I'm thinking about picking up a cheap spray gun from Harbor Freight and painting a few small things like fenders, to fix some small dents that I've gotten over the years.
Does anyone here have any experience with doing this? Whats a good place for painting supplies? Is it even possible to get good results from a DIY job? I've done some bondo and spray paint work in the past that can look fairly good once its properly wet sanded and buffed. Now I think I'm ready to move on to a real spray gun.

This post has been edited by lagos: Mar 20, 2013 - 12:08 PM

I've had good results with the sprayer I received from Dipyourride.com

Its not the traditional gravity feed compression sprayer, but the vacuum plug in type. Does a really nice job, but I'm no expert on the matter. I still think any sprayer used will require some wet sanding and buffing though.

If interested I can provide the model and such when I get home. Can't recall it all atm.

TCP Global

The sprayer that you'd use for that plastidip stuff won't work for traditional auto paint. I've heard people getting decent results with the HF gun, but what really makes or breaks the job is the preparation and technique. Do lots of reading on auto body forums and if you spend a crapload of time on the prep and do all the right steps you will have a nice result. Like Box said TCP Global is a good place to get tools and paint supplies. Whatever gun you choose you'll need a compressor that can keep up.

Last year I was a total noob with body and paint work so I did the research, got the tools and painted my car. It turned out pretty nice and I learned a lot from it so I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you have.

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Yeah, I don't mind doing the prep work. And I'm just going to be painting a fender and maybe a door. So if I mess up the fender, it wont be a big deal. We also have a pretty large compressor at the shop that I work at, so that shouldn't be a problem.

What type of paint should I buy from TCP and how much would I need. I know my paint code is 202 black, but I'm not sure what the equivalent of that would be from them. I'd like to just do an easy single stage. Something cheap that I can wetsand and buff and that would blend well with factory paint if I just decide to repaint a small spot or problem area.

This post has been edited by lagos: Mar 20, 2013 - 3:39 PM

Surely you have a local auto paint supply shop in the Philly area - I would head over there and talk to the folks selling the paint. They will be able to help you choose a brand and mix it to your color code. I used the PPG OMNI Plus on my car and it worked pretty well. It's a urethane paint and I did a 2-stage base coat and clear coat but I believe it's also available in single stage mix.

The tech data for each paint type can vary but for the PPG stuff I used the base coats reduced 1:1 meaning if you had a quart of paint, you'd add a quart of reducer before shooting it so you'd have 2 quarts of color to spray on the car. For a fender and door you might be able to get away with a quart of (reduced) paint so if it reduces 1:1 you'd only need to get a pint (1/2 quart) of paint and a pint of reducer. For a first time though, I'd just get a quart of paint plus whatever reducer, hardener, etc and then you'll have enough for any mistakes and you might decide to do additional panels too.

The reason I suggested going to the local paint shop is because it helped me a lot in choosing my materials - the guys there were able to recommend a paint plus match it with the stuff that goes with it like reducer, hardener, catalyst, etc. They also have the related stuff like mixing cups, strainers, sandpaper, you get the idea. It was a much better way to learn than ordering it online.

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Lagos, I have a harbor freight HVLP kit with two guns. I've used the smaller one and had no problems. TCP is great, but for what you're doing I would checkout automotivetouchup . They sell ready to spray paint so you don't have to do any mixing. I used it on a replacement fender and bumper for my wife's car and was pretty happy with it.

This post has been edited by al94st: Mar 20, 2013 - 7:45 PM

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Awesome site! I think this is the type of place I was looking for!
Looks like their aresol can offerings are also pretty good for smaller sections. I also really dig the how-to videos they posted. http://www.automotivetouchup.com/how-to-videos.htm

I use a lowes HVLP gun.


TCP global is a good place to buy paint, you can see my build thread where I used a viper blue and flat black. Lay a very light coat on first otherwise it will fisheye, or run, or just look like **** in general.


Since mines for a rally car, I do cheaper single stage acrylic, but on a regular car you definitely want a urethane with clear coat. Then wetsand the texture out of it. It's impossible to get near a factory finish without wetsanding.


Since you can't sand single stage acrylic because the clear is mixed with the paint, mine has a texture. It's uniform and most people think I did it intentionally, but like I said wouldn't do it if you're trying to match something up.

The best gun i have found to use is the eastwood gun, im a noob and i have had excellent results... but automotive touch up is good choice too.

My local paint supplier has nason products, they are ok, also the harbor freight gun, i only use it for expoxy primer (for undercoating)

When I did mine i used smartshoppersinc.com. They had a good deal on urethane and clear and primer; it all came in a kit, which was nice for me because I was starting from the beginning. Fortunately, I was able to borrow my dad's gun and compressor. Just like everyone else was saying, make sure you do the prep work well the first time and then sand out the runs and everything and give it a good buff afterwards. Coomer did a really good thread on how he did his too, I really liked it. Good luck man!