Hello From Atlanta GA

[KJL]

Hello,
I want to start out by saying I am not an artist but do a lot of "car part" painting and some body and scratch repair. I have always wanted to try paint touchup using an air brush so I purchased a Badger 360 Universal to play with. I have a large compressor and tank I use for air tools, regulator and in-line airbrush secondary filters and dryer. Most of my experience has been with traditional old school full size internal/external mix air guns, and some HVLP air guns and lots of rattle cans... What intimidates me almost as much as the airbrush is the science behind modern day paints and coatings. You almost have to be a chemist to figure it all out. I am currently going to attempt a paint repair on my 72 corvette as soon as the temp and humidity drop but wanted to present what I am trying to do to people who know airbrushes. I look forward to being a member!

Keith

 

[Mr.Micron]

Welcome home Keith nice to have you here.
72 Vette better check that glass out to ensure it is not to brittle and dry , The hardest thing on repairing an old Fiberglass body it dry glass where they car has just been baking in the hot sun for decades.

 

[markjthomson]

Welcome from New Zealand

 

[Franc Kaiser]

Welcome to the forum from China!

 

[KJL]

Welcome home Keith nice to have you here.
72 Vette better check that glass out to ensure it is not to brittle and dry , The hardest thing on repairing an old Fiberglass body it dry glass where they car has just been baking in the hot sun for decades.

I am not too concerned about the fiberglass condition. I had to patch the damaged area with a small amount of filler, blend and sprayed a high solids primer over a masked area. This is probably not the forum to post some questions on but... I understand to do this as a pro body repair person would, they would prep and spray the whole door. Perhaps I will do that at some point but right now I just want to paint the impacted area and blend the best I can into the surrounding area. See attached file. I am trying to decide if I should mask the area and then try to wet sand the seam and buff which I know will not completely hide the seam or not mask the area and attempt to sand and buff out as much of the overspray as possible for a better blend. And then should I bother using a clear top coat or just be happy with a buffed out base coat.

I also have so,e questions regarding best pressure to use for the paint I am using which is a PPG product called Deltron 2000 reduced 50% per MFG recommendation. I have not experimented with this paint because it cost $$$ but I know I need to. I am still struggling with brush control. It seems with oil based paints I have used in the past, they seem to not level out evenly and always leave some sort of orange peel look to the finish. The dry to fast I guess. I played a bit yesterday but it was 90F outside. I wouldn't attempt this until the temps drop into low 80s to high 70s.

 

[jord001]

Welcome to the forum KJL you are now a member of the OAF. I'm sure you will fit right in. There are a few folks on here who do automotive stuff with airbrushes.

I'm assuming you are spraying the deltron with the airbrush?

Airbrushes hardly use any paint, so it won't be expensive to use some of the paint to experiment with pressures and reductions to get the best results.
Airbrushers usually work with drops of paint, so to begin with I would set the pressure at 2 bar (through the airbrush) and thin the paint 4 drops of reducer to 1 drop of paint.
(I don't know how thin the deltron is but if it's really thin use less reducer).

This feels like I'm teaching you to suck eggs but I'm just making sure.

Test spray on a similar surface to your vette door panel, see how it sprays and adjust by either adding drops of paint or reducer as needed to where your paint flows well and covers the panel without issues. Just like what you would do with a spray gun but on a much smaller scale.
Don't forget to keep notes on what you add so it can be replicated later. This 'recipe' is upscaled when you need to mix more than drops for testing.

The paints we use for airbrushing differ quite a bit between brands so we have to learn each system and even then due to multiple airbrush ownership what works for one airbrush doesn't always work for another so testing has to be repeated. It maybe the same for different automotive paint systems. It's a little learning curve but with your automotive spraying experience it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Hope this helps a bit.

Lee

 

[SiRoxx]

Welcome! A good starting point to reduce Urethanes seems to be about double for airbrushing. But it’s a similar process as spraying. To thick, up the pressure or add more reducer. You’ll get it.


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