After I do some major engine repair on my 89 F250 (460/7.5, EFI, C6 auto, long bed, 4x4), I'd like to paint it.

I'm curious as to which equipment I'll need. Type/brand of compressor, sprayer model recommendations, paint brand, etc.

Any 'must know' equipment tips for a beginner would be appreciated. I've done body work and 'can sprayed' my commuter POS Subaru with pretty good success. However I want to do the truck with a all-out paint job. I have an oversized three car garage, but only have 120v outlets.

Thanks in advance folks. I'll continue to utilize the forum search engine to pick up on the hit-or-miss tips throughout the forum. This forum rules. I had some great tips when I did my rear seal last December! Now I'm off to do the intake manifold gaskets.

Eric

 

You need your compressor to meet or excede the air requirements of what ever equiptment you buy. The cfm rating is what you are most concerned with, not really the hp size, manufactures usually overate hp. Being you only have 120 volts you will be somewhat limited in your air tool and gun choice. Conventional guns normally have more modest air requirements then hvlp, but spray at more pressure and waste more overspray in the air. Years ago, when I first was starting in this, I sprayed a few cars with a 120 volt, 3hp with a 20 gallon tank and a cheaper conventional paint gun. I had to pause at times while painting and let the compressor catch up a little, and some airtools with higher air requirements would have a hard time powering them. But with a slow enough reducer/activator was okay and could power the dual action sander I had for a little while before allowing compressor to charge up a bit.
Your most used equiptment for bodywork will probably be a dual action or orbital sander(ratings really vary on these, so look at the box and there air requirements)
And other tools not requiring air, sanding blocks of various sizes, hammer and dolly set, and a good buffer(a good electric brand such as a milwaukee,dewalt,makita ect should work fine). Buffing can save a lot of paint flaws and impefections, remove dirt nibs and really get it nice smooth and glossy, as long as it not a metallic or pearl without a clearcoat. Other tools are nice to have,make life easier and faster, like a stud welder for pulling dents it can handle-also has a shrinking tip, small mig welder, torch( I really got to go get one of these just for how much easier they make removing rust siezed bolts) board file, 8" orbital sander for stripping paint and for knocking down filler if you have a large area, and sandblaster, ect, but the last two have pretty big air requirements.
For painting you will want your compressor, 3/8 airhose, A water trap or something to help elimate moisture in the line, A regulator for the wall. another air hose off the wall regulator and trap and possibly another small filter or trap and regulator at the gun. The water trap (and wall regulator) should be placed at least 25' of airhose away from the compressor to be effective. Unless you want to run air piping in the garage, I run my hose off my compressor up to the rafters, place a few loops hanging down before going into the wall regulator and water trap. I drain the trap occasionally during painting. Seems to work okay. You can possibly find other tricks people use to elimate moisture if you search around, some coil some of the airhose in a cooler or something. A small compressor running alot, humid weather, will produce a lot of moisture you don't want coming out the gun when you painting I run full pressure off compressor and wall regulator and regulate the air pressure at my gun. And don't forget to have good ventilation and a good fitting respirator with fresh filters, and cover exposed skin and eyes. Paint is dangerous for your body-resiratory and nervous system and organs, even more so with modern 2k materials. Try to elimate sources of ignition in the painting area, and if anything has a pilot light kill it while painting and till overspray and solvent has well cleared out of the area. It never hurts to have a tweezers nearby to carfully pluck out a small wayward critter that finds wet paint, unless its a huge stupid fricken moth that decides divebomb your second coat of clear, land in the middle of the hood and flap all around like shakira on meth.
Lights, can never have enough lighting, I need more.
So in short, look at the cfm ratings on the compressor you are buying and make sure it can power the equiptment you use.

 

Simple regulator assist to remove the humidity if using HVLP gun first use at least 3/8 hose I used 100ft prior to my dehumidifer then I coiled 3/8" copper tubing approx 4ft in a bucket and attached the copper tubing to a 3.5ft PVC 4" pipe standing up with 2 caps. The bottom cap has a drain *** and around 2.5ft up the PVC pipe I have the copper coil connected to the pipe. (ie water drops falls to the bottom) on top of the PVC pipecap I have a 3/8 copper tubing comming out and connects to the final filter/collector. I used ice in the bucket to help condense the water in the compressed air. I live in Florida and have high humidity and it worked great I condensed all the water in the PVC pipe and poured out over 2-3 cups no water was coming out of my last filter/collector which is a Devilbliss Finishline filter and after that a 25ft 3/8 hose to gun. It truley worked great and excluding the hoses and filters I only spent 20-30 dollars in the dehumidifier. Hope this might help and spend the money on 220 in the garage. BTW I reduced the pressure from the compressor to 60psi with a cheap filter regulator from Harbor Frieght so the PVC pipe only had to hold that amount and after the pipe I reduced the pressure to 40psi and reduced further at the gun to 25psi.

 

Yeah, I've concluded that 220 is the way to go. Now I just have to wait until the father-in-law visits again (licensed electrician). I'll wave a bottle of Segram's 7 at him and then he'll be puddy in my hands. He'll get the booze after the job is done of course! In the meatime, I'll save the egg money for the right compressor for air tools and a sprayer. It will be years before I get a shop built on the property so I might as well get at least one 220 outlet in the garage.

Wow chloichina, sounds like you have quite the setup there, good work! Does a shade tree mechanic like myself really need all that? Colorado is pretty dry. I moved here from Michigan, wow what a difference.

 

Get the biggest air compressor you can find. Something about the size of a small country. If your wife dosen't say " Do you really need one that big " then its to small. I have had 3 compressors each one larger than the last, right now I have my eye on a 400 gal tank job. You can NEVER have to big a compressor.

 

HA HA! Yeah, go big or stay home has always been my thinking too. However, the budget doesn't allow for a Goodyear Blimp fill-up station.

Any recommended sources? Any recommended brands? At least I know I need a two stage (right?). I'm sure buying something like this is just like anything else, shop around. But there must be a couple 'highly rated' sources and/or brands.

I'll continue to hunt around while await more replies.

Eric

 

I just purchased and installed an Eaton 5-HP 80 gallon vertical V-Twin compressor ($1132) in my garage to replace my previous compressor, which was a Porter-Cable 3HP 60 gallon vertical compressor. I do a lot of media blasting for my multiple restoration projects and my old compressor just was not up to the task. This Eaton compressor is over engineered and was the best compressor in this price range IMHO and has many options that similarly priced compressors did not have. Some of features I like is the massive 5HP motor (~ 99 lbs), magnetic starter, continuous run feature, double motor-to-pump belts, ball valves used for oil and tank drains. This compressor delivers 19.5 CFM @ 100PSI (Free-Air value not the pump displacement) and the 5-HP motor runs at 1/2 the RPM's (1750 RPM) of their competitors (3450 RPM) to get these values. The slower pump speeds mean quieter operation, less heat, and less water condensation. The continuous run feature is great and saves you money on your electric bill and helps to keep the compressor pump cooler, which in turns prolongs the life of your pump. To use the continuous run feature you open a valve allowing air to be delivered to the two pump heads when the compressor is up to pressure. The air pressure then opens the intake valves and allows the air to enter and escape through the open intake valve, which cools the pump. When the air pressure drops below the threshold value of the valve the intake valves close and the tank re-pressurizes. This feature saves you $$$ on your electric bill because it reduces the constant start / stop of the 5HP motor. This compressor is much quieter than my old compressor as well and when the continuous run mode activates the load on the motor is greatly reduced and the compressor runs even quieter. When you buy an Eaton compressor you are buying directly from the manufacture and you cut out the middle men and therefore get a better price. Eaton even lets you choose the color of your compressor (12 colors to choose from). I choose Hunter Green, see photos below. If you order one of these compressors order the rubber mounting pads ($19) to reduce vibration. I anchored my compressor to my cement floor using cement anchors and lag bolts, but remember not to tighten the bolts too tight. The idea is to keep the compressor stationary, but allow it to ride on the rubber mounting pads to isolate compressor vibration from the surroundings. Having the right compressor for the job is very important. Not only will it save you time and give better results, it will out last an improperly sized compressor.



http://www.eatoncompressor.com/cata...4747/172993.htm

 

Nice compressor! 220 or 240?

Apparently you have a larger 'need' for such a compressor than I do. I still will probably go with your model or something very similar though. After all, I'll want to run a cutter, grinder, and other various air tools too. I learned the hard way with my wood shop tools. I started with the "..that's all I really need" attitude, then ended up buying all Grizzly equipment (table saw, band saw, joiner, planer, shaper, etc) and selling all the other 'junk'.

I assume this type of setup could be hooked up to a blasting unit too right?

 

This compressor is hooked up on 220 volts, using a 40amp breaker and 8-3 gauge wire. I know what you mean about "..that's all I really need" attitude, this is my third compressor and hopefully my last one I will ever have to buy. The most demanding application for my compressor I do is media blasting. I have both a blast cabinent and a pressure blaster that I use outside for large items. This compressor works so much better than my old one and has cut my sandblasting time down by 2/3rds. I also bought this compressor to do HVLP painting and my last compressor would have had a problem keeping up the air volume demands of HVLP painting. The last thing you want do when you are painting your truck is to have to stop and wait for the compressor to catch up, so you can start painting again. It is not just it is a pain to wait on the compressor, but when painting you have to keep up with the flash time between coats or you're going to have problems.
The Eaton compressor I bought is not a two-stage compressor, but is a twin cylinder design. This compressor has twice the CFM as my old compressor (20CFM vs 9.7CFM @ 90PSI) and I was thinking that while media blasting that it would cycle on and off as I was continously blasting in my blast cabinent, but this was not the case. Once the compressor starts up for the first time it continues to run the whole time I am blasting, but the blasting performance does not suffer while I am continously blasting like this. My last compressor was terrible for continuous blasting, it would blast fairly decent for ~ 5 minutes and then the pressure would drop so low that the blasting took for ever. I have a medium sized blast cabinent from Eastwood and I usually use their "medium" (Silver) blast gun nozzles, which are the largest size nozzle they recommend for a compressor of this size.
Eaton also sells a 60gallon Two-Stage compressor for the same price as my 80gallon twin cylinder compressor, but the salesperson at Eaton recommended twin cylinder design over the two-stage design for my application. He stated that the two stage design is usually only necessary if you need to have air tools that require 150psi. Nothing I use requires that much pressure, the most I usually use is 100psi and my V-twin compressor has a max pressure of 140psi. I hope this info helps you.

 

I have a devilbiss 7 1/2 hp (so they say) dual stage with an 80 gallon tank. This does pretty well for what I normally use it for, sanding, painting, running other airtools and only one person using it. The only thing that I use quite a bit that seems to tax it a bit is my 8" orbital or sandblasting. But if you look in most body shops, they are going to have a large compressor more of a name known more toward making industrial units like eaton mentioned above or quincy ect, and you can trust there horsepower rating more then you would devilbiss, sandborn, ect, all that are probably manufactured in china and look like clones with a different name slapped on it. Bodyshops with a few employees are going to using a lot of air all through the day, and need a good name that will do the job and hold up to the abuse.