Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Difference painting w/ spray cans or spray gun??

OK guys, I have done a few doors for practice making door hangers and I think I will really enjoy restoring my first pump. Although the doorsa I've done with cans look great at 5 feet they arent like a car's paint finish. I am already looking into a sandblaster as chemical removal was a pain in the *****. I can get a nice craftsman spray gun with air compressor. I just really need ot know from the guys that do it all the time...is there a difference?

I was never a body man, but I was the Assistant Manager of the largest body shop in the St. Louis area. Back in 1985 we doing over $2,000,000 a year in body repair.
All day long I was around men who were doing some find paint work. The biggest thing I learned was preperation. The amount of time you spend on preperation will far exceed the amount of time you spend painting.
Now for painting. I decided to try my hand a painting, but I didn't want spend the amount of time it took to base coat/clear coat, besided while this type of paint work is the best, it far from what the pumps looked like coming out of the factories. I went with good old Dupont Centari enamel paint. This only requires paint, reducer and hardner. Easy to apply, I like the gravity gun best. Practice on anything. Paint is put on in layers, don't go back because you missed somenthing, for sure you will get a run.
Dupont Centari is expansive, but there are other companies that make paint at a much lower price, but the thing you loose is the yellow might not exactly match the Shell yellow. Black and white will generally match.
Preperation, and Practice.

Jack Sim

I think we need more information. Are you asking if there's a difference between using a spray can and a spray gun while applying the SAME automotive paint, or are you asking for our opinions on using rattle-can paint vs. automotive paint out of a gun? If it's the former, Jack's post is right on...you can apply automotive paint out of a spray gun or spray can and the key is preparation. I have never used the spray can method, but I know it can be done. As for the latter, a rattle-can paint job is never going to look as good as a two-stage base coat/clear coat paint job. It won't have the depth or shine to it, and you don't have the option of cutting and buffing the paint job to get rid of imperfections and orange peel in the paint. I would say invest in a good paint set-up with a good HPLV gun and air compressor...you'll never regret it.

I only paint with a gravity feed gun and compressor. That is the only way to get the best finish. As Jack said. Prep is 90% of having great results. I use PPG paint for everything and it flows real nice. The other key is DO NOT get in a hurry especially if your using a spray gun and compressor. If you rush the process you will get into trouble real fast. If you want a nice finish then go with the spray gun. I personally will not waste my time using a spray can to paint my pumps. I don't strive for a museum quality paint but i do want it to look as good as possible.
Good Luck

You are getting into a field of pump restoring that some back away from because they dont have the background or cant afford the painting inventory required. Ive done some small work with rattle cans and shot a urethane clearcoat over it with good results. Without having to write a book to you on painting, I will just pass these few things down to you. You just dont buy a compressor and a gun and start spraying. You need knowledge of paint products, gun models , tip sizes, regulaters, preping, wet sanding, and buffing (they are in a class by themselves) also are you spraying inside or are you doing it outside where a neighbor might rat you out. The list goes on, I learned painting the hard way and with over 20 years of practice I got it down. What will really help you is to simply go to "You Tube" and type a request like, painting a car. You will be able to watch plenty of videos short and long with good examples. Try it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the responses. I am not a tota rookie of painting. I know its not the same but I have airbrushed for years. I know that automotive spray guns are a whole different world.

You all say 90% prep?? WHat are the kind of steps we are talking about? Thanks for all your time.

Sanding, filling, sanding, priming, and lastly sanding.

Jack Sim

Do what I done . Enroll in your local Community College Auto Body classes and learn with a good instuctor. you'll probably also get a discount on supplies and it's fun. So far done one car (see post in non-petro on Mercurys) several pumps and misc. Right now working on my 67 Chevy. Mitch

Again, as Jack said. Sand, prime, fill, sand, prime & fill. Repeat this process as many times as you need to get it where you want it. Make sure there are NO sandpaper scratches, those will show up big time and look horrible. Make sure to block sand all the flat panels you can. Block sanding will bring out any small dings or imperfections that you may have missed with the naked eye. You will also usually find these when you wet sand everything down. Before i paint, i go over everything 2-3 more times to make 100% i have not missed anything. After that, I lightly wipe everything down with some reducer and then i cover every inch wtih a tack rag. Once that is done i am ready to paint. I am far from being an expert but these methods have worked very well for me over the years with better than average results.

I use paint cans but nobody likes the result LOL

Next time wash dirt off the pump, 1st 56 !

As my dad told me repeatedly when we were prepping my Olds for paint, "Paint amplifies imperfection."

Just paint it yellow!

While we were restoring it, an acquaintance asked me if I was going to paint it purple and make it a lowrider. Um...no. LOL.

Hear is my 2 cents.
I spray everything with a rattle can. Sometimes I run out of working fingers before I am done. The older I get the quicker my fingers stop working. Small items are OK but I know rattle canning a pump door or large area is not going to end with a quality paint job.
Helped my Buddy with a metal rack the other day. He just finished welding it up and needed all the welds cleaned up. We knock off all the splatter, he blows it down and wipes a couple of areas with thinner. Gets some black paint from a can, mixes it with some thinner (I guess) and shoots it. We take a look and he hits the thin spots and another coat. Then mixes more thinner with the remaining paint (he thought he had another gallon of black but did not). One more coat to make it all shiny and we are done. Looks better than my best rattle can job and he made it look so easy. He had some clean up of the gun where as with a rattle can you don't but the results are far superior with much less effort. He has a JET brand gun and a touch up gun too. Says for smaller jobs the touch up gun is great and real easy to use.
That's my short story made long. Now all I need is to learn how to us a paint gun and get going on better paint jobs.
Mike