Chris
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Yes, a knowledgeable, competent person can achieve reasonable results with a spray can.
But, the people who use spray cans are generally neither knowledgeable, nor competent, while those who are will more than likely use a spray gun.
The other thing is, as you would know, it depends how the spray can is charged and what kind of spray tip it has. I’ve used spray cans prepared by guys like you and, I agree, they’re not so bad. Joe Public, though, doesn’t buy those because the generic stuff is cheaper or he just doesn’t realise that he should go to a paint distributor, rather than an auto parts store.
Here are the after shots of that car above. You won’t get a result like that with spray cans. 😉
[IMG]http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss334/cprscc/Before%20and%20After/Subaru%20front%20after_zpszk7dkn96.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss334/cprscc/Before%20and%20After/Subaru%20Quarter%20After_zpsh2vtfbqn.jpg[/IMG]
Yep. Behind the end wall would be ideal for that plenum. Then exhaust straight up and out. The less bends the better.
That fan sounds like it might do the job. You can get the cfm rating from the manufacturer. The idea is to get a wall of air moving through the booth at the speed that you want. Here, the Australian Standard is 0.5m/s and that works pretty well. To work out what you need, the calculation is:
Height of booth x width of booth x speed of air movement x 60 = Cubic movement per minute.x 60 = cubic per hour
So, for my booth (which is 3.6m wide by 2.7m high and required speed is 0.5m/s) that would be:
2.7 x 3.6 = 9.72 x 0.5 = 4.86 x 60 = 291.6 cubic metres per minute x 60 = 17496 cubic metres per hourIf you go for something like mine, a couple of things:
That plenum chamber is designed to go through the wall. As you can see from the picture there are windows above the panels at the end and those windows go down to floor level so I couldn’t put it through the wall but had to sit inside the booth. That creates some dead areas around that end of the booth which I think I could fix by cutting into the sides of the plenum, next to the two small benches, either side.
The fan in that unit is 3 phase (415 volt) and the whole system works really well although it would be even better if it didn’t have to push the air through about 10 metres of ducting. Getting a fan unit that will move the amount of air you have in your booth really is crucial to performance. I’d recommend that you spend the extra – you’ll appreciate it later. The filter pad itself is just cheap polyester wadding from the local sewing supplies shop. I have to change it every week so this works out much better than the proper spray booth stuff. Inside the plenum is almost as clean as the day I installed it 5 years ago, so it definitely works.
Explosion proof lights? :rofl Don’t be silly. 😛
Actually the majority of the lights are separated by a diffusing lens, only the 4 single fluoros are exposed and they were just supposed to be temporary. I’ll change them…..one day.
Jack, what you do sounds almost exactly like what I’m doing, except I’m using MS clears. Agree 100% on washing cars before painting – that alone cut down the amount of dirt in the paint by a significant amount and with a bit of care, like you, I get very little dirt in the jobs so most can go out straight off the gun.
I had a similar problem.
The only place where I can exhaust out is halfway along one wall but I don’t have the space to make the booth wide enough to do that. So, I put the plenum chamber, which has fan mounted above it, at the end and then ran ducting up into the ceiling and back along the side to the point where it can go through the floor above and up to the roof.
The ducting is boxed in along the right hand side ceiling, sitting a little below the original ceiling level. It makes the booth end draught which works well enough. Fan is designed for the size at about 14,000cf/minute so sucks the booth clear very quickly and end draught means a fairly constant wall of air movement from one end to the other. Inlets are on the doors.
You could, if you have the width and some ducting, get clever and do a side down draught which would be better but inlets would need to be in the ceiling and you’d need to plan air flows fairly carefully. I didn’t have that option.
[IMG]http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss334/cprscc/Painting/Booth002_zps39c5be9e.jpg[/IMG]
Don’t know Colornet 2.0 but we used a program which was developed by DuPont Asia, called ANZ Colorquik Pro, so not the same as may have been used in North America or Europe. I understand, but can’t say for certain, that the new program is based on the old Standox one used in the States but modified somewhat so that it draws not just from the local database but also from the Cloud.
Mmmm, very quiet.
That’s looking good though. Maybe just the lights but that looks a very light red, almost pink.
Fly mask. If you don’t fold your edge too sharply you’ll get a softer edge than backmasking and it’s much easier to get the line straight. Don’t spray up under the tape and it will soften out just nice. How much tape you fold over can make adifference, too.
We’re required here to give a 3 month/5000km statutory warranty but I extend that to 12 months as a general policy. I won’t warrant paint adhesion on non-genuine (e.g. Ebay) plastic components, even though we use the proper Dupont procedure and primer. Fact is that I wouldn’t get a warranty claim every 3 years so it’s not a big deal for us. On jobs where we use only Dupont premium products I’ll offer a lifetime warranty which is backed by Dupont for materials. For new cars I’ll match the manufacturer’s warranty. Same thing, never had a claim. I am insistent about following the TDS though. Seems that pays off.
Pretty flash for a “toy”.
Let us know how it goes.
Agree with Jayson – gentle heat. My booth is also unheated so I use heat lamps in the winter but have to be careful not to get them too close otherwise you bake and seal the top before the underneath has flashed, leading to solvent pop later.
Yeah, lots of opinions on this. Like Diambert, I Prepsol with grey Scotch, wipe off and then wipe down with an alcohol cleaner. Approved by Axalta for Cromax products that we use and never had any problem with it as a method.
Thanks jimmo. It was becoming more than just an annoyance.
Yep, interesting. It’s what I’ve been saying for ages – that colours are more about the effect than they are about “full coverage”.
Toyota are the masters of translucent colours (but not the only one) and it is really difficult to get an edge to edge match on a lot of their colours. One trick that I’ve used is to look at their ground coat which you can usually see under the bootlid and mix a batch of solid colour basecoat to a fairly close match. Then do the same as he did, blending the edges out a bit. Same thing, really, but using colour rather than a shade of grey. Just the same as you’d do on a 3 layer pearl.
I don’t agree that it is not more work. You have to mix another colour and it adds another step in the process, but worth it to get a good match or, as he calls it, “perceived”.
With nice flat panels like bonnets and doors it is easy to get the correct paint thickness with your gun distance from the panel and overlap. When you come to guards then it can become trickier because most people spray following the curve of the wheel arch and then go to a horizontal movement once they get above the arch. Very easy to get more paint thickness here and in the curve on the top of the guard as your overlap increases to compensate for a heavy middle because it is closer to the gun.
Depending on ambient temperature an hour flash before clear should be enough but if your base was overly thick in these areas and flash between coats insufficient then solvent pop is a possibility. Other possibilities include reducer choice, force drying of base, air flow in the booth….the list goes on. Really a bit hard to be definitive without having seen the application.