EK Wagon project - Total rebuild

[Finny]

More paint, so it's progressing, but slowly.
Sanding, cleaning, Wax and grease remover, Masking up, mixing, painting and clean up.
Unfortunately I ran out of time before I got the clear coats on.
Does anyone know how long I can leave it before I put the clear coats on ?

All sanded back (again) and ready to paint.
I actually painted it all in white as a base coat before I started putting the silver on.






The silver mostly came out with a good coverage.
However I did have a couple of areas were the gun was not spraying evenly.
I really need to get the settings right before I go to far.












Might need another coat over some areas, but not sure if I can leave it go more than a day or two, before I get the clear coats on.

[EK JAY]

looks good finny i think its more of a case of keeping all the dirt / dust of the paint
before the clear goes on and i dont think you can rub metalic back before you put clear on but i could be wrong

[Finny]

looks good finny i think its more of a case of keeping all the dirt / dust of the paint
before the clear goes on and i dont think you can rub metalic back before you put clear on but i could be wrong

Thanks for the feedback. I did already know not to rub back until after the clear goes on.
Tack rag will handle any dirt, but I did have a couple of little bugs that got on the tailgate.
I thought it was more to do with getting the clear on before all the thinners had dried out of the paint.
And allowing the later coats to bite into the previous paint.

[EK JAY]

i think it was a day or two before i put clear on the fb
i will have to go back and check my thread
the ek red wagon has no clear just paint on the outer panels
but thats a straight color not metalic

[FeeBee]

Colour going down must be an exciting stage!!!

looking good mate.

[Finny]

Yes exciting and also scary
I meant to contact you and see if I could have a look at your FB wagon and measure the trim holes, so I can drill them into my EK body.

Jay thanks for the feedback.
The data sheets for the paint give lots of info, except for the maximum time you can wait before putting the clear on.

So I rang the suppliers and spoke to the help desk (long term experienced painter) who said:
1. Light sand with 800 wet. (just enough to remove overspray)
2. tack rag
3. mist coat with clear
4. apply wet clear coats.

He said it is always best to wait a few days before putting the clear on ?
Now I wonder it I should also wait 2 days when I do the metallic red, before clear coating.

[Mick Jagger]

I wouldn't sand any metallic before putting clear on
acrylic is never dry ,or is it? ,a squirt of thin clear will soften it up for the clear
I always put heaps of clear on 8-10 coats
as you work down to the last couple of coats just make it thinner and thinner
and as flat as you can to save time sanding
but you have to make sure everything under is ok as itll all come through now
weather, compressor,gun lines,dust ,hose out the shed the night before
tack rags just keep it clean with no fingers etc..........

[EK JAY]

Thats what ive been told aswell jase dont sand meatalic before clear

[Finny]

Thats what ive been told aswell jase dont sand meatalic before clear

Yes Jay, that's what I had heard also. But the help desk for the paint supplier told me that was the best way to do it.

Thanks Mick, yes I'll be keeping it as clear as I can to prevent contamination.
Although a couple of bugs permanently encased in a panel or two would be a nice novelty.
After checking the car this afternoon, I can see that I need to lay down some more silver before I get back to the clear.
A couple of areas not completely covered, a couple of bugs on the tailgate (which I left out in the open), and a couple of paint drops (so I will be doing some light sanding anyhow, unless there is another way to get rid of them)

So unless convinced otherwise, the plan is to fix the problems, lay down enough silver to get a consistent coverage, and wait 30 minutes and start the clear.
I'm not going to do the silver, then wait a couple of days, sand and then do clear. Just seems wrong to sand if I don't have too.

[Finny]

As a spray painter I need a lot more practice.
Photos of the good and the roof.









Struggled to get the gloss laying down on the roof, most of the other areas (thinner areas) went well, but the roof
Just not wet enough, always had dry overspray on both sides of my paint area, just couldn't get a nice wide wet strip.
Any ideas on the best way to adjust the gun ?


Or do I need to get another one.

[Finny]

Are you starting at one side, meeting in the middle and finishing on the other side of the roof?

Hi Tim, Yes, but because I can't get wider than about 1" wet, I can't get any real overlap.
And following a 1" strip is challenging. I just need it wider, 4" would be wonderful.
I'll put the gun apart, and do another clean, maybe something is clogged up.

[FeeBee]

Yes exciting and also scary
I meant to contact you and see if I could have a look at your FB wagon and measure the trim holes, so I can drill them into my EK body.

Yeah give me a call whenever. I have been a bit sick the last few days, am just about over it now. Hopefully will get to spend some hours on mine, but will see. I haven't touched any of the trim holes yet so it should be easy. I might try and dimension them and take a photo to save you a trip down. Did you want to check the doors aswell ? That's at the storage shed which is not far away either.

[oldnek]

As a spray painter I need a lot more practice.

Struggled to get the gloss laying down on the roof, most of the other areas (thinner areas) went well, but the roof
Just not wet enough, always had dry overspray on both sides of my paint area, just couldn't get a nice wide wet strip.
Any ideas on the best way to adjust the gun ?


Or do I need to get another one.

Hi Finny,

I wouldn't get another, that gun should be pretty fine to use, as by the look of previous painting done looks pretty good. I have used lots of el-cheapo guns and had pretty good results.
You can pull them apart pretty easy give the needle a polish with steel wool and clean the air passages out, with a bit of de-burring, and maybe use some Oxy cleaning tips to ream and clean the nozzle jets. Now remember you only want to clean and debur, not resize.
Just with the setting, the adjustment at the bottom near connector is the air flow and would adjust this to max air flow (screw out)and have your pressure setting only done on the regulator( generally set at 40 psi)

The adjuster at the rear of trigger is the paint flow and set this with the fan adjustment on the left side of the trigger. In these adjustments you want to aim for a nice cigar shape, and definitely not hour glass or comma looking, (Which lots of cheaper guns do), Mind you I had a Sata gun which wasn't machined properly, and fixed it with the use of set of jet drills. The pattern has to be pretty uniform. Test this on piece of white card before spraying so you can see exactly what it should look like, and you want around 6 to 8 inches of spread, with good paint build in the center gradually fading to outer edges. If your fan is not even then the outer holes in the nozzle may need a good clean, not so much in paint wise but poor machining and cleaning marks, these can be cleaned up by the method above.
If you screw the fan setting in on the side to reduce the spread the shot of paint should be stream round, if it's not then maybe your needle is not clean, and may need a little wet and dry then steel wool, to get a good finish. Make sure the hole in the center of the nozzle is perfectly round as well.
Just check the size of the Nozzle when your at it, it might be 1.5 or 1.6 mm you can use up to to 2mm. when I have used small nozzles you can open the flow up a lot more without the fear of excessive paint application.
Now I'm no painter, and there are plenty of painters on here, that might say different, but this has worked for me all the time and I painted quite a few in all types of paints.

Looking good though. Cheers John

I forgot to mention, make sure your vent at the cap is not blocked, as you will get uneven, splatter or no coverage.

[Rusty EK]

Also , how big is your compressor , hvlp suck up heaps of air , you might not have enough air to get a decent spread , especially on your bigger panels , does it start off with a wide fan of paint ?

[Finny]

The compressor is big enough Rusty, more than enough air.
It doesn't reduce size, it just starts small and stays that way.

Thanks for all the ideas John, I will certainly try a few of them.

Results from today were much better.
The roof is finished.
Just needs a good compounding in a week or two.