Oh gawd...the horror!!!!

[chicago]

SO...Ill just say that Im TOTALLY NEW to the painting thing. Brand new gun, first time mixing, cleaning, prepping for any thing OTHER THAN rattle can. That is where this begins.
Im building a crawler, so the paint job is not THAT important, but I want it to look half way decent.
Im using Summit racing single stage silver metallic paint 4:1 mix. For primer, I got some of the summit brand etch primer cuz I took everything down to steel. Got some practice panels shot those, adjusted the gun as best as I could figure out. Felt pretty good, laid down the primer on some smaller, surfaces for the rig that arent really gonna be seen that well for additional practice. Primer shot AWESOME!
Then I decide to give the paint a try. Mixed it up (donno if I mixed it well enough or not...some input from you guyz on this would be appreciated) to what SEEMED to be good and dumped it in the gun.
Started laying down the paint...right from the get go, it looked like s***!
It looked kinda orange peely right out of the gate with just a light coat.
I figured that it might kinda come together better with the next coat. Same thing happened AND the s*** started RUNNING like OJ Simpson!!!
WTF am I doing wrong? I opted for the single stage and the gun over a rattle can cuz I thought it might be better, but now Im wondering if that was the right decision...

Is this my application technique?
Mixed wrong?
Not enough dry time between coats? (Thinking that I could have let it tack up a bit more before applying the second coat)
Is the gun not set up right?

Now, I say I dont care about the paint, but...I dont want it to look TOTALLY like crap either.

Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!
I plan to re sand and re shoot these tomorrow.

Here are the pics....NOT for the faint of heart!!!!

 

[chicago]

How do you know when youve mixed enough, especially with this metallic paint?

 

[thumper]

Well, I don't have much advice, but I can offer my support If my friend Mike were still around, I'd call him up and ask him. He liked to paint things as a hobby. He wasn't the greatest, but he tried damn hard.

Maybe with the 'orange peel' effect, perhaps there was some residue of some sort that cause that? Some contaminant or something. I know that Mike was very picky when it came to the actual painting of something. He would clean and re-clean a part until he was satisfied. Either that or maybe the gun was spraying too much material?

Hopefully a Michaelangelo sort will be able to chime in and help you get your crawler ready to crawl

Jon

 

[chicago]

Well, I don't have much advice, but I can offer my support If my friend Mike were still around, I'd call him up and ask him. He liked to paint things as a hobby. He wasn't the greatest, but he tried damn hard.

Maybe with the 'orange peel' effect, perhaps there was some residue of some sort that cause that? Some contaminant or something. I know that Mike was very picky when it came to the actual painting of something. He would clean and re-clean a part until he was satisfied. Either that or maybe the gun was spraying too much material?

Hopefully a Michaelangelo sort will be able to chime in and help you get your crawler ready to crawl

Jon

Lol...
Thanks man. I did prep the surface with alcohol and then the wax and grease remover...
Gotta do SOMETHING though.

 

[fieldsken1]

it could be alot of things.
holding the gun to far away
water in system
to wide a spray pattern
as afr as mixing you just need to stir it up a little while no biggle there. did you strain it???
could be something on the primer use a tack rag.
did you let primer dry long enough??

The orange peel phenomenon can then be smoothed out with ultra-fine sandpaper, but it can be prevented altogether by changing the painting technique or the materials used. Orange peel is typically the result of improper painting technique, and is caused by the quick evaporation of thinner, incorrect spray gun setup (e.g., low air pressure or incorrect nozzle), spraying the paint at an angle other than perpendicular, or applying excessive paint.

 

[chicago]

I bagged the metallic paint and went with a straight blue. Still getting the orange peel effect. I went back and re set everything to what the gun manufacturer recommends. 50-70 psi at the gun, 10 psi at the cap which is waaaaaayyy up from where I had it initially.
When I was re shooting those panels, I was at the same setting that I was shooting the silver with, and the spray was very slight. I was thinking that was better, but I still got the orange peel deal. I'm wishing I had just rattle canned this thing.
So tomorrow, I'm just gonna get this gun dialed and go from there. Talked w/ my dad about this , he thinks I need to thin it more. However, the instructions do not say to thin the paint.
How long should it take for the paint to not be tacky. It's been about 6 hours and it's still pretty tacky. Again, the instructions say that you should be able to tape after 8 hours??? No way.

Please help. I donno what the Fu$k I'm doing.

 

[CruiserOCD]

After talking to a paint pro, it seems that air pressure is everything! Too much and you get orange peel and too little and you get splatter. I was told that the tank should be no less than a 60lb tank or you risk running low before you get the tub sprayed out complete. If you have an auto body paint store in your area, that is where I would start.

 

[neufab]

did you add the hardner to the paint? was it enough?did you change the needel and cap from the primer to paint?

 

[chicago]

After talking to a paint pro, it seems that air pressure is everything! Too much and you get orange peel and too little and you get splatter. I was told that the tank should be no less than a 60lb tank or you risk running low before you get the tub sprayed out complete. If you have an auto body paint store in your area, that is where I would start.

did you add the hardner to the paint? was it enough?did you change the needel and cap from the primer to paint?

Thanks for the input gents! I got it figured out. I went and popped for a gun gauge. Found a dude via google that has the same gun and I followed his pressure adjust method. I had the line pressure and the gun pressure necked waaaaaaay down. Painted some panels today and that made ALL the difference. I still suck at this, but at least I am happy with it, now.

Just thought Id update!

 

[thumper]

Cool, happy things worked out/are working out better now. I must say, I personally like the blue more than the silver.

Jon

 

[chicago]

Cool, happy things worked out/are working out better now. I must say, I personally like the blue more than the silver.

Jon

Thanks John! Me too.

 

[thumper]

I may have to have you help me re-paint my 80 now

Paint is starting to fade on the hood and peel off/flake off on the fender flares. I don't think I can complain too much, it did last 14 years.

I am going to do the bed liner route except I am going to try and do a desert camo type paint scheme on top of the bed liner. Hopefully it will come out as nice as yours

Jon