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Painting...A novice paints!

 
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frank.hinde(at)hp.com
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:59 am    Post subject: Painting...A novice paints! Reply with quote

Want to hear what I did to start painting the RV...I have now finished
the tail feathers complete with trim paint. See below.

Frank

Quote:
From one rookie painter to another...it is a lot easier than I thought
it would be.


Buy two 20 ounce HF guns...1) gravity feed gun (it is NOT an HVLP gun
and is sometimes on sale for $15...Piece of crap but works great for
primer. Under no circumstances use this for top coat.

2) HVLP HF gun (looks the same but it is a true HVLP and is sometimes on
sale for $40).

If it was on sale I would also buy the touch up gun regular prce around
$60...So sweet for little jobs. Right now I still have my friend's touch
up gun.

Its hard to describe the difference between these guns until you use
each one...Needless to say the primer gun will absolutly ruin your paint
job if you use it for top coat. You will spend close to $1000 on
paint...Needless to say the guns are dirt cheap in comparison.

Primer...piece of cake.

Top coat...Thin the paint a little more than it says on the can. Buy a
pint of cheap (er) white paint...Tell the guy you want to practice.

Put 50psi on the gun while the trigger is pulled...i.e the running
pressure, even thoguh HF say use like 28psi...You'll thank me later!

Setup the gun to make the classic cigar shape...you point the gun at the
wall and and pull and let go of the trigger without moviing the
gun...You should get the classic ciger shape...You can adjust the width
of the fan and how much paint is sprayed. The site www.hotrodders.com
will show you the correct pattern.

Hold the gun pfectly perpenduclar to the surface...never swing the gun.

Start with the paint spraying before you get to the panel...and keeep
the gun at 6 to 8" from the surface. The speed of travel will be
surprisingly slow.

Now to practice, get an old metal shelf, propane cylinder, neighbour's
car...anything you don't care about and can prop up vertically.

Here's the deal...If you travel the gun too fast you will get a dry
spray that will sit on the surface, i.e it won't flow...This is called
orange peel.

If you go too slow it will run...Actually its hard to make it run
unless....You can't see it porperly..This is where you need a LOT of
light at an angle to the surface...best light is outside but you need to
make a tent with a filtered supply and extract system....If its not a
windy day I guess you could build one outside with clear visqueen...Good
luck!

I got runs on my wheelpants in a couple of places because at the last
minute I moved the fuse out of the shop and the remaining area (where I
painted the pants) was dimly lit....Home Depot and Shop lights! Are two
terms that should be used in the same sentence!...Have one overhead and
one screwed to the wall to shine at the same horizontal surface.

Avoid the temptation to try to "dust in the paint"...it won't work. It
has to be put on as a full wet coat...You probably have half a minute
where you could add to the run where maybe it got a bit thin but nore
longer as it will sit on top of the old paint. This is why doing very
deliberate runs with proper overlap on a large surface is paramount to
avoid orangepeel.

Always rig your control surfaces horizontally...This is an absolute pain
in the a..! It took me about 3 hours to rig the flaps, ailerons,
elevators and empanage this way...And you want to be able to flip them
over and both sides at the same time..."Why?" you ask?...Remember how
the paint won't flow together unless its wet?...thats why both sides
need to be wet or you will get a seam where the two paint sessions join
together....Remember you can't touch the surface when its painted...Smile.

Put one coat on the top surface, flip over botoom surface and flip back
to the top for the second coat...Should leave about 10 minutes for the
second coat...So might want to do two elavators...I.e one coat on each
and then your 10 mins will be up....Flip so that bottom side is UP...You
will get some dust, best to be where no one will see it.

The obvious question is...well I have to paint the fuse vertically so
why go to the trouble of rigging the control surfaces as above...good
point and it comes down to risk...I.e it is impossible to get a run on a
horizontal surface (except at the edges). If you get a run you
can(apparently...i did it once) have a paper towel and laquer thinner
and real wet slop the run off and repaint.

Little scary but it did work when I tried it...Otherwise you got to wait
till it dries and wet sand it out and polish. Remember you can't dust in
a little paint and the hard paint is like bomb proof!...A hell of a lot
of work to sand and buff runs out!...So the work of rigging horizontally
is worth it to reduce the risk of runs.

When painting vertically spray a tack coat and wait 10 minutes....just a
light skim...move gun fast. This will enable the wet coat to stick much
better...When you practice on the propane tank don't apply a tack coat
and see how hard it is to make it run.

Runs really only happen when you put multiple wet coats on...like on a
wheel pant facing nose down...it tapers going to the top...So, if you
can't see well, you do it in vertical stripes...but it gets narrower
going towards the top so guess what happens, you keep going over and
over the narrow part...DOH!

Anyway, there it is FWIW.

Compressor...Mine is oil free...You will get fish eyes if there is ANY
oil in your air supply...Speaking of which I made my own fresh air
breathing system....put these terms together...Respirator (WITH
pesticide filter, which is organic vapour and particulate), OIL
FREE!!!!!!!! air compressor,...Tee in a air hose...Works great and saves
$400 for a Hobby air.

Sounds like a lot to take in but I picked it up pretty quickly with no
one looking over my shoulder.

Frank


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