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Engine compartment painting with 8 gallon compressor

Sonny

It’s all fun til the rabbit gets the gun.
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I want to finish painting my engine bay, hood hinges, and bottom of hood Saturday with a harbor Freight Tools hvlp $19 gun and 8 gallon compressor. I have a water filter for it too. If I reduce it 2:1, will it paint ok in short bursts? I used custom mixed aerosol cans for the front areas but they are pricey at $28 each. Doesn’t have to be perfect.
 
Hi,

The most important thing is to have at least 50' between the compressor and water trap/filter. It can be a length of air hose.This gives the water vapor time to cool and condense. The trick is to spray paint on the surface and not into the air. Lower pressure with an HVLP gun will help. Practice on a large piece of cardboard to get the air and fluid adjustments right. After you have the right settings, let the compressor charge up and then cool off. The sound should be sort of a "woosh" not a loud "hiss".
 
Buy you a regulator and a screw on filter that attaches to your gun.
 
What kind of paint are you using? Let us know how you make out!
 
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What kind of paint are you using? Let us know how you make out!
I will. Using Limco base coat and 2 part clear in a spray can. It came out awesome in the area around the hood latch.
 
I find that the HF detail (or a similar one off Amazon) actually works better for engine compartments and trunks; small enough to get around and provides a pretty good finish. Also, you tend to get less over spray on things you don't want painted. One thing with all of the cheaper paint guns; check the tip and make sure you get one sized correctly for the product you are spraying, some of them have very big tips.
 
Painting is the easy part, surface prep is the most important. If you adhere to some basics you'll do fine. Everyone's suggestion so far is good advice, you just need to make sure of a few basics like cool, clean, dry air and the surface needs to be squeaky clean before you layout your paint. You can almost not get it clean enough. Don't neglect the corners, nooks and crannies because this is where you paint job will start to fail causing the domino effect through out your paint job. If you take your time and do the prep work your paint job should come out just fine. Don't neglect some safety brother, wear a respirator because some of this paint is some real nasty stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like your using single stage paint. If so, you really won't need to spray clear on since the paint actually makes it's own.
 
Painting is the easy part, surface prep is the most important. If you adhere to some basics you'll do fine. Everyone's suggestion so far is good advice, you just need to make sure of a few basics like cool, clean, dry air and the surface needs to be squeaky clean before you layout your paint. You can almost not get it clean enough. Don't neglect the corners, nooks and crannies because this is where you paint job will start to fail causing the domino effect through out your paint job. If you take your time and do the prep work your paint job should come out just fine. Don't neglect some safety brother, wear a respirator because some of this paint is some real nasty stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like your using single stage paint. If so, you really won't need to spray clear on since the paint actually makes it's own.
One more suggestion, get some good epoxy primer layed down before you paint. It will seal the substrate from bleeding thru and makes a great surface for your new paint job to stick to. Good luck :thumbsup:
 
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Thanks for all the tips. That could not have gone better except for a few water drops here and there. I’ll just touch those up later. The 8 gallon compressor never lost pressure and the harbor Freight Tools $19 sprayer was money!
 
Nice job masking. That turned out great and with the engine sitting in there to boot.
Looks real good !:thumbsup:
 
Looks nice and made a huge difference. Time will tell but again looks great.
 
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Finished product.
 
Did this very thing on my Challenger repainting the engine bay after welding up all the holes and the raw steel tubing for the snout bars from my cage which also support the front plate.

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