I was talking to a local paint man the other day, his advice for a newbie painter (Like myself) was to take your gun and fill it with water. Take it out and shoot your car or something and practice until you apply the "water" to the car without it running. It sounds stupid, BUT it does have some merit to it. The idea is to get you to learn how to control the gun and the paint flow. He says when you can master painting the car with water, you are ready for the real thing. Of course, when you screw up with the water, who cares right?? BTW, Harbor freight has a HVLP gun on sale right now for around $40-50. I cant think of the part number off hand, (its anodized purple) but for the price, it is an awesome deal for a gun that will suit us newbies just fine(IMHO). It also comes with a regulator too.

Tony

ive never heard anything like that. have you tried it? to me it doesnt seem possible to keep the w ater from running, but theng again i dont have access to painting stuff anymore. in my ag mechanics class we would paint the trailers and stuff and we learned by watching the others paint and painting ourselves. what type of paint did you want? pro? or just like something to cover the rust?

I think the best way to practice is with primer. It has the characteristics of paint, but it is a little easier to apply. Practice on some scrap, or even your project vehicle. If you get primer on too thick, it's a piece of cake to sand it back out. I can't really see how practicing with water would really help because it is not like the paint. The texture and consistency is completly different. The water will just bead up and/or run off, where as paint will stick to the metal. If you can spray water on a clean vertical surface and it not run, I'll be really impressed.

Also, 95% of a good paint job is the prep work and the environment in which you paint. It's the attention to details that really make a difference.

Hey, give it a try!

Usually I would start off by practicing on cardboard with the paint. Also helps you get a feel for how much overlap you need to get a good coverage.

Usually by the time you are done primering the vehicle... painting will be fairly simple. I love to paint, just HATE the prep work (95% of my time is prep, 5% paint). Unless a nastry trail rig... just get most of the dirt off first. :D

Tom :usa:

I think the water thing is bunk. I have never even heard of that till now. I think that as soon as you left they all cracked up ove rthe newbie going to paint his car with water, but that's just me.

The hints to practice with primer first are very good, primer sprays like paint but a little easier. Plus as he said a mistake is easy to fix at that point.

What type of paint are you planning to use? That can make a big deal in how you spray and how critical it is to get it on perfect. Also how good of a finish do you want? Perfect or just cover the dents?

Practice on scrap metal or the wall of your garage or the nieghbors car. This is the best thing you can do to really get the feel for thepaint. Also, start of in the least visable areas of your rig when you start to paint, this way id you hose it up while you learn it is easier to hide.

Another hint I learned, if you get a sag, while the paint is still wet and flowing..and I mean AS SOON as you see the sag. Take a bit of masking tape and just touch it to the sag. It will pull enough paint off to even it out but not enough it won't flow out if you are using a pretty good paint. It won;t look as good as no sag but it is easier to fix then a real sag.

Oven cleaner will remove the purple from that Paint gun for you :D

Part Number for the HFT paint sprayer (HVLP) he's talkin about is 43030. Regular price is $64.99, but it goes on sale quite often. That is probably the most commonly bought sprayer.

just buy the gun and primer/paint the thing....or bring it too me and I will do it for you.:eek:

Ok, I feel stupid. Yes the idea with the water sounds :rainbow: BUT there was a sound idea behind this. I did not learn how to paint with this method (I learned in the service with a HVLP, about a zillion gallons of haze grey/white and all of the time in the world to finish and start all over again)

At the time the paint guy told me how he "teaches" new help, it sounded like a good idea to pass on. Out of curiosity I tried it on a small section and felt that this (bad) info might be usefull to somebody. It does make sense if you want to try out your new paint gun and don't have anything prepped or laying around to shoot, or dont want to do any PITA clean up. It will also give you a chance to figure out what your controls do, seeing what happens to your pattern when you turn the knobs etc etc.

Practicing with the primer is a good practice, but the paint never seems to act like the primer does when being shot. (unless its the base coat of a 2 stage paint). It seems it's always a different story when the paint is being applied, the paint seems alot more willing to run after it is shot. I guess the only way to really learn how to paint is watch somebody who knows what they are doing, and do it yourself a few times.

ok, I'll shut up now

Tony