I've got a quick question, I'm sure there must be a few people on here who do a bit of spraying themselves who don't have a booth etc. Well I've got a van which has a couple of rusty panels. I've just bought a new wing, new front wheel arch panel and new rear wheelarch repair panel as those panels on the nearside are pretty shot. The rest of the van is pretty straight and solid, but there's a little bit of surface rust on the bottom of the one door and other little dings which have gone slightly rusty.

Anyway, I can do all the prerp work myself and get the new panels welded in, but as it's just a workhorse I'm not really looking to send it to my regular bodyshop and as I have a decent compressor and spraying equipment and as I'm not too fussed about having a flawless finish on this vehicle I thought it'd be a good opportunity to have a go myself. I do want it to look decent though, so just wondering, how do people get on with spraying in their own garage/unit? I mean in terms of temperature etc. Is there any kind of specific heater or any other kind of equipment that I should be using aside from the obvious spraying equipment?

Cheers.

 

definitely worth a go mate, ive had some pretty decent results even with rattle cans. I would get the garage/workshop warmed up to room temp though before you start spraying. I actually screened off the area i was working on to keep dust away. i used 1200 grit wet and dry to get the areas blended in, on the last coat its worth moving the masking tape/paper about an inch further out to allow the colour to blend

 

Don,t forget to soak the floor with water ,to keep dust to a minimum.

 

soak the floor, wait for it to dry and re soak it

a heater of some sort to get the temperature up abit

an extraction fan also helps to stop overspray going over everything/rest of vehicle

 

the new will never blend in to the old unless you use a very good quality
fadeout thinners ,and you never spray to the tape edge


as for painting in ur garage make sure you get a good 3m mask while doing it ,wet the floors down well keeps the over spray down ,any kind of heater will do get the room an panel warm as if panel cold the paint wount flow out rite ,and inperfections can be rubbed down with 2000grit an polished back

 

I've got a pair of proper industrial heater blowers in my unit, near one of those would be very warm, but perhaps not such a great idea to be too close to a blower?

 

No while your actually spraying no!! but most of the things above are right but as dingla said make sure you get a decent mask cos isocynates arnt nice lol.

Also depends if you use water based or solvent, if its a striaght colour try and get some high solids in the same colour, it will cover any inperfections alot better and easier to flat shit/runs out after whereas if your prep isnt too good it'll show up with basecoat once you have the lacquer on!!

Then the obvious, panel wipe, and tack rags to clean any dust off prior to spraying!!

Also if you use waterbased in a cold enviroment it takes forever and a day to flash off but if you just pull the trigger so you get air and no paint and woft it over the panel it'll flash off quicker.

Also what gun are you going to use?! oh and if you can an inline filter can help as any moisture/water in the compressor tank will go into the paint and can cause problems too!!!

 

The gun is a Clarke, don't know much more about it than that, came as part of a set. I know it's not going to be the best gun in the world, but thought I'd try it for little bits and pieces and if I got on ok I'd get something better.

All the new panels are in anyway now and other repairs done, going to give the spraying a whirl tonight!

 

Ive only ever done this with solid non metalic colours but it did work ok as with solids you can mop out most of the fuck ups

 

have a go if your not to bothered bout finnish any new pannels and welded and bear metal would want to be primed in a good primer i use upol 2pac high build primer its easy use and prep for paint when painting make sure all surfaces are properly degreased and dust free even for the primer use tack cloths and pannel wipe or a small bit of thinners on the tack cloth to clean the pannels when there make sure the pannels are warm to touch when priming put on a two or three light coats should give you good coverage on the pannels when dry i always wet sand the pannels to be painted with 600 grade wet and dry sand paper and finnish with 800 grade wet and dry sand paper this should give you a really smooth surface almost glass like when you rub your hand along the pannel dry off clean with tack cloths and pannel wipe or a small bit of thinners again when clean and dust free warm the pannel again and apply your main coat in light coats with a bit of time between coats if its a metalic paint mix the lacquer 50/50 with the last coat of paint give about 30 mins then apply one very light coat of lacquer to finnish lacquer is not needed on soild paint when buying paint try to get 2pac solvent based paint as it is a lot easier use than water based paint and try to get a bit of practice someplace on a wall door or somthing before you start to get used of the gun hope this helps

 

Just for the record, there is no cheap mask available that can stop isocyanates. They're heavier than air so will lie lower to the ground, but they are present in 2k hardener and therefore the mixed paint.

1k paints are fine as the thinners can just give you a headache.

The only way to avoid isocyanate is to use a proper air fed filtered mask/hood. They're expensive, but its the only proper way. If you have ventilation along the ground this will help them dissipate.

Low level exposure for short periods of time shouldn't have any long term effect, but some are more sensitive than others. Once you've had enough to give symptoms you will be over sensitive for the rest of your life.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr/myths/myth3.htm

Be safe kids.

 

And before people think of using a regulated supply of air from their compressor as a source of clean air, its a bad idea. The compressed air contains a concentrated mixture of all the good and bad things already in the atmosphere, plus bits of oil vapour from the compressor and dirt from the tank etc.

Proper breathing-air filters are needed if you're going this way.

I have an extractor fan at ground level, and leave the room between coats while they flash off.