First timer, need some help

[Fireguy]

I am painting my buggy project. I don't have a booth, so it is outside. I am using a harbor freight hvlp gun, and I have never done this before. I realize that I have pretty much hit the trifecta for how to not paint a car. I am using a 2k urethane primer and am planning on a blue metallic paint. I just shot the primer today and it orange peeled really bad. I had my compressor set to the recommended pressure for the gun of 40 psi. I have a slow activator and I thinned down the primer a little. I plan on sanding down the orange peel, but I am worried about spraying my color. If the color peels like the primer it is going to look like sheet if I have to try to sand the metallic. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

[Matt Wilson]

Prep is key of course. Keep things clean, follow directions, take your time. Read the spec sheets that came with the paint and make sure you have the right spray nozzle, or something close with your gun, or you might have a lot of re-work. Take time to mask. A regular vehicle may take a day or more to mask. You may also benefit from building little fixtures that can hold whatever you want to paint.

The main thing that it sounds like you're missing is you need to have is a little regulator at the gun. You can set your compressor to 90psi for example, but then dial the pressure to a few psi at the gun. The length of hose and other factors will affect pressure at the gun - which is why you need a little regulator.

A little water separator inline or at the gun, is also helpful, but for an outside paint job, you probably won't notice much difference.

Don't worry too much about orange peel now. I assume you will want to do a Primer Surfacer anyway, if so, there's plenty of sanding in your future, and you'll get a little more practice spraying before you add color.

If you can, see if you can get the surfacer tinted. If the primer is light grey and you have dark metallic blue paint, it might look a little splotchy.

You cannot plan on sanding metallic paint. Sanding will ruin it. You can put a clear coat over the paint, which could be color sanded/polished, but for budget reasons you may be sticking to a single stage paint process..?

With metallics, you build them up slowly, again, take your time. Spray a very light 'tack coat' and let the paint get real sticky. Paint the edges first, then paint the rest. Keep moving and watch to make sure the hose doesn't touch anything or get caught under a wheel.
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[Fireguy]

I've got a regulator at the gun and a water separator also. The paint looked like it went on really dry even if I slowed down and took more time. Maybe I need to thin the paint more? I hit the body with a wax/grease remover and tacked it right before I painted. I know painting outside is going to be rough but I am not expecting a show finish. I just don't want it to look horrible.

[bomberbob]

If its going on dry then its not getting a chance to flow and level out, and you are going to get orange peel. I just painted my first car about a month ago, and we are wet sanding the orange peel out and have the roof buffed. I went with a base coat and clear and I am glad I did. Someone told me, or I saw on this forum its a fine line between a good paint job and a run. You gotta get enough paint on it and it has to stay fluid long enough to settle and even out. The urethane primer I used had about a 45 minute pot life before it started getting gooey and hard. The clear had like a 6 to 8 hour pot life. Plenty of time to flow. What kind of metallic paint do you plan on using?
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[jspbtown]

Are you planning on shooting a high build polyester primer? On a buggy yo really should. And use a guide coat

As for the orange peel....Its all about temperature, reducer type, paint volumes and painting speed. You need to make sure you have the right reducer/activator for the temp you are painting in. Do not paint on humid days.

You need to know the pressure at the gun. If you have the compressor set at 40lbs you might be far below that at the gun. Without a pressure gauge at the gun take the empty paint gun and pull full trigger while watching what the gauge at the compressor does. Adjust it so it maintains 35psi or so at full pull.

When painting your buggy don;t try to get full coverage in 1 coat. I like my first coat to be kinda light. Allow a little extra time on the flash times. If you don't wait long enough you will get runs. I generally double the suggested flash times at least.

When you lay down the paint keep a 50% overlap and keep the gun moving at the same pace.

[67ctbug]

All I can say is tech sheets, tech sheets, tech sheets. Do EXACTLY what the tech sheet says. I recommend the Husky HVLP over the purple guns. A bit more money, but you get a 1.8 and a 1.4 tip. I spray around 20-30 PSI and always set the gun full open and dial in from there. Watch some Youtube videos on painting. Paint Society is a great channel to watch and like he says, it's just paint. You can re-do it, you can fix it. Metallics wise, I've shot single stage metallic, and had some issues, but they were purely me. Personally though, unless you're going back to what the factory did or you're on a super tight budget, base clear might be easier for metallics since you can sand the orange peel out of the clear if you really want. Just because the gun can do 40 PSI doesn't mean it should.
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[buguy]

Agreed. Crank the pressure down to 20 psi or so and be sure you don't spray in full sun.

[Fireguy]

After more sanding than anyone should ever have to do, I got the body ready for paint. I had a buddy who had access to a paint booth, so we sprayed the color and clear on Friday and let it bake overnight. She turned out better than I had hoped. There are a couple of little imperfections but nothing I am concerned about. Thank you for all the help and advice.

[Mike Fisher]

Looks good & you can repair/paint it yourself in the future!
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