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Painting is always a pain. Painting in those conditions are more of a pain lol. Was it cold also? Humid?
I saw an ls1 rx7 guy with a GORGEOUS build...perfection...turn his garage into a paint booth with tarps, heat, dehumidifier, etc. Paint turned out excellent.
Just bask in this builds magnificence. LS1/FD Build Thread (the most detailed build thread on Earth) - RX7Club.com
Outdoors, about 51 degrees when I painted, but not too humid.Quote:
Originally Posted by MDoe8
I have contemplated doing a DIY spray booth, but could probably rent a booth at a professional place for about as much as I'd spend trying to make this garage work. Then again, I can barely walk around my car in my garage because it's so small. Where ever I move when this lease is up (at the end of June,) the ol' ball and chain has agreed to getting a place with a bigger garage (at least 2 car) just for me to have as a man cave. Would provide more (and better) storage for parts, as well as room for me to actually work without having to move the car all the time to do anything.
Compressor actually would turn on and run semi normally today, up until 20psi, then it started doing it's high low thing (great...my VR4 apparently has contagious boost surge and has given it to my compressor -_- ) Anyhow, got me thinking, perhaps it's the pressure switch that has failed? Would suck if so since that one is fairly new, but I've heard of stranger things. Had thought capacitor related to initial start up or the brushes inside the motor since yesterday it either would just sit there and hum without running, or immediately went into it's high speed low speed back and forth thing. Still, not what I want to be dealing with at the moment. Although would be nice to be able to use air tools.
Would be fun to do that. I don't trust my abilities though. I will be stripping the engine bay to paint it after the first start/drive and maybe i'll give it a go with a paint gun. Won't be worse than spray paint!
It's just like learning to weld..Spend a bit of time getting to know your equipment and spraying on some scrap material to dial settings in.Quote:
Originally Posted by MDoe8
Biggest things to look for: 1k vs 2k. Basically, whether you need an activator or not. A 2k would be a two part system (technically 3 if you include the reducer) and generally provides better results. Beyond that: single stage vs base coat/clear coat. Single stage is cheaper, BC/CC is pricier (and obviously more coats so more chances to mess up) but gives superior results (IMO) in terms of long term durability (clear coat helps combat UV rays) and appearance.
A decent gun can be had for a reasonable price (Less than $150) and there are plenty of mail order companies you could order from for cheap. Local places can custom mix though, which is nice. I'd estimate just a basic paint job (not doing jambs and bay and stuff) would likely need about 3 gallons, but anyone who has done it can feel free to correct me.
Even a shitty paint job (like my rattle can job today) can be made to look decent with wet sanding. Except for body damage issues. can't fix that after laying paint.
Anyhow to add to my accomplishments for today: One head has been broken down, cleaned and reassembled.
3 gallons of paint for a basic job is WAY overkill. We painted jams, and underhood on my Stealth with just under a gallon. I'm going to buy 2 gallons when I redo it since I plan on doing it a little more extensively and will still have material left at the end.
Hmm..Well while I was doing stuff inside the car (waiting for paint to dry) I decided to pull my ETACS and open it up because of electrical issues I'd been having prior to the rebuild.
Namely, when I would hit a bump or something, it would often kill the electrical inside the car (AC, radio, etc.) Shutting the car off and back on would sometimes fix it, sometimes not. Was rather random. Further discovered when I went Chrome that my ECU would lose power on one of the wires necessary to flash or log (don't recall which, think 12V) and sometimes it would work fine. I could move stuff around under the steering column area and sometimes that'd fix it up. Lastly, the memory for the AC and the radio seems to never work. Now, not sure if these issues are related or not however while everything is out, this is a large part of my wiring issue (as is some kind of parasitic drain even without a radio installed.)
When I opened up my original ETACS, everything looks good inside. Nothing like a burned up ECU does. I don't see any super obvious shorts in the wiring behind where the dash would be. I'm on the verge of trying to pull this whole mess out somehow and start pulling the loom off everywhere to inspect and replace wires, however I'm hoping someone has insight that will provide a fairly simple answer that I'm not seeing.
For the memory not working you can check the IOD plug in the underhood fuse box. Its the greenish-yellow thing. It needs to be snapped into place, otherwise the memory will not work right.
Bought an EVO MR blow off valve for it. Hopefully no more owl hooting!
whatever you just said about painting....made me cross-eyed. Lol ok only slightly. I will definitely do a bit of research and practice before digging into my engine bay. Thankfully, that's a long time away so i'll have time to practice. What's the word on air compressor requirements?
I painted my old green vr4 and it came out really well. It was the first full car I ever painted. I'd get a 60 gallon 3hp compressor. Tractor Supply has a porter cable one that is $4xx but usually around holidays it's $100 off. (Porter-Cable® Stationary Belt Drive Air Compressor, 60 gal. - Tractor Supply Co.) I'm using an old Husky one that I've had for 8 years. When it dies I'm going with the porter cable. You'll also want an air trap on it (~$30), and then right before your gun you'll want an inline filter (~10). Also you won't need a a full gallon of paint. When you mix it about 50% is reducer to thin it out. My green vr4 I stripped down to bare metal. I did the door jams, and underside of the hood to with 2 quarts of actual paint (so 1 gallon after reducer). There are some good youtube videos on how to adjust and clean your gun, as well as how to read mixing cups.