With the spray bombs exhausted, it was time to break out the real spray gun and try my hand at shooting with the big boys. Since I was working in the old body shop area at the dealership, I had
ASS-U-ME-d the air line regulators were set for use with paint guns. I had watched Kevin Tetz's videos on adjusting the gun spray patterns and how to move the gun for good coverage, but never paid too much attention to adjusting the air pressure.
So on Wednesday morning after blowing out the car and vacuuming up the debris, I grabbed a quart of Eastwood Underhood Black off the shelf and mixed it thoroughly with a paint stick before straining it into a mixing cup. I read on the container that the paint was ready to shoot, so I dumped some into the gun pot and proceeded to attach an air line from the paint booth and adjust the pattern and mixture on the gun until it was spraying out a really nice elongated oval. I practiced on an old box that I had received some parts in until I felt comfortable with the gun before venturing out to the Tomato.
I started on the back window surround and then the package tray and noticed it wasn't covering as well as it had on the box, but I attributed it to the gun not being level. I progressed down the shelf braces, the leading edge of the rear end hump and the interior side bulkheads before running out of paint. I detached the gun and refilled the pot with paint but there was so much paint fog hanging in the air that I decided to wait until it dissipated a bit before continuing. I turned on the exhaust fan in the paint booth to try and draw some of it out but when it didn't work, I resorted to plan B and opened a couple windows on my end of the building and used a blow nozzle to direct the haze that direction and hopefully start a draft moving toward the open windows.
After about a half hour or so the cloud was gone so I reattached the air line and shot the interior edges of the door and quarter window headers before starting on the underseat floor area of the back seat. Again coverage wasn't ideal but I plan on shooting a second coat once all the seam sealer is applied so I soldiered on. When I shot the floor brace that the seat bottom clips into, a load of debris was blown out onto the freshly applied paint, so I suspended shooting any more until the paint was dry and I could blow out and vacuum all the loose bits from the crossmember and the floor. The remainder of the paint in the pot was sprayed onto the firewall to floor transition and the shifter hump and started on the driver side footwell before it too was gone, so I cleaned my gun and called it a day.
Thursday was a waste as well as I experience more issues spraying.... blew thru a second quart of paint with very little coverage and clouds of overspray! I knew there must be something I was doing wrong but had no idea what the hell it was, so on Friday, New Year's day, I spent the day watching videos on youtube to determine what I wasn't doing correctly.... low and behold the problem was the air pressure in the spray booth was set WAY TOO HIGH for my HVLP gun! A bit more surfing and I found there was a digital needle valve that I could attach right on the gun inlet and dial the pressure back to the necessary gun working pressure... 50psi. More surfing revealed I could pick one up at my local Harbor Freight, so off I went!
Saturday morning started with blowing out and vacuuming the interior of the Tomato.... many many times until there was nothing left to vacuum out... and then I blew and sucked it out three more times! An hour and 15 minutes later I was satisfied she was clean, so I put away the shop vac and proceeded to stir up another quart of paint, Eastwood Chassis Satin Black. Before filling the cup, I attached the new needle valve to the gun and also found a small moisture trap with a plastic body (which I thought was a bit cheesie) and attached it to the end of the valve to catch any moisture that may be in the lines. With the gun now all assembled, I filled the cup, adjusted the pressure down, verified the spray pattern and fluid delivery and was ready to begin....
I started again at the package tray and worked my way forward....
DAMN WHAT A DIFFERENCE correctly adjusting the air pressure made! The paint now laid down smoothly with excellent coverage and NO OVERSPRAY! With the rear window frame and tray covered, I started my way down the braces and the wheelhouses. I went to adjust the slack in the air line and the threads on the moisture trap snapped off at the air line fitting! Luckily I had hold of the air line as it frantically danced around in space so I could set down the gun long enough to uncouple the air line from the busted trap. I knew I should not have used that plastic POS!! To make matters worse, it was one minute after 12 noon and the parts house where we typically get our air line fittings closes at noon on Saturday.
I hurried and grabbed the fitting and rushed out hoping I could get there before everyone left, but when you have buzzards luck you just know they are already gone. I was right, so I headed to the next closest auto parts store, O'Reiley's. The guys was super nice and check their rack first but nothing was hanging there, so he looked it up under the number on the fitting to see if they may have something that would crossover but nada. He called across the street to Advance to see if they may have something. He gave the girl the part number and she said they had it so I hustled over there got the fittings she had pulled and boogied back to the shop. Installed the new fitting onto the gun, threw the other one in my tool drawer and walked back over to the car to hook up the air line to wrap things up............. ##$@@&@&$$#% the line would fit!
After digging the package out of the trash I saw she had given me the wrong fittings... I needed 778's and she had given me 772's (or whatever). I grabbed the package, the other fitting outta my box and removed the fitting from the gun and headed back downstairs to my car. My buddy Jim was downstairs working on the shop heater and he asked me where I was headed now and I said back to Advance to get the right fittings. He asked to see the old one with the broken plastic threads inside and he said he could probably get it out if I wanted so I left it with him to dig out while I went back to Advance in hopes they would have the right ones.... WRONG AGAIN. I asked the girl if they carried them at another store or in the warehouse but it was not a stock item so I got my refund and headed back to the dealership in hopes Jim had come thru for me again. He was just finishing up scraping out the plastic threads when I arrived, so I was back on track!
I installed the fitting, attached the air line and wrapped up the interior in no time. I think it really turned out well considering everything that had happened along the way to get the inside of the car painted! I had a crash course in what NOT to do when spraying a car....
Lesson ONE: MAKE SURE ALL DEBRIS IS BLOWN AND VACUUMED FROM EVERY POSSIBLE NOOK AND CRANNY OF THE CAR BEFORE STARTING TO PAINT.... do it until no more contaminates are blown free from every possible hiding place, then blow and vacuum three more times!!
Lesson TWO: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CONTROL OF THE AIR PRESSURE AT THE GUN. After blowing thru two quarts of paint with practically no coverage, I resorted to watching several how to videos on shooting paint.
All the interior seams still need to have seam sealer applied before the floor insulation goes in or the bed liner sprayed in the trunk area. Plus too I'm sure the guys at F3 will need to bang around a bit on the exterior sheet metal to get it nice and straight so until she comes back from the body shop, I'll refrain from shooting the final coats on the inside of the car (though I do see a few areas that need to be hit again to cover up the old paint or the green inner frame coating).....
Thanks for sitting thru all my blathering!
ZEBRA 3 OUT
