Painting - Aerosols or Spray gun?

I run a cheapo spraygun kit from a cheap tank-less electric compressor that yields up to 8 bar (Less than £100 ten years ago - around £60 now from screwfix.com). IMHO keeping pressure low to reduce overspray, and being careful when mixing and prepping is more important that the cost of your kit.

I've resprayed a complete car with cellulose (quality stuff but with standard thinners) and managed to get a deep shine without orange peel straight from the gun, with little or no cutting afterwards. I think it's easier than mig welding - which I try to do only when my work can be hidden!

Give it a go, some of these add-on gun kits are so cheap you won't be risking much. The only downside is that once all your mates find out, they'll want weekend spray jobs from you ! ;-)

Sorry, forgot to add: my compressor supplies up to 8 bar but I've never used it at that pressure - more like 3-4 bar. The lack of air tank doesn't seem to affect the supply: I don't notice any pulsing - maybe there a rudimentary buffer tank in the casing before the hose fixing?

The output of the compressor can be relatively low if you have a reasonable tank to store the air. You don't need anything like 10 bar to run the spraygun but you will need a reasonable flow of air and if the gun you use consumes more than 6.3 cfm then you'll need a reservoir. This reservoir will slowly run out as you operate the gun but it should work

Rob Graham

Look for what they call a "touch-up gun" - basically a miniature=20 spraygun, uses about 3 - 4 cu ft/min with a container about the size of=20 a plastic coffee cup. It's obviously slower than a full size spraygun,=20 but the finish is equally good. Mine was about =A330 several years ago=20 from Machine Mart. Best tip for a good finish: use lots of primer -=20 build up a really thick coat then rub down. Dave B

Your compressor is more than adequate, especially if it has a receiver. As for a gun, for small areas I'm happy with a gravity feed gun. As an amateur I've tried most types of spraygun, with similar results from all of them. I find a gravity feed gun is as good as any, and they're fairly easy to clean. Best of luck with spraying and blending in a metallic finish though. Mike.

It doesn't matter *that* much on a £100 Volvo ;). Good practice for when I've got something that matters.