TheFoxRocks wrote: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=313sSecond 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_it2.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJ17HFT/?c ... _lig_dp_itThey 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.