:waah: So I just finished shooting my truck and have orange peel.

I used a urethane enamel from NAPA and a HVLP gun from Harbor Feight and Tool. I followed all the directions to the tee on mixing the paint. My guess is I didn't have the gun set up right.

I had a regulator at the gun, that showed I had 10 psi while operating. I had a 8" wide spray pattern.

I did put down three coats, in my novice mind I kept thinking as I laid down the coats it would smooth out.

I'm also not done yet, I did the roof in white, the body in black, and still need to come back and shoot the white center down the sides. (The roof doesn't look that bad.)

I'm thinking about checking with some local shops to see if I can pay to have it color sanded and buffed. How much should that run me?

Or is it better off attempting this myself.

To date I have over 800 in the paint and supplies and over 45 hrs invested.

This is a bummer. :waah:

did you have orange peel on the pieces that you practiced on?

I was using a large 4' x 15' piece of paper/cardboard I attached to the wall to test the spray pattern of the gun.

The paint looked good there.

This is the first time I've attepmted to use good paint. I have only shot rustoleum before.

I know I should have practiced more! I was pretty sure I had the technique down, as far as moving slow and putting the paint down wet. More novice talk I guess. This stinks. This is what I get for being in hurry.

Regardless, what's done is done. I have orange peel.:waah:

Here are some pics:

is that caused by moving too slow?

We might need a little more info. What speed hardener did you use. Was it fast, medium or slow. What was the air temperature? Was it humid? Was it dry? I know this stuff sounds silly but it might help to figure out the problem.

Is this Single Stage....And i am also curious to ass what Hardener you used and what reducer......

10 lbs of pressure at the gun would be like putting the paint in your mouth and spitting at the vehicle . HVLP is low pressure measured at the cap not where the air enters the gun.You will find the pressure entering the gun is about the same as a conventional one.It looks quite orange peeled but since you have to resand anyways you might as well try wet sanding and buffing it but i,m betting you are going to cut through before anything else

10 lbs of pressure at the gun would be like putting the paint in your mouth and spitting at the vehicle . HVLP is low pressure measured at the cap not where the air enters the gun.You will find the pressure entering the gun is about the same as a conventional one.It looks quite orange peeled but since you have to resand anyways you might as well try wet sanding and buffing it but i,m betting you are going to cut through before anything else
Yes, all true. Many people don't know or understand that the HV in HVLP means high volume. This means you have BIG air lines and BIG connectors to your paint gun. You are using a large volume of air at low pressure (LP). My advice without knowing much more would be to crank up the air next time you paint and I agree, you just might sand thru it in a couple of places when wet sanding. My 2 cents.

It's the Napa Crossfire Urethane enamel. Reducer is CR233 and hardener is CH253.

Temp was in mid-high 70's to low 80's. There was some slight Humidity, but I couldn't tell you what. Definitely not high. I wasn't burning up or even felt hot painting.

I had a pressure gage on inlet of gun and set it for 10 lbs of operating pressure. The spec sheet said 10 lbs, bummer. So I understand I need to bump it up, how much?

So I'm prepared for the worse (repainting) and I'll hope for the best (wet sanding will save the day).

I still need to paint the white center section so I definitely want to know what to fix.

Thanks for all the help.

the tech sheet should have said 10lbs at the cap for hvlp. My sata is @23 at the gun 10 at the cap.Wet sand the truck and try to polish and see what happens. the most that will happen is that you have to sand and put on a couple more coats and wet sand and polish. It's probably best that you learn this way. Now you know what it ISN'T supposed to look like. Learn from your mistakes and it will only make you better.

It's the Napa Crossfire Urethane enamel. Reducer is CR233 and hardener is CH253.

Temp was in mid-high 70's to low 80's. There was some slight Humidity, but I couldn't tell you what. Definitely not high. I wasn't burning up or even felt hot painting.

I had a pressure gage on inlet of gun and set it for 10 lbs of operating pressure. The spec sheet said 10 lbs, bummer. So I understand I need to bump it up, how much?

So I'm prepared for the worse (repainting) and I'll hope for the best (wet sanding will save the day).

I still need to paint the white center section so I definitely want to know what to fix.

Thanks for all the help.
I believe CH253 hardener is in the medium speed range....not sure about the reducer...it's probably in the medium range as well. That would've matched your painting temperature so that could rule that out as a problem. I'd say get a piece of steel to practice a little bit with and bump up the air pressure to 20 to 25 lbs. Good luck to you.

What's the part # on the gun?
HF has a couple of different HVLP guns and the most "popular" is the 43430 "Purple" HVLP full size.
That gun likes a LOT of air and psi to spray right.
For a Single stage paint you'll want around 45# or so at the guage with the trigger pulled.Fan wide open or closed down just a touch,fluid will varry from 2 1/2-3 turns out from closed. Same with clear coat,which is about the same as a single stage paint.These are approximate's but should get you close.
3/8" hose and fittings are best. At least 3/8" hose and 1/4" connectors but you'll need to up the psi to compensate for them.
Using a slow hardner is the "best" for single stage,gives it time to flow out but the downside is longer flash time so running it or picking up trash is an issue but the result is well worth the slight risk.
You should be able to wet sand it down with 1000-1200 without cutting thru,Just enough to knock the peel down and gray scotch pad the edges and tough spots.Basically like a clear coat cut & buff.Otherwise,800 wet and reshoot it.
You can "try" checking around on having it done but I have a feeling they'll be "breaking it off in ya" just because or the peel may be SO bad,it's going to be a repaint.

Wow, it is a 43430. I never would have guessed I needed that much pressure.

it is just the cheap guns that are like that. You spend a little more and get better equipment. you'll notice a huge difference in spray quality too. the majority of hvlp guns shoot max at 28-30.

That purple gun is basically a knockoff of the old Sata Jet 90. I still don't understand how they consider it HVLP. You run it at close to conventional psi's for it to spray well especally with the thick products,base paint can be shot lower but ss & clears are well up there.
My Iwata LPH-400 with the purple air cap sprays base at like 15# and 9 cfm.
Clear,I use the LV cap and around 25#.
Very little o'spray and you use less product cause it's applying it TO the panel instead of fogging the room.
Using a quality gun is a big difference but you can do good work with that HF gun,it's just going to use more material and more o'spray.
I used one for years before "graduating" to better guns.
Just up the air and do some test panels on some junk parts or scrap flat metal.

My path forward:

I've got an old fender I can pull out to shoot before returning to the truck.

I'll bump the pressure up at the gun, what should I be looking for in the spray pattern? Just that it flows out nice and smooth?

Also, is an 8" tall pattern about right?

Any other pointers?

Is it worth buying a slower hardener?

Plan is to tape of the center section where I need to shoot the white, wet sand it down and shoot the white. If I can do it right this time it should considerably reduce the wet sanding required because of the orange peel. Tryin to remain optimistic that I'll be able to wet sand and buff it out.

Thanks

use a lot of fluoresent light at hip height look past the part youre spraying and give layers until it starts to go from matt to shine then move on thats about one drop before it starts to run see how long that takes and try without looking checking ocasionally .

once you touched it with paint dont overspray untill dry (you prolly knew that allready ) cause it will turn orangepeel again (the paint allready on the car is thickening and youre spraying more paint on it it doesnt flow )

You don't want to hear this, but I would reshoot the black. Sand it flat and spray again. It would take me less time to do that than to colorsand and buff it out nicely.

Chopster

I would bump up the pressure and and use a metal piece to do a spray out to get speed and movement right. I also learned that HVLP thing the hard way and had to wetsand about 600 square foot of horse trailer and I agree with the above too if you want a nice smooth paintjob you need to sand the black thats there with 600 dry on da and change the paper often then reshoot with one quick coat running about 25% overlap just to get a good sticky coat on the truck then come back and lay your wet coat, single stage is not as easy as it sounds compared to base coat clear. Good luck.

Stupid question, how much prep work do I need to do to the fender I pulled out to shoot (prior to returning to truck) to get a representative coat?

It's just an old fender with oem paint on it. I washed it down, but that's about it at this point.

just give it a key with scotch pad and use degreaser and a tag rag to get the last dust off

just another thought, what kind of compressor are you using? is it keeping up with the air demand? also, test your limits on the practice fender, find out how much you can spray before it runs. if you have good lighting on the area your painting, you can see how smooth the wet paint is also.

another thing, keep your gun clean! it makes a huge diffrence