Howzit Atomized, The sprayers we use are HVLP gravity guns that cost over $100 from F.H. so I clean them after every use and there's no way I would toss one since they work great when kept well maintained. Tried some cheap models years ago and hated them due to uneven spray fans. Aloha,Kokua
Lavz, One technique I’ve found to get an even spray on large areas is:
- Increase the air pressure a bit so the air to paint ratio out of the gun is high. You can also adjust the ratio on
the gun itself. The main thing is to lay down the paint lightly.
-
Use a wide fan pattern. Widen it out as far as it will go.
-
Hold the gun away from the board ( approx. 18 inches ) and spray the full length of the board on each pass.
Too close and you’ll see the overlap line.
- Spray 2 or 3 light coats, letting them dry in between. If you spray wet over wet, you’ll see the thicker areas
as darker.
Also, lighter colors like Yellow and Orange are easier to get even. Red isn’t bad, but Blue can be difficult.
Doug
Hey Doug,
Yeah sounds like the ticket nice and easy few light coats…take my time… its for a 7’6 mini-mal, so i was just going to put two speed lines on the deck, in red… maybe orange now you mention it…
Today’s the day… trying some test runs on some scrap and see how i go…
I’ll post pics later on when its done…
Thanks again for all the help…
I’m sure other people can benefit from all the wealth of info in this thread too…
Cheers
Ant
So the spray came out great, i made 3 light coats… nothing too fancy, just two speed lines…
I sprayed 3 coats and it seemed to not be getting significantly darker… thought it was a bit too light, but once it is glassed the colour is sorta enhanced and more vivid…
Air gun/brush spraying is unbelievably better than rattle (spray) cans… never ever going back… and its really simple for any other people out there getting into it…
One question i have, is would it be worth spraying a clear laquer over the spray paint when your painting on foam, because there did seem to be a bit of “paint dust” getting around in between spraying and glassing it… had one or two SLIGHT sand throughs as well, maybe it would add a little protection from sand throughs… but hopefully still let the resin seep into the pores of the foam…
Enough babble, heres the pic :
well done Ant … looks like a mate of mine’s board…
" it’s for a 7’6 mini-mal, so i was just going to put two speed lines on the deck, in red… maybe orange now you mention it… "
…it might just be my eyes [?] , but …those ‘orange’ speed stripes looks a little …er…“blue” , to me ?
ben
…maybe I should eat more carrots …
Hey Lavz, that’s funny, look at this one (made a few months ago):
…so many orange boards ,
so few carrots !
“er…what’s up , doc ??”
ben
Balsa, thats scary…
Whats EVEN scarier mate, is I was actually thinking of putting in thinner side stripes as well… now that freaks me out…
Your board looks like it would be heaps of fun, what are its dimensions?
The board in my photo is 7’6"x21’x3’
One thing i’ve got to work on is going really light around sanding the glass around the spray areas because i HAAAATTTTEEEE sand throughs with a passion…
If you sand through, even slightly, do you think its a good idea to touch up over the glass, and under the hotcoat? Is that how you would fix them?
Cheers
Ant
p.s -
chip mate, orange … blue… its all the same… customer wanted blue or dark red and i like blue the best …
Lavz, The board looks good. Like a GT racecar. I’m sure those stripes will give you more speed in trim.
About the paint dust that settles on the board: The only way I’ve found to eliminate that is to tape everything that you don’t want to paint. I use one of those paint masking tools that automatically applies tape to the edge of paper as you pull it out. The paper will cover the larger areas. Very fast and not expensive. A paint store that supplies professionals will have them. Also automotive paint suppliers, as well as Home Depot or equivilant.
Tape the edge you want first, with tape only, so you can be precise. Then pull out the masking paper with the tape-edge , and apply that to your already existing tape on the board. Then be sure you tape the other, loose edge of the paper down.
Be sure to really press down any taping. Compressed air will find its way into any small crack or loose tape edge, giving you ghost lines.
It’s lots of prep work, but it’s worth it when you pull all the tape and paper up and you see a beautifully colored new surfboard. Doug
Atomized,
I just got a 20 gal air compressor and was thinking about getting a spray gun to start learning. I’m sure there are a thousand things to learn about spray painting but maybe you can get me started in the right direction.
I’m looking at guns and figure I should get a smaller gravity feed automotive touch-up gun. Maybe not? I’m more interested in fades and smaller taped areas than coloring full sides. What do you think for a first gun? I’ve seen the Harbor Freight guns. Are they okay for a beginner, or do you need to have some skill to make them work versus one of the more well known brands?
Also, know of any good resources, like websites or classes?
Thanks
The Harbor Freight guns are cheap knock offs of Binks And Devilviss guns. They’re fine for surfboard work where the color is going to be resined over. I probally would’nt use one to paint a finish coat on a car. I’m not a big fan of gravity feed guns because you have to clean the cup and the gun every time you switch colors. With the syphon feed guns you remove the syphon from the cup assembly re-attach it to the gun so you can dip it into a container (a plastic cup, drink bottle- I use gatoraide bottles) that has your color in it. To clear the gun, you dip the syphon into a bucket of water and flush. It’s a much faster way to change color when you’re doing multi color fades.
This gun will work specially if your compressor does’nt have the CFM’ s to power a bigger gun.
I use the large guns.
There an airbrushing 101 dvd out. I have’nt seen it but, I’m sure it covers the basics.
A good all around airbrush for detail work like freehanding is the Paasche VL5.
Howzit Ryan, Get the bigger gravity feed sprayer since you can still do small detail work by adjusting fan spray and paint quantity and air pressure but if you get the small gun you will find it hard to do whole board sprays. I have 2 of the small ones and after trying them for a full board paint job I got a large one. You canget a really good sprayer from Fiberglass Hi for around $100 which should do any paint application you want.Aloha,Kokua
Hey doug,
Yeah i taped everything off, i use a similar thing where i put my tape down to set the line i want, and then i use your method, but i dont have one of those fancy pancy tools, i just get a peice of news paper and put a peice of tape on the edge of that , then tape it down… but thinking about it now i’ll probably get one of those tools
Yep i agree totally, prep is 90% of the work…
And boy did i learn my lesson about smoothing edges down… i knew about it, i even did it to pretty much all of the tape i layed down, but i guess i obviously missed some…
you’re right, pulling the tape is the best bit by far when it comes out neat and vivid and beautiful…great feeling!
but pulling the tape and seeing ghost lines or paint where it shouldn’t be, such a let down…
I did stuff up a bit, because i had some blue paint near the stringer (i dont know how)…
So i though, ah i know, i’ll just sand it out slowly… tried to sand and it didn’t really get anywhere besides digging into the foam… so i quickly dropped that…
thought ahhh i know, ill just spray over it with some white i have… tape the blue areas again… starting spraying… blue showed through the white, because it was a lighter colour going on second… and now i really got the shits…
Abandoned that idea, but the worst thing is, when i make a mistake i just want to correct it there and then, fix it ! but as is the case when its wet or something, trying to fix it will only make it worse…
Anyways long story short, i sanded out the blue specks… but some dodgey white paint was left over, and it seemed to turn a little brown when the resin was applied… but yeah not that easy and horrible to see for someone who doesn’t know its there… but to me its blatantly obvious…
With all this, thats why I’m trying to get the best results to find out where to spray, ie: on the foam , or just under the hotcoat…
Well, its 7:44am, the wind is offshore, and the swell is up… so i’m outta here!
Catchyas later!
ant
An easy way to remove paint from the foam as long a the area is small, is to lightly rub it with the sticky side of a piece of masking tape. Kinda works like an eraser does.
Thanks for the advice.
I hear what Kokua is saying also. Sounds like I need to get both guns to be on the safe side. Darn, another tool to buy! Just kidding, I think I might have a tool addiction.
Atomized, Harbor Freight is having a sidewalk sale tomorrow. At least the one in Huntington Beach is. They have their $15 touch-up gun on sale for $8. I was there tonight looking at stuff and saw it.
Oh yah, one other question. Where ever I look, whether I find big guns or small, gravity feed or siphon, there’s always HVLP guns in the mix. I know the HVLPs are promoted for home painting and funiture finishing, how do you feel about them with surfboard work or even auto painting? I worry that they’re good for solid applications but might not be able to handle fades.
Thanks again.
Ry
I went to a previous side walk sale and got some of the large ones for $12.
HVLP guns use less air presure so you dont get a big cloud going while your painting. That’s a good thing if you’re painting in an area with poor ventilation like a garage and don’t want ot get everything else in that garage covered with overspray. They also use a lot less paint than non-HVLP guns. They where originally designed to reduce the amount of emissions created with solvent based paint applications in industries like Autobody and Funiture and comply with the laws created by the Clean Air Act… Most of the HVLP guns I’ve come across are pressure feed so the pot is pressurized to flow the paint to the nozzle. For what I do, I’ve never found the need to use one. Mark Townsend (a fellow board painter) told me he tried one and did’nt care for it. I’ve seen some post here by people that use them though. I think they where using them for shooting finish clears.
followed this thread with interest as I have bought a compressor and touch up gun like one you showed to do my own sprays. A lot sprays on boards (not full colour stuff) seem to be on the hotcoat. I sprayed an aussie flag on my son’s last board and it turned out fine but there were a whole lot of little ridges where the tape lines were. To preserve your design, I know you spray over the design with a flat clear laquer (I have been told to use acrylic laquers like the car guys use)…do you keep spraying until there are no ridges left? What if you are doing a repair and only spraying a small area? It seems that you still would have a ridge line even when you sprayed the flat clear over the top. thanks for any advice
From my understanding of the ding repairs,
they patch the job etc, and sand it nice and flat…
Then they spray the colour over the patch…
Let that dry… use some light sand paper and blend it into the board a bit…
put another coat on… again blending the edges more and more…
another coat… blend…
repeat until done…?
Maybe just sand your ridges down if its on the hotcoat… wet and dry?
Cheers
Ant
I think what your talking about is what you see on Lost and other shortboard makers boards where there is no gloss to keep the weight down. They use paint pens, stencils, spray cans or airbrush- just about anything that will make a mark. Since its on the sanded hotcoat you can always sand it off if you don’t like it. They usually seal with Krylon Crystal Clear spray can enamel, but in all reality just about any water proof clear will do the trick as long as it’s compatible with whats painted underneath it. Now about the ridges on you son’s board. You can light sand the paint job with 400 or 600 to knock down the ridges. Blow the dust off with an air hose. Give it multiple coats of clear with light sanding (400 or 600) beteween coats an you will eventually get there. This is overkill since the boards not a wall hanger and its going to be surfed. If the board is PU/PE and weight is not an issue and the paint is compatible with resin, a coat of resin will get you there quicker since it is thicker that spray clear. Im not yet knowledgable enough on using Epoxy to comment.
Ocassionally ,I help a local ding repair guy out with painting back the color or graphics over a fixed ding. The trick is to blend the color out to zero past the perimitter of the ding. Don’t tape off a perimitter around the ding because that edge will show when you pull off the tape. If you’re going to seal it with clear, spray beyond where the paint ends, fading it out to zero. If you’re coating with resin, make sure the resin coat goes about 2" past where the paint ends, then tool down the lip of the resin coat with fine sand paper being careful not to burn into the paint.
When picking a can of spray paint, is there any type that shouldn’t be used?? Can you just use any can of spray paint???