Anyone recommend an HVLP spray gun for body work?

[5mall5nail5]

Going to be painting a couple panels on a car. Not very detailed in size - starting with my hood and fenders. I've painted before but I used a buddies gun and it's been so long we forget what it was. It might have even been an HF purple jobby. Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[BobKovacs]

I've used the Harbor Freight HVLP gun for all of the epoxy primer on the '69 Camaro I'm building, and it has worked well. You've got to be careful though- they have two purple guns, and I believe they're both "kinda" called HVLP, but only the more expensive one it. It has HVLP cast right into the body of the gun. I mistakenly bought the cheaper one, and was shocked by how much overspray I was getting, so I wend back and looked again, and sure enough, it's not the HVLP gun. The overspray with the right gun is much less.

I don't know that I'll use that gun to spray the finish coats- I may get an Evolution gun from Eastwood, or I may go with the turbine system from TP Tools. I'm leary about putting a few hundred dollars worth of finish material through a $30 gun and hoping that the results are good. I will say that the HF gun has worked great with the primer, though.

 

[bsaint]

I tried the HF Hvlp and it broke the first time I did a real cleaning.

Ive had great success in the past year with the Eastwood Evolution.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

The purple guns from HF come in different variants. The cheap one is on sale typically in the $12-20 range, and the more expensive one is $30-50 and may come with a regulator guage.

The reviews on both are mixed, and like anything, appears to be more about prepwork than the tools. I actually bought the cheap one this weekend for epoxy primer, latex paint around the house or anything else I wanted as essentially a throwaway HVLP. I also bought the 2 gun automotive set for $50 on sale.

There is a definite build quality difference. Trigger action smoother, whole feel of the gun is better balance and just feels more refined and better built on the more expensive gun.

I did read the reviews about disassembling and cleaning them first, and sure enough, I found the threads on both had metal shavings from the thread cutting operation in the threads. The cheaper one had the nozzles partially clogged by metal debris as well. If I had attempted to shoot either one before cleaning, the results would have been terrible. A quick cleaning of the threads, orifices, and general checkup resulted in two guns with much better adjustability. I haven't run fluid through them yet, but already they work better just in turning the threaded portions, and the air blown through is predictable. I need to run some colored water (water with food coloring) to test the patterns.

Overall, not bad. Not fantastic, but I think I can make them work. It's all about knowing the tool before you use it.

 

[zkling]

Depends on your budget.

Low cost, HF guns

Higher end, Binks, Sata, Iwata, Finishline

Make sure you have a good supply of clean dry air.

 

[930dreamer]

I'd go with a better quality primer gun, it should last forever.

 

[silviaboy89]

x45 on the HF purple gun but be careful to get the right one i think it's part number #66222

 

[mayday0017]

Astro makes best gun for the money hands down, do a little google work and you will find 1,000's of others who will say the same thing.

 

[4x4gearhead]

Last summer we got one of those little Graco guns from napa and it has been great, we only shoot black paint through it to do frames. It gets cleaned after every use and we havent had to change a single teflon o-ring yet. I in fact just cleaned it this morning. Im not sure the cost on it but I know it wasnt very much.

 

[Silver6.0]

I bought this 3pc devilbiss set. Built the holder.



http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dvr-802789/overview/

I'm no professional painter by any stretch, and had the best results with these. Ive used the harbor freights, campbell hausfelds, and even depot husky brand before and they do work ok.

So far ive used all 3 guns on projects. A 8ft truck topper base cleared, silver -turned out great.
Ive primed a few implements for my tractor with the primer gun, turned out good
And ive used the detail gun the most shooting small projects base/clear with great results. The tractor implements were shot with the detail gun and enamel oil based and it worked well but had to be thinned some. I can post pics if you'd like.

 

[fflintstone]

HF has two different “professional” 2 gun sets. the one I bought is this one.

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-professional-automotive-hvlp-spray-gun-kit-60239.html

it has both a 1.4 mm tip and a 1.8 mm tip. I do a lot of low end enamel paint and the 1.8 tip works great for it, I have used a few other HF guns and these are far better than the purple ones.



They go on sale for $50 so $40 with the 20% coupon.
I have never used a SATA or other gun but I can only imagine them being great.

Now they just need to invent a gun that cleans its self.

 

[5mall5nail5]

Thanks all - I thought I'd go "middle of the way" in quality and picked up a DeVilbiss setup:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KSTFJO/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Not too expensive but should work decently.

 

[ILDurable]

Devilbiss has a couple different StartingLine spray gun sets. A nice bang for your buck. It's Devilbiss and they are considered their economy line. Titan and ATD are also good cost effective alternatives for HVLP guns.