Thought I would document the trials and tribulations of painting my bumper fillers. I used to paint antique tractors and gas pumps in my early teens. haven't used a cup gun since then. although we got good results and all we used was a 25 gallon compressor and did it outside in the backyard. I'm doing this because the original bumper filler cracked, then exploded/shattered and flew off into a ditch somewhere.
I got an HVLP kit from Summit and a bunch of Summit paint. The trial runs had horrendous fisheyes because I was dropping the pressure from 120 to 20 at the regulator on the gun, No regulator or filtering. What a crap show.
So after this, and probably giving myself skin cancer taking all this wrinkle finished paint off with acetone. I installed one of Amazon's finest dual 5 micron filter, water separator, and regulator combo. Right at the compressor. This solved my problem, but there were still issues. It turns out that the oil, water-vapor, mist had set up residence within the HVLP gun. this meant that even though I had eliminated the issue. The residual moisture in the gun would still leave me bewildered, and confused.
I discovered the residual moisture after my issues persisted when I put a coat of primer on. There were still terrible fisheyes. so I tore the entire gun down and cleaned it out. I also ran 2 tanks of air through the hose to dry it out. I then spent 4 hours with 400 grit sanding the fisheyes out of the primer.
The next day I painted. using single-stage gloss black from Summit. I did 4 coats. I have a husky, and one of his hairs made it into the paint. and I have some minor solvent pop. I believe the solvent pop was caused by insufficient time between coats. I did 10 minutes as the can said. but 15 might be better. I should have quit at 3 coats. it was great then. but I had enough paint mixed to do 4 coats so I did it. oh well. More paint for when I wet sand. I'm not going to go nuts wet sanding, I only want to take out the piece of hair and maybe the solvent pops. if they are too severe and go too deep to sand out. then I have enough paint to put another coat on.
I didn't bother with clear coating and what came off the car was not clear coated.
From 6 feet away it looks perfect. Which is better than I can say for the rest of the car. This car is a driver. I have to keep reminding myself of that whenever I work on it. Half the front body panels seem to be off a white regal anyway. so it is what it is. My goal with this car is to do everything to the best I can as I do it. By the time I "finish" working on it. it will probably be time to go back through everything and hopefully do it better than my first time.
I only did the front fillers this time. I also POR-15'd the inner bumper support, and blasted, primed, and painted the headlight buckets on the passenger side. The driver's side looks good. I am also converting to H4 bulb sockets with LEDs
I got an HVLP kit from Summit and a bunch of Summit paint. The trial runs had horrendous fisheyes because I was dropping the pressure from 120 to 20 at the regulator on the gun, No regulator or filtering. What a crap show.
So after this, and probably giving myself skin cancer taking all this wrinkle finished paint off with acetone. I installed one of Amazon's finest dual 5 micron filter, water separator, and regulator combo. Right at the compressor. This solved my problem, but there were still issues. It turns out that the oil, water-vapor, mist had set up residence within the HVLP gun. this meant that even though I had eliminated the issue. The residual moisture in the gun would still leave me bewildered, and confused.
I discovered the residual moisture after my issues persisted when I put a coat of primer on. There were still terrible fisheyes. so I tore the entire gun down and cleaned it out. I also ran 2 tanks of air through the hose to dry it out. I then spent 4 hours with 400 grit sanding the fisheyes out of the primer.
The next day I painted. using single-stage gloss black from Summit. I did 4 coats. I have a husky, and one of his hairs made it into the paint. and I have some minor solvent pop. I believe the solvent pop was caused by insufficient time between coats. I did 10 minutes as the can said. but 15 might be better. I should have quit at 3 coats. it was great then. but I had enough paint mixed to do 4 coats so I did it. oh well. More paint for when I wet sand. I'm not going to go nuts wet sanding, I only want to take out the piece of hair and maybe the solvent pops. if they are too severe and go too deep to sand out. then I have enough paint to put another coat on.
I didn't bother with clear coating and what came off the car was not clear coated.
From 6 feet away it looks perfect. Which is better than I can say for the rest of the car. This car is a driver. I have to keep reminding myself of that whenever I work on it. Half the front body panels seem to be off a white regal anyway. so it is what it is. My goal with this car is to do everything to the best I can as I do it. By the time I "finish" working on it. it will probably be time to go back through everything and hopefully do it better than my first time.
I only did the front fillers this time. I also POR-15'd the inner bumper support, and blasted, primed, and painted the headlight buckets on the passenger side. The driver's side looks good. I am also converting to H4 bulb sockets with LEDs
