Complete newb question. I have sprayed a few times before inside hoods and so on but never anything outside and it was only with paint that has been given to me. I know it depends on the paint and other variables but about how much would be needed to shoot just a cab (hood,fenders etc.) of a 79 f150 regular cab? Would 2 qts be enough? or would it be cutting it too close? Again i have NO idea. So any estimates would be helpful as i don't want to buy WAY more than i need.

 

As I was reading your post I was thinking 2 quarts before reading that part. 2qts.

 

Kevin Tetz (paint guru of tv's TRUCKS show) uses "The rule of seven", and it works great for me. What that means is that you need 7 ounces of sprayable material, per panel, per coat. A hood is one panel, a door another panel, etc. There are roughly 10-12 panels per car, averaging out compensates for differences in size. If you figure in another panel per jamb, you'd have 17. That comes to 119 ounces of basecoat per coat. ( times the three coats you want, then divide by 32 to figure how many quarts) This figure is for "sprayable" paint so factor in reducer as well. You can get a pretty close approximation doing this, use this formula when working out budget and ordering materials on my projects. Clear figures the same way, so does primer. The paint gun doesnt make much diference, since you are guestimating anyway.

 

I almost agree with that, except a roof taking 7 ounces and a fender taking 7 ounces isn't going to pencil out right. However, if you count the roof, back of cab, each door, each fender, and hood as seperate panels that's 49 oz times 2 coats = 98 oz., almost 3 qts. I would bet you can do it in 2 if you are using a good quality paint. Cheaper stuff, better buy more.

 

Eh, i'll probably get a gal. just to be safe. That way if i mess up and have to recoat for some reason i'll be ok.

 

Yep, not a whole lot worse than running out of paint before you're finished, especially if you're like me and mail-order your stuff. However, if you're using basecoat/clearcoat, and it's mxed 1:1, then thwo quarts of base will give you one gallon of sprayable material when mixed. There's no way you need a gallon of paint before you mix to do a cab.

 

So then if I want to figure out how much for a whole '52 truck then I would need (one gallon of base,one gallon of reducer)(1:1)..(one gallon of clearcoat,one gallon of reducer)
(1:1) to completely coat the entire truck, am I right??????

 

That sounds about right, but it really depends on your gun (siphon or HVLP) how mcuh of the truck you're painting (inside the bed and tailgate, door jambs, underhood, ect) , whether or not you're using a sealer and how many coats you'll need for coverage. For example, the Mustang in my avatar was shot with 6 qts of white base. That includes the outside, door jambs, under the trunk lid (but not inside the trunk) and the engine bay with three medium coats and I still had enough base to fill the gun cup one more time if I needed to. I buy my stuff in quarts for just that reason, you can buy a bit more to be safe and it doesn't cost that much more.

 

Thanks Sand_Man. I will be using a HVLP gun and shooting all metal (whole bed inside and out, bed is all metal), jams, inside cab complete, etc. Great idea of quarts. I will be going with that recommendation. Also temp of paint booth and correct reducer is very important to get a good looking finish. 70 deg. or better is what I used to paint at.

 

I agree 100%. I tried telling that one of my buddies who was painting a dump truck in November. It was inside a big shop and the paint looked like stucco no matter what he did to the gun. So he called me and I asked what the temp inside the shop was. He said 37 degrees and I about fell over. I told him he had two choices: warm the shop or wait until summer. He kept on spraying and now his freind has a dump truck that looks like bed-liner.

 

Clear won't be 1:1, it'll be more like 4:1, 2:1, depends on brand. Clear is usually the same price for 3 qts as a gallon price, or within a couple bucks. Plus, you usually use more clear than color.

 

Good point, but once you mix clear, the clock is ticking. Since I use House Of Kolor, the base is uncatalyzed, so if you mix extra, no big deal, just pour it into a container and it'll keep for months. But once you add the catalyst to the clear, it's either used or thrown out, and that's expensive, so I buy and mix in quarts so I don't have to even break the seal on the can unless I need it.