Yes I painted the whole bike and I understand what your getting at. I have seen professional shops that don'teven seem to get the paint blended enough to not show. And metallics and pearls are harder to spray I know this, however refer back up to my bike, maybe I'm just good at picking up stuff like that but that was my first paint job and it was a candy and it turned out great . I just had a screened in porch that I sealed off with visqueen.
Also I am quite aware if temperatures and humidity and its roles in how paint lays down and sets up. That's why they sale different temperature range reducers. I also posted a link to a YouTube channel where he shows you how to do all these things at home and he is very good at what he does. He helped me out when I was getting started with a lot of advice. If you don't think he's a professional look at some of the cars he has done.

 

right and i totally agree that just because its a shop it wont be perfect either... not all shops can be classified in the same level. It boils down to getting the paint and prep right the painting conditions right and the skill and or talent of the painter.

 

Yep and it now boils down to solvent or water based. It requires an even cleaner atmosphere then solvent based paint. 1 piece of contaminant will ruin the whole panels paint. Also there's no tinting with water based. So you better be damn good with blending now if you weren't before with water based

 

Painting is not hard.. Putting the clear coast on is the hard part. Clear goes wrong the project goes wrong. I painted my rocker moldings at home and they came out good. Just good prep work and good compressor. And stay hand lol..If you never painted before you might wanna practice.

They look good right?

 

nice job Crav!

I think all necessary information has been supplied by other users. The OP seems to have a grasp of what is needed but I do think as well that a 20 gallon compressor may be too small. It depends on your gun though. I'm fortunate enough to be close to one of the premier restoration shops on the east coast and that is Eastwood. Eastwood ships so if your looking for quality products for reasonable prices I would check them out. I bough a lot of product through them. I tried painting once with a untested paint brand and shoddy compressor, shoddy dryer and shoddy gun and it came out bad.

I've since upgraded to an Eastwood evolution spray gun. Eastwood single stage polyeurathane paint kit, Devilbiss QC3 dessicant dryer, in-line air dryer, in-line digital air regulator, and an 80 gallon Ingersol Rand compressor. The temperatures this time of the year are colder so be sure your paint won't have a problem in your area weather before attempting. I plan on painting again beginning of summer next year.

Take your time, buy some paint mixing cups and a quality brand paint your comfortable with and you should be ok. To blend it takes some skill though. Remember never to start spraying while your gun is aimed at the product, always start spraying before you aim at the product otherwise you may get paint splotches. Overlap 50% and paint in a sweeping motion. Also, make sure that you have the correct spray size tip for whatever paint and/or primer you intend to use. If you don't have the right tip on the end of the gun the paint will not atomize properly. Too much paint and it will run. Think light coats and you will succeed.

Thats bought all I can add. I hope you got good weather though, as it is cool this time of year. Hope it works out for ya man.

Don't forget to check out Eastwood - Auto Body Repair Tools | MIG Welder | TIG Welder | Plasma Cutter | Auto Body Supplies & Accessories

 

Yes, you can do it yourself, don't really need a spray gun or a booth either, just prep it right...

If you're going to clear coat from a can, make sure you get the 2K clear (two-part) with the button on the bottom of a can that releases the hardener into the clear... from that point on, you have 48 hours until the can goes completely solid, but the results are way better (than regular 1 part rattle-can clear that is, NOT better than actual spray gun).

I rattle canned the Mopar lip kit for my Neon R/T (one of my previous vehicles) and the clear coat made quite a difference. The kit was silver (only one of the two available colors at the time), and my car was yellow, so I sanded it, painted the center part with flat black exterior trim paint, masked it off, painted the rest of the bumper yellow (ordered spray cans of matched up paint on Amazon IIRC), and clear coated it with 2K two part clear from a local professional paint shop. Then removed the tape to leave the part in the middle (right around the exhaust tips) black. I'll let pictures do the talking:

First, I sanded the whole thing down, painted the middle black, let it dry 24 hours or so and masked it off:



Then I painted it with matching spray can paint (matched by paint code) (2-3 coats):



Then sprayed it with 2 part clear (another 2-3 coats) and removed the masking tape in the middle:



Front lip installed:



Rear lip installed:



Hope this helps...

 

What springs are you sitting on?

 

hard to tell if they look good....anything can look good from 5 feet away....especially black.

not trying to bash you and im not trying to say they dont look good but i know 20830548435823 people that take pics from 5-30 feet away and then never post angle shots, close ups, sun shots, etc etc and then when you see it in person your like yeah that dude definately did it him self.

good results can be achieved through even a crappy gun. ive done... my subaru engine bay is a perfect example of it. with that build i made one point with it and its still in the works because of money. HOWEVER the goal was to do a "budget" build without cutting corners that you see a million other "budget" builders do. thats not how i am. so the car will be done 100% correct to what i want and no corners were or will be cut imho.

there were things like shooting the engine bay with por15(but i did it for function) that helped saved cost, using a cheaper paint but its the best out for what yuo spend(havent done it yet but i have all the stuff). but for instants i used all OEM subaru parts when replacing panels and no aftermarket(keystone, automart etc etc) replacement panels.

heres the bay... this was done ina garage with plastic hanging up and a wet flow with a pos paint gun i bought for 20 dollars about 5 years ago and used 5 or 6 times until i bought a real gun and its been sitting collecting dust and get thrown around the garage for years. i can explain the prep needed if people want it.

before




during






after(mind the dust)




i have steps of all the primer and eveyrthing too if anyones interested.