Spraying

[Cec of Donny]

What is a reasonable price for a spray job? Nothing over the top. I'm thinking of cream and black or factory standard white with red panels. I know a quality spray job can cost £800+ for the shotblasting, loads of coats and the rebuild.

Is it hard to do a decent job myself if I hire a spraygun and compressor?

[scuba32]

What is a reasonable price for a spray job? Nothing over the top. I'm thinking of cream and black or factory standard white with red panels. I know a quality spray job can cost £800+ for the shotblasting, loads of coats and the rebuild.

Is it hard to do a decent job myself if I hire a spraygun and compressor?

If you are going to do the job yourself don't bother hiring the gear, compressors and spray equipment are cheap enough to buy and at least it'll be yours to keep.

[Cec of Donny]

Cheers Nick

[RichJak]

Cec

Do it yourself mate.

If you can piss you can spray paint. If you can use a spray can you will be able to turn out a well presentable job.

Here are the rules:

Rub everything back to a smooth finish unless your paint is that bad then it will need to come back to bare metal, for doing this use a burner like a taymar gas job (like the plumbers use for) once everything is bare use a good quality etching primer and good quality filler where needed. Take your time and dont rush it.

Once youre happy with the filling and sanding use a coat of primer filler and apply 2-3 coats rubbing it back with fine (almost smooth) wet and dry papers and water if your doing it right you will get a nice gunge on the paper. Again do it right and take your time.

once this is done and you are 100 percent happy with it start applying a thin top coat start with a dust coat, let it dry and then repeat the process once you have done this 2-3 times and have an even coverage flat it back with the wet and dry like before being very careful not to rub through. Again take your time.

Clean the whole thing off to a dust free condition and start applying the final coats, keep the spray gun movng at all times and apply the paint evenly and consistantly. Again dont panic and take your time. After 3-4 top coats let it dry thourougly and then again flat it back extremely carefully, again take your time.

Mix a final batch of paint and add more thinners to the final coats (i use 70/30) apply this slowly and evenly for another 2 coats. Again take your time. Let this dry completely for at least a week. After which it can be polished with a soft cloth and a T-Cut kind of paste. Dont go mad and take your time. If you want that custom look afterwards add another few coats of clear laquer and repeat the polishing process once it has completely dried.

By the time you see the results you will have amazed yourself, as you can see the golden rule is to take your time and remember 90 percent of a good paint job is in the preparation. Other hints and tips involve hanging everything on wire so it is suspended from the ceiling of the shed or the garage and having enough space to move around the object youre painting. And also mixing enough paint for the job youre doing mix up a bucket load and add it to the spray gun as needed to ensure consistancy, also dont forget to keep the enviroment as dust and dirt free as possible and work systematically. Finally always clean everything totally with thinners at the end of every spraying session so as not to contaminate the next batch of paint you spray.

For me being as fanatical as i am with this sort of thing i actually find the whole process very rewarding and theraputic.

Happy spraying mate.

[Cec of Donny]

Cheers for that Rich, I bought a book about bodywork but your post makes more sense to me

[covandy]

Nick what price would you say was fair for a spraying kit (compressor,gun.hoses,etc)

[scuba32]

I use Machine Mart for my gear because it's cheap and cheerful but does the job for diy use.

This is very simular to the first compressor i had and painted a couple of scooters with it with no problems at all http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/tiger/path/airmaster-2

This is the spray gun i use http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/pro-12c-spray-gun

When i got my compressor i got this thrown in and i just use the hose from this set which i think works fine http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/kit-1000-5-piece-air-tool-kit/path/accessories-consumables

Don't get me wrong Andy i'm not saying this equipment is the best or anywhere near but on a tight budget this gear will do the job just fine, it just might take a little more time and effort on your part to get the desired finish.

So for around £170 you've got everything you need except the paint.

[RichJak]

Yes the most important thing to remember mate is, realistically, how many times a years are you going to use it for painting your scooter?? Once maybe twice if you have a couple of scooters. It will be like the proverbial power drill and when your mates know you have a compressor and spraygun set it will be out on loan used by others more than you.
The set up we use professionally at the workshop cost me about 300 quid and thats only because we have 6 different spray guns.

[covandy]

cheers Nick and Rich 170 seems a good price and i have a machine mart a couple of miles away will have a mooch down there and have a look

[joe]

Did ya ever get around to spraying the scoot cec and if so post some pics of your work