Sorry guys but this one is not for house painter,heck I grew up doing that.

For automotive painters. Keep in mind this is newbie with almost zero tallent.

Best paint gun for starter.Would like one that doesn't make me look worst than I am.Understanding that a really good painter can make any paint gun work good but proably not great.Know that no gun will make non talent painter look great.

Decent quality paint that does not require second morgage on house. Knowing higher ends paint will make a paint job.They also mean more money washed down drain when operator screws up.

Figure base coat clear coat will be best. Could be wrong.

Devilbiss DV1, excellent base gun and also good for color and clear. I like PPG. Important to follow mixing directions on the can! As you get more experience you can adjust percentage's. Obtw, I just started painting 55 years ago.....

Larry,
That must be a pretty darn good gun with the number of Chinese copies that I see floating around out there.

With your experience, what is the best way to make sure you are getting the real thing and not one of the fake ones?

Actually some of the Chinese copies aren't bad. Although I only use them for sealer and primers. I don't do cars any longer only my own motorcycle restorations. The paint job on tanks and such have to be dead on. I did the paint on my Super Stock S10 truck in early 2020 with a made up booth. Came out pretty good for single stage.

I used the purple HF knockoff for my first....golf cart. Made all the normal mistakes for a first timer, but it looks pretty good overall. No complaints with the gun.

quote:

Originally posted by Bucky:
I used the purple HF knockoff for my first....golf cart. Made all the normal mistakes for a first timer, but it looks pretty good overall. No complaints with the gun.

That's what I thought the first time I tried doing a little painting years ago. Then I bought a Sharpe 75. Night and day difference. Back in the day the 75 and the JGA-502 were the guns of choice for lots of folks.

Things have come a long ways since then in paint gun technology, so it is good to have Larry's ideas on what's good for use with today's paints.

The DeVilbiss DV1. Is there a difference IN ONES FOR BASE COAT AND ONE FOR CLEAR? Will one do both with nozzle change w/o buying two guns?

While these are a little more pricey than the starting line guns. You get what you pay for and hard to get quality out of junk. Rather spend few buck on gun rather than lot on paint to redo a crappy job.

Found new one on ebay for 550 and thats best price I have found on them.Summit was 700 plus. Guessing the 550 is about as good of deal as can expect when compared to Summits price. Un less someone knows where a better deal could be found.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Burkleo:

quote:

Originally posted by Bucky:
I used the purple HF knockoff for my first....golf cart. Made all the normal mistakes for a first timer, but it looks pretty good overall. No complaints with the gun.

That's what I thought the first time I tried doing a little painting years ago. Then I bought a Sharpe 75. Night and day difference. Back in the day the 75 and the JGA-502 were the guns of choice for lots of folks.

Things have come a long ways since then in paint gun technology, so it is good to have Larry's ideas on what's good for use with today's paints.

Might make even a novice look better. One of the hardest things for me was getting the gun completely clean. By the time I was done, much of the paint was getting dry and difficult to remove. So I need some lessons on housekeeping.

JGA502 with a sharp cup was the setup back in the day. Joe you do know what you are talking about. Obtw a Binks 7 is a great gun but expensive.

Wideopen if you are not doing production painting the Divilbis will be a good all around gun for only occasional jobs. The base coat is important and has to be right on. Silver base is the hardest to apply so if it isn't right the color won't come out correct. Clear is no big deal, I put clear on thick with extra hardener then color sand and polish.

I will also throw this out there. Sharpe has a very good support page with lots of good information.

I highly recommend looking it over, especially the two articles on doing a compressor test and take a look at the airline plumbing diagrams.

http://www.sharpe1.com/sharpe/sharpe.nsf/Page/Support

Good clean dry air is a must.

Most of all don't spend your money on a good gun until you have a ample source of dry clean air to run it with.

Summit sells a good air dryer for a few hundred dollars. I can't stress enough that you cannot have water in your air lines. I made a double system and change my Desiccant cartridge often. One last thing, if you can use solvent base paint not water base.

I've sprayed with dozens of guns over the years and probably have a dozen or so I've liked enough to purchase for myself. For starting out I would highly recommend a Iwata LPH400 with a 1.3 or 1.4 tip. You can spray anything with that gun from sealer, solvent, water and clears with great results. I also have a Devilbiss Tekna Prolite that comes with 3 different tip/air cap combinations that continues to surprise me every time I spray with it. It's a very forgiving user friendly gun. Another one to consider may be a 3M composite gun with disposable/replaceable atomizing heads. I've sprayed with this a few times and seems to be a pretty versatile gun, and very affordable.
Whatever you chose definitely go with the 3M PPS cups, makes cleanup a breeze.

Solvent base gun (metallics/pearls) - SataJet 5000 B WSB HVLP 1.3

Solvent solid colors - SataJet 1500 B RP 1.4

Waterbourne base gun - SataJet 5000 B WSB

Clear gun - SataJet 5000 B RP 1.3

Been using SataJet guns for 30 years. Tried virtually everything during my career. I prefer Satas. Doesn't matter how good the gun is if the user doesn't properly set it up though.

The $9 purple gun from harbor freight is actually pretty good. Keep it clean and it'll better then your ability. I've painted a lot of stuff with them and while not as good as my $900 SATA'S.... they are more then adequate for most people and most jobs.

Will, I'm not a painter by any stretch of the imagination, but I bought one of those HF purple guns to do my daughters fender and bumper cover on her Civic after a "mishap" and it turned out pretty darn good. I did use a quality product from a reputable paint supply store.......

I bought the same HF purple gun to repaint the nose on my dragster

I have old suction guns and thought I'd try a Gravity feed gun

Sprayed 2 part primer like butter....perfect

Color coat was not so easy but it was me not the gun....had to redo it.

For a super cheap gun it was fine for a small job like a nose or a scoop.

Getting it set just right for the paint your spraying and the nozzle size correct is all it takes....but that can be difficult for someone who does not paint often....

Painting by amateur DIY'ers is usually not gonna go real well.......

I bought screw on disposable air filters and the pressure regulator

Nobody's mentioned using a Bink's #7??? LOL!!!

quote:

Originally posted by 2doggs:
Nobody's mentioned using a Bink's #7??? LOL!!!

Hey, I've Had one of those for a thousand years. I'm not a painter so I like it because at least I know what it's going to do when I pull the trigger.
And, it sprays upside down !!!

# Binks model 7 for the dub.... LOL

All depends on what the OP is trying to paint and what expectations are for the finished product.

****DISCLAIMER***** this is my opinion and has worked really well for me over the past few years, did it for a living many years ago now just for fun on restos and racecars as a hobby.

A few guidelines you can't go wrong by:

Air must be dry as hell (no water) and free of ANY oils
Prep work must be done well, quality of finished product will suck no matter who or what's sprayed if prep work sucks, finished product sucks
Final sanding with 320 or greater on a GOOD DA (not some old long handle junk from sears) with foam intermediate pad
Red scuff pad should suffice as final step of sanding around hard to get to areas, will provide anchor pattern for paint to stick, no shiny surfaces at all, every surface to be painted must be scuffed till dull prior to moving to next steps.

Wash with soap and water
CLEAN the painted surface with wax and grease remover after wash
Windex one last time before painting, make sure its fully dry
TAC (sticky rag 1 time use) rag the panel to remove any settled dust as final step before paint
NEVER touch a ready to paint panel with your fingers, if you do wipe again with windex and lint free paper towels i like the blue ones but there's some white ones in a box that work well too, then re-tac rag surface

Follow ALL spray instructions including drying/flash times and most importantly temperature guidelines for hardener and reducer
MAKE SURE you have PLENTY of air flow over your painted product for drying and overspray removal, don't blow air over it, put the fan behind the painted surface and pull air away from it, trash is better than runs IMO, if trash is a concern build a booth with filtered air going in even cheap air conditioner filters from your house is better than nothing.
PPS cups are awesome
Epoxy seal panel first, light even coats to obtain 100% coverage build/thickness here should be kept to a minimum, idea is to cover everything to be painted, observe flash time, then spray base or first coat on top of the epoxy sealer
Follow all mfgrs instructions on dry and flash time.

Cheap guns are cool for small jobs and first timers trying to figure out if they wanna do this on their own, IAWATA and SATA are my fav's if you get more involved and like this sort of punishment.

Materials are crazy expensive so ensure you don't screw up cause re-do can cost as much as dropping it off and letting someone else do it just cause of how much materials cost