 | Home > Off Topic > Anyone good at DIY car body painting? |
 
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| grafty99 Member Since: 15 Aug 2012 Location: North Devon Posts: 4784   
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Nozzle size actually comes down to personal preference - to a point. As a general rule, primer is applied with a 1.8 nozzle as you get more material on for a given airflow. The caveat of which is that atomisation is poor so no good for metallic. (also OK for direct gloss if you know what you're doing) For metallic paint you want good atomisation to lay the flakes into the paint and prevent clouding. I prefer a 1.4 as you can lay it on faster. If you like to paint slower then I'd recommend starting with a 1.3. It will also it will use less air to get good atomisation. If you check out my RRC build thread (the paintwork starts about page 34) I repainted the whole vehicle using a 1.8 nozzle for the high build primer and a 1.4 nozzle for metallic base and lacquer  2002 90 Td5 Station Wagon
1990 Vogue SE Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 Td5 90 Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic50767.html Tdi 110 Thread https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic69562.html RRC Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic54492.html Instagram http://www.instagram.com/george_grafton Last edited by grafty99 on 26th Jan 2020 10:00am. Edited 1 time in total |
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25th Jan 2020 11:36pm |
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| Sulisuli Member Since: 30 Oct 2016 Location: South west Posts: 4789 
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X4SKP I really like the “clamp on a ramp” picture
2015 HT XS 90
2008 SVX 90 2000 XS TD5 90 |
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26th Jan 2020 9:22am |
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| X4SKP Member Since: 29 Nov 2013 Location: Berkshire Posts: 2287 
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Hello Sulisuli
Yes my summer set up to begin work on the underside of the Defender when she arrived being outside I didn't want her going anywhere... as for the Clamp It started off life as 'basic' wheel clamp all be it one sold primarily to the trade. If was a more or less ok with a claimed anti drill lock but needed work to make it 'faster, stronger, better, harder'  so it received some attention...
Depending on the perceived risk... it gets deployed 
 Click image to enlarge SKIP https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic83242.html |
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26th Jan 2020 12:16pm |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 3997 
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I was going to start practising with the spray gun tonight, but my compressor has sprung a leak. Two cracks in regulator manifold. The job is stopped until a soar arrives from Germany which will probably be if equally poor quality. These generic Chinese compressor are very poorly made.
Click image to enlarge 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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29th Jan 2020 10:47pm |
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| grafty99 Member Since: 15 Aug 2012 Location: North Devon Posts: 4784
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That's a shame, hopefully the bits turn up quickly
2002 90 Td5 Station Wagon
1990 Vogue SE Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 Td5 90 Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic50767.html Tdi 110 Thread https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic69562.html RRC Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic54492.html Instagram http://www.instagram.com/george_grafton |
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29th Jan 2020 11:09pm |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 3997
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OK then, we're back on. After a bit of faffing, the new reg for the compressor arrived, it was equally bad quality to the one I took off, but managed to install it without breaking it.
Low budget, no prior experience, DIY car body painting can begin. The question is, is it possible for me to get a passable finish? I shall document it here, warts and all! The background is; we have an old W169 Merc A Class that had an unfortunate interface with a post in a car park. This dented the passenger front door and actually bent the structure, so not easily repairable.The insurers did their best to write it off, but it's been a good reliable car, so we wanted to keep it. Click image to enlarge I thought I had found a decent undamaged door in the right colour, for sale in Birmingham, but after driving 2 hours to collect it, discovered that "undamaged" must mean something different in the West Midlands than it does up north. I still bought it as it only had a few minor parking dents and a bit of corrosion in one spot. Haggled a substantial discount and gained the need to learn how to do bodywork. Much filling and sanding later the dents were taken care of. Th only picture I got was just as I was starting. The fumes from the filler addled my mind and made me forget to take any piccies at the end. Click image to enlarge Which brings us to painting... I need to paint the whole door from the waist line down and also the the returns on the inside. I could of chosen to use Aerosol but I would have needed loads and it may well work out cheaper to use a spray gun, including buying all the kit and all being well I'll have learnt something new. Onto the kit. Like most DIY tinkerer I've got a compressor, but it is a small Aldi Workszone brand Chinese generic 2 cylinder 100l job I've had a few years. It has an 8 Bar working pressure, which is low, 10 Bar would be better. There are quite a few things you can do to these to maximise what performance they do have. Click image to enlarge Given the puny compressor, the choice of spray gun type seemed obvious. Low Volume Low Pressure (LVLP) is really the only type I've any hope of having enough air for. I went gravity feed, only because that's what everyone on the internet seemed to have. I got a Burisch branded one, which like the compressor is a generic budget Chinese thing. I bought it with two nozzles, 1.4mm and 1.8mm. As I understand it, the larger nozzle for thicker paints like the high build primer, the smaller nozzle is more suited to colour base coat and lacquer. At the same time, I got 20m of 8mm bore air hose, a Silverline cheapo wall mounted filter/regulator and another disposable water trap thingy to go on the gun (which leaks air like a sieve). I was quite surprised how much water the Silverline has caught already. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge As far as consumables go, again cheap and chearful is the motto. I went for Tetrosyl acid etch primer, etch primer activator, high build primer and thinners. Somewhat concerning is the thinners is not clear, it's like the colour of petrol. Anyone know if that's right? I also got some mixing pots, stirrers and strainers from EBay for not much. All in I spent less than £250 on stuff so far. I haven't bought the colour base coat or lacquer yet. The one item that did cause me to open my wallet a little wider was the respirator. Normal sort of DIY dust masks don't catch gases and low boiling point vapours, such as paint thinner. Although I'm not using 2 pack paint, which is too toxic for DIY use in my opinion, the xylene in single pack can give you an impressive headache. I bought a respirator which allows you to stack different types of filter to suit whatever you are doing. I've got gas filters with P3 dust filters on top. It is very effective and can't smell a thing when I did some test spraying. Click image to enlarge Now onto the hard part, getting paint onto the panel. So far I have only sprayed the etch primer and it will need rubbing back and doing again as I was still getting used to the gun and highlighted a few issue that I couldn't see before paint. It took me a while to get the air pressure right, the manual said the gun only needed to run at 20 to 25 psi. At that pressure the paint was just spattering out. It didn't spray right until I got it up over 50 psi. Other problems, mostly self inflicted: I managed to let the air hose touch the wet paint, and I didn't mix enough paint so ran out. But, the biggest problem was how I had the panel layed down flat on the trestles. I couldn't spray up under the returns without tipping the gun up so far that the paint flow stopped. Need to find a way to hold the door in a more upright orientation. Any ideas would be gratefully received. Also, now the paint has dried I can see a few imperfections in the filler repairs mainly towards the bottom there is a flat area that doesn't match the curve of the panel. Click image to enlarge More sanding, filling and painting to come. The saga continues... 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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9th Feb 2020 3:27pm |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 3997
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Anyone know if the paint thinner should be clear? I was expecting it to be, but I’ve bought Tetrosyl Standard Thinner and it is golden coloured.
 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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3rd Mar 2020 10:57pm |
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| grafty99 Member Since: 15 Aug 2012 Location: North Devon Posts: 4784
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Standard thinners can be recycled and therefore have a tinge to it. This can effect the finished colour of top coat on lighter colours.
It might be worth getting a small amount of finishing thinners for the topcoat to prevent tinting. The standard thinners is excellent for gun washing and general tidy up though
P. S. Looks good so far 2002 90 Td5 Station Wagon
1990 Vogue SE Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 Td5 90 Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic50767.html Tdi 110 Thread https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic69562.html RRC Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic54492.html Instagram http://www.instagram.com/george_grafton |
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3rd Mar 2020 11:12pm |
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| Grenadier Member Since: 23 Jul 2014 Location: The foot of Mont Blanc... Posts: 5765  
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This is really useful as I’m thinking of repainting my whole DC this summer. Over a few weeks. So thank you all.
X4SKP. On your comment “ Depending on the perceived risk... it gets deployed ”
I deploy this:
Click image to enlarge  Monsieur Le Grenadier
I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list..... 2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey |
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4th Mar 2020 9:00am |
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| Caterham Member Since: 06 Nov 2008 Location: Birmingham Posts: 6264  
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would be quite handy having one of them in Birmingham.
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4th Mar 2020 10:56am |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 3997
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Thanks Grafty, unfortunately it doesn’t look that good now. I’ve had to go again with the body filler. You might be able to see just below the bottom body line, a flat area and the body line is not properly defined, too much radius. I couldn’t see it until the primer went on, then it was obvious. 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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4th Mar 2020 11:45am |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 16876 
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It's always fascinating how many blemishes and faults show up with the first blow over of paint!
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4th Mar 2020 2:13pm |
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| grafty99 Member Since: 15 Aug 2012 Location: North Devon Posts: 4784
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To help with gauging how the filler is going - use guide coats. Once the filler has cured and been lightly sanded, spray a mist of black/dark aerosol over the top. When you start sanding the high spots will almost immediately become lighter and the low spots will stay dark. It makes it much easier to see how it's taking shape. It's literally a little mist of paint over the top though, not a full coat 2002 90 Td5 Station Wagon
1990 Vogue SE Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 Td5 90 Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic50767.html Tdi 110 Thread https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic69562.html RRC Thread http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic54492.html Instagram http://www.instagram.com/george_grafton |
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4th Mar 2020 5:46pm |
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| Bluest Member Since: 23 Apr 2016 Location: Lancashire Posts: 3997
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I was using a guide coat to start with, but I ran out of matt black spray and didn't bother to get any more
 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS |
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4th Mar 2020 6:15pm |
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