....From: "Mike Quinn"
.....I just painted the engine compartment, floors and trunk in my TR4A last
week. I came out looking pretty good but I had more orange peel than I think I
should have. I have a Craftsman 5HP air compressor that puts out 9 cfm @ 40 lbs
and I have the Craftsman Auto paint quality gun that requires 7.2 cfm at 40lbs.
I set the compressor at 40 lbs. The primer went on real smooth but not the color
coat. I've painted before but not with enamal. It seemed to me that I may have
used to much pressure and the paint was drying to quickly. Or could I have not
thinned the paint enough.
My experience with automotive paints are in respect to: acrylic enamel, acrylic
enamel with catalyst and one base coat / clear coat. I assume you were using
automotive paint. I assume this paint had a thinner / solvent referred to as
"reducer". THe reducer is designed to work within a specified ambient temp
range. This is usually noted on the container. My personal experience is to
use a reducer that is one temp range cooler than specified when painting an
entire car in order to get the paint to flow out and so that the overspray from
each pass melts into the finish (prior pass). There is one caveat in doing this
- the paint takes a bit longer to set up and therefore a greater chance for tiny
bugs to settle on the tacky paint or for the paint to run if applied too heavy.
I typically set my compressor for 60 to 65 psi (assume a 5 psi drop thru the
hose at the gun)
Applying too much reduce will SPEED the drying time. I observed first hand as
my father was attempting to paint the first time with an acrylic enamel and kept
adding reducer to get the paint to flow out better - he managed to get the paint
to dry in the air (as it left the spray gun) and settle as dust on the hood of
the car he was trying to paint.
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