ORIGINAL: jonnyslick

ohhh dude i noticed you live in redondo beach! i have a friend who lives down near the pier ... we go there alll the time ...

ok aside from that ....

let me give you a quick breakdown of the parts and material:

1. Air Compressor (at least a 30 gallon tank, but larger the better)2. Pressure regulator (if not one on the tank)
3. HVLP sprayer (high volume, low pressure ... gravity feed from top)
4. In-Line water filter
5. CLEAN lines (a lot of people mess up paint jobs b/c they use lines they typicall use with their air tools which commonly will get oil in the lines)
6. Sandpaper (500 to 2000 and everything in between)
7. Sanding blocks
8. Floursent lights (on a stand are great to see ripples/lines in the side and top of your car)
9. Thick Masking Paper (news paper tends to blead through)
10. Masking tape ("deading" all the tape you use a bit by lightly touching it to your pants or shirt so it doesn't stick too hard when you remove it and pull paint)

as for paint and body:

1. Body Hammer and Dollies
2. Quality body filler (don't read bondo .. you want to use this to fill in the minute scratches sometimes left from sanding ... you'll sand about 99.9% of this back off the car)
3. Primer (I like to use dense primers that will fill in the finest of the paper scratches)
4. Base coat of paint (if you using a 2 or 3 stage paint which i recomment)
5. Clear or Kandy coat
6. Reducer and Hardner for the base and clear
7. Mixing sticks and buckets (to get the right mixture)

Painting your own car is NOT hard. but to do it right you need to 1) PRACTICE, 2) have the right tools, and 3) take your time. if you rush it or try to cut corners it will look like crap. you can paint in any enclosed room (or even outside if you plan on wet sanding and compound buffing the entire car to take out the trash). if you paint in your garage ... i would suggest putting up drop cloths from floor to ceiling to keep paint overspray off of anything else in the garage. have a couple or three good box fans pulling the air out of the garage (lowering your garage door down on top of the box fans works great). also, lightly dampen the floor too keep the dust down to a minimum. you don't need heater to dry the paint. most paints these days will flash over in 15-30 mins ready for the next coat.

you can find a lot of great books online and get a lot of good advise from people ... but bottom line, you have to just learn how to do it (like welding). the best guys to talk to is 1) you local automotive paint store and 2) a local body shop guy. i'm not a professional painter ... but i worked for 2 years at a body shop as a blocker/sander ... so i learned a lot in the time i was there.....

ORIGINAL: JD1969


If going the HVLP route he will need not only a compressor with a large tank but also a motor (and power source) to supply a minimum of 12 cfm @ 30 psi. Other wise the compressor will not be able to keep up with the HVLP gun.

ORIGINAL: Crazyfast50stang

Whats HVLp and what is an alternative to them? what is better?


Jonny that is the redondo beach pier.

ORIGINAL: jonnyslick



you mean other than the motor on the compressor? as long as the motor on the compressor is rated for what the HVLP gun requires you're good....