’t believe it was the gun now at all. It’s some adjustment I needed and need to make in the future. I just wish it wasn’t so difficult, and I don’t why I’m struggling with this. Like my wife says all the time, “FOLLOW DIRECTIONS”.

Thanks for all the help guys, and any other advice would always be appreciated.

Kenny