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Choosing and Using a Car Paint Spray Gun
If you’re repainting a car, you’ll need a car paint spray gun. Before you undertake the job, you need to make sure you’re choosing the right type of auto paint spray gun and you know how to use it properly. There are many brands of spray guns on the market. The make you choose isn’t as important as finding one that’s right for you. How often you’ll use it should also be a consideration.
Your Needs
How often are you likely to use an auto paint spray gun? If your plan is just to repaint a single vehicle, you don’t want to invest too much in equipment. At the same time, you want something that will do the job well when it comes to auto paint spray. You can often find something that will work for $100. Be sure you choose a car paint spray gun that’s HVLP, which stands for high volume, low pressure.
Type Of Feed
There are two choices of feed with spray guns and these are either siphon feed or gravity feed. Go for gravity feed as less air will enter the paint, and the gun and there will be less paint wasted.
Tips
The size of the tip of the car paint spray gun will affect the amount of paint it puts out and the thickness of the coat. As you’ll be using your spray gun for different tasks such as applying primer, paint and a clear coat, you’ll need to use different tips. The simplest thing to do is choose a spray gun that has interchangeable tips to so you can achieve the optimum effect.
Air Compressor
Your car paint spray gun isn’t going to work without an air compressor to run it. Choose a gun that doesn’t demand much air pressure and CFM (cubic feet per minute). This means you won’t need an especially powerful air compressor to do the job well.
Spraying Technique
With an HVLP spray gun, you need to be close to the vehicle when you spray as opposed to a standard spray gun. In this case, you need to be between 2 inches and 4 inches from the surface you’re spraying. You’d be around 8 inches from the vehicle with a standard spray gun and that represents a big difference.
Speed
An HVLP auto paint spray gun works much faster than a conventional spray gun. This is because it’s a great deal more efficient. As you’re much closer to the surface, you’ll find that each stroke goes faster.
Drying
You need to allow ample curing time between coats when painting a vehicle. If you fail to do so, then your paint is likely to run. You want to build up coats of paint for a good, solid finish. It’s especially vital that you give plenty of drying time before applying the clear coat to complete the process. Always clean your spray gun thoroughly as soon as you finish using it. This means the tubing, the nozzles and every other working part of it. This way it will operate as you want, when you want.
