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Painting tips.

I am picking up a SOC that is needing a bit of TLC to some of the body panels. I shall be spraying them myself and it will be with aerosols bought from Halfrauds as I have no access to an airgun. I have done this fairly successfully in the past before.

What I would like to know is the 'flatting off' bit. I know I can flat off between coats and it is always advisable to flat off between primer and top coat if nothing else. Is it right that the last colour coat should also be 'flatted off?' before lacquering?

Also, is a couple of coats of etch primer a good idea? I will be using zinc based primer and I was thinking that if I use an etch primer first then the zinc primer can't realy do it's job as it won't be in contact with the metalwork. Will it?

On another note. Are cheap electric sprayguns any use? You can't use these with cellulose paint IIRC, so where could I get my paint mixed for use with an electric gun?

Reply to
gazzafield
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If you mean 'airless' types they will work with cellulose. Think it's something to do with H&S that they say they can't. But expect to experiment with viscosities first. And cellulose ain't cheap for this.

A far better option is a HVLP type like the Apollo. This uses a turbine rather than a piston compressor. The whole set is light and easily portable. Again, you'll have to experiment with viscosity - the instructions are near useless - but you can get very acceptable results. Start off using paint very much thinner than you would with a high pressure type. They have the considerable advantage over a high pressure type in that no water is produced in the compression process.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I've got an Apollo - used it to restore 2 motorbikes. Results are as good as any compressor setup, but much slower going.

Russell

Reply to
Russell

Slower than a 1000 quid setup, yes. But not than a small 'portable' compressor type?

The one I have is the SprayMaster. Dunno if it's much faster than the SprayMate?

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Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

That really is a crap website, innit. No information, just blurb.

Reply to
Guy King

Yep, couldn't agree more.

Reply to
gazzafield

Is it going to be a restoration or just to make it look better? I assume that the colour is non-metallic. Some people spray lacquer onto not quite dry colour so that it joins properly. If you're using aerosols then you'll probably want to flat off the colour coat and possibly the clear coat too.

Reply to
adder1969

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