Cody's 33'x62' Garage

[madison069]

My hvlp paint guns,


The mostly purple one is the one you get in the $10 sale, it has a 1.4mm tip. The one I’m spraying with on the far right is a 1.8mm tip gun. 1.8mm is good for primer as primer is typically thicker.

Apparently I have only one new in the box, and it’s a 2.3mm tip gun. Was a suggest by Bob Heine and so I got it when it was on sale. The one without a cup is a Finex fx3000 that I need to get a cup. It was given to me by my painting buddy who painted my Camaro. He said it’s a good gun but he upgraded to a newer model is all. The one he paints with now is a $3,000 gun.


I remember now that the 1.8mm purple gun and the little detail gun came in a combo kit from Harbor Freight. Seems like they don’t sell them now.

 

[Blackbyrd]

Ive never delved into painting... my autobody buddy is trying to convince me to paint the camaro myself.

 

[madison069]

Ive never delved into painting... my autobody buddy is trying to convince me to paint the camaro myself.

I know high build primer is perfect to practice with cause you’re sanding 50% of it off the car anyway.

But I left the color and clear to my buddy cause he has the paint booth and experience.

Hopefully I will get some practice with other projects cause I’m thinking of doing some rust repair on the wheel well of my F250. It’s small right now, but if I don’t nip it in the bud soon, it’s going to keep getting worse.

 

[madison069]

Cleaned the truck toolbox out. Seem I’m lacking in tools here. Plus it was a mess from using and just throwing it back in the toolbox after use with no regard to organization.




Cleaned it out.

Basically the only hand tool I have is these wrenches and sockets. Along with a 1/4” drive socket sets and 1/4” bit set.


Missing a 3/4” 3/8 drive shallow socket. Not bad for a socket set I’ve had for 20+ years.


I need to hit up some estate sales for pliers, screwdrivers, multimeter, electrical connector kit, tire plug kit, and I’m sure a few more things.

I need to use a small jack like the one in the toolbox to make sure it’s adequate for the truck. It was in the toolbox when I got the truck from my dad. It’s a little 2.25 ton floor jack.

It also seems I was putting all of my 1” ratchet straps in the toolbox cause I have 20 of them in the milk crate.

But atleast for now it’s a little more organized.

 

[madison069]

Late, but I went ahead and painted the welding table.


The new wheels came in today. Once the paint cures I’ll lift the table up and modify the bottom of the legs to accept the new wheels.

 

[zmotorsports]

Ive never delved into painting... my autobody buddy is trying to convince me to paint the camaro myself.

Personally, I think you should give it a go. There enough people here to assist you with any specific questions and there are actually some pretty good videos on YouTube these days. Should be much easier to learn today than several decades ago. Plus there are really some good DIY friendly products and materials available these days.

You could always practice on the substrate (ie. primer and primer surface coats) then if you didn't feel comfortable skating the color you could hire the rest out, but I think you'll be surprised once you start spraying and blocking.

 

[madison069]

My experience so far regarding painting is my paint job has a good amount of orange peel on it. Easy to correct with wet sanding and polishing. Looking at my bubby’s paint job it was a lot smoother and looks to be less work to remove the little orange peel it has. I think it’s related to my gun as it’s a lesser quality, but I’m still learning how each adjustment of the gun can change the spray I get from it.

It’s more about the prep work and paying attention to details when doing the body work and sanding. What you see in the final sanding will transfer to the finish surface. The more I use my hvlp guns, the more I notice I can spray and not get as many runs in the paint compared to when I started. But again, if you get a run there’s way to correct it.

Why not practice on stuff where it is not critical if a mistake is made, and learn from it before spraying the Camaro? It’s one of the reason I sprayed the welding table, more practice with it. I could have easily rolled the paint but figured I’m not learning anything by not spraying.

 

[madison069]

Organized the fuses and automotive light bulbs.



Guess I need to go to the junk yard and take some more mini blade fuses, seems I’m running low on them!

 

[madison069]

Late Merry Christmas wishes to everyone!

As usual it’s been a busy time the past few days.

One of the project that popped up is a Proto toolbox that my father in law gave me over the past week.




As seen in the photo it was bent, and the frame was racked. Drawer slides were sticky and overall needed some work. But the biggest thing he was proud about it was he got it at goodwills for $2.

After I took it apart, I removed the pin from the hinge on the front cover. With a hammer, dolly, and a piece of wood I was able to straighten it out. I also racked the frame back in shape by dropping it on a piece of wood at one corner of the whole toolbox. After I got everything flatten out I installed the front cover again. To help get the long hinge pin back in I used a drill to spin the pin while pushing it. It worked like a charm!


I guess the pin tip was bent just enough that it rotated around inside the hinge and aligned the hinges back in place easily.

Here is the finished work after cleaning and lubing the slide.




Do I really need it, no. But I’ll keep it in the attached garage and start putting Proto tools in it for the house and attached garage tool set.

 

[Lou's Garage]

That's a fine toolbox, especially for $2.

Lou

 

[Blackbyrd]

Nice box

 

[madison069]

Worked on the welding/fabrication table.

Got the new shorter wheel installed.


I used a nut on one of the bolts that holds the wheels on the legs. The other there bolts are threaded into the thick plate on the bottom of the legs.

I lost two taps and one drill bit to the process. I guess I threw the other tap away before I got a photo of it.



Now the table height is at 39.5” which beats the old height!



That was a long project!

 

[madison069]

Wonder if I can turn these items into a rock tumbler that I can use to clean bolts and nuts?

 

[Xti04]

Wonder if I can turn these items into a rock tumbler that I can use to clean bolts and nuts?

You will need a speed controller but I think you can do it!

 

[Bob Heine]

So more progress on the steel top, after sanding on it for an hour.


Threw down some paper towels and soaked it in this metal ready stuff I had from POR-15. It’s called rust remover, but based on the zinc phosphate, I think it’s just a converter. Left it to soak for an hour since the directions said just 30 minutes but longer if it’s really bad.



Then I rinsed it off with water that I transported from inside the house since I had the water shut off to the garage due to the freezing temps.



After wiping it down with some rags I took this blow torch and dried it off.


Is it just me, or does it look worst?


I think I’m going to paint the frame, but I will still be working on that steel top with some more flapper wheels. Possibly just go at it with some grinding disc.

Cody, as long as you're going to hit it with a grinder, maybe touch the deepest pits with the welder. That might reduce the grinding time and leave you with a flatter surface.

 

[Bob Heine]

So the instructions on th can says I can thin with either mineral spirits or acetone.

Guess it really don’t matter.

Cody, the only difference is drying time. The acetone evaporates much faster than the mineral spirits. The paint probably has mineral spirits in it already so it won't make a huge difference.

I have gallons of chemicals in my not very bomb-proof garage but my mad scientist bench has a rack for fluids in 16-ounce squeeze bottles. I use a lot of mineral spirits for de-labeling rectangular PET plastic [food and medicine] containers because it cuts the glue better than WD-40. The clear plastic rectangular containers makes identification of their contents easy and reduces the need for so many labels.

Before anyone tries to scare me, those are HDPE plastic squeeze bottles and they have not leaked a drop of any of those chemicals in the 12 years they have been stored there. I watched them like a hawk for the first few years but now it's just nice to grab the bottle of juice I need and squeeze a little out instead of splashing pools from the gallon cans.

 

[madison069]

You will need a speed controller but I think you can do it!

Looking into it, seems single phase speed controllers are hit and miss for this AC motors. But to keep it simple I’m just going to use pulleys. To drop the 1725 rpm of the motor with a 1.5” pulley on the shaft, I’ll put a 10” pulley on the 3/4” roller shaft that will turn the PVC tumbler that’s wrapped with a 1/4” thick rubber. The diameter of the pvc will be 5” so this setup should drop the rpm of the PVC to 38ish rpm. To test it, I’ll set this all on a piece of 3/4” plywood since I have it. Once i identify the bugs/issues and work them out I’ll look into making a better metal frame setup and also watch facebook marketplace for materials.

 

[madison069]

Cody, as long as you're going to hit it with a grinder, maybe touch the deepest pits with the welder. That might reduce the grinding time and leave you with a flatter surface.

Good point, I’ll probably start doing that as I weld stuff on the table. Maybe a good practice project, just creating puddles with different settings.

 

[madison069]

Cody, the only difference is drying time. The acetone evaporates much faster than the mineral spirits. The paint probably has mineral spirits in it already so it won't make a huge difference.

I have gallons of chemicals in my not very bomb-proof garage but my mad scientist bench has a rack for fluids in 16-ounce squeeze bottles. I use a lot of mineral spirits for de-labeling rectangular PET plastic [food and medicine] containers because it cuts the glue better than WD-40. The clear plastic rectangular containers makes identification of their contents easy and reduces the need for so many labels.

Before anyone tries to scare me, those are HDPE plastic squeeze bottles and they have not leaked a drop of any of those chemicals in the 12 years they have been stored there. I watched them like a hawk for the first few years but now it's just nice to grab the bottle of juice I need and squeeze a little out instead of splashing pools from the gallon cans.

I should setup something like that to keep things simple around the garage and easier control instead of pouring out of the gallon jugs. I do have a squeeze bottle for the acetone to assist in cleaning the paint guns. Otherwise the rest just stays in the gallon jugs

 

[Bob Heine]

My hvlp paint guns,

The one without a cup is a Finex fx3000 that I need to get a cup. It was given to me by my painting buddy who painted my Camaro. He said it’s a good gun but he upgraded to a newer model is all. The one he paints with now is a $3,000 gun.

Cody, that's a good collection of spray guns. The Finex is in the $200 range and should do a better job controlling the flow of paint than the Harbor Freight one (nothing wrong with the HF guns). He probably bought this set of Sata guns:

SATA 100 Years VIP Case - Limited Quantities

THREE TIMES 100 FOR A PERFECT FINISH! Complete your 100-Year collection now! The SATAminijet 4400 B and the SATAjet 100 B are also available in the 100 Years anniversary design. With the compact spray gun for small surfaces and spot repair, and the perfect spray gun for primers and fillers...

www.dipyourcar.com

I painted our first house with a Craftsman spray gun that a friend gave me. Pressure feed and I had to thin the latex paint about 50%. Waving that quart of paint back and forth (and up and down) wore me out. Over the years I ended up with a variety of regulators.

When our '71 Vega GT rusted out, I sculpted a bunch of fiberglass and painted the car with the original Acrylic paint in 1976. I bought a Harbor Freight 2-quart remote tank and gun to lighten the weight in my hand. It came out better than I expected and I was able to give the car away guilt free a year later to a coworker who need transportation. I replaced the Vega with a '69 427 4-speed Corvette convertible in a similar color.

Every thing I do involves mistakes. For our 25th Anniversary in 1987 I wanted to buy two silver cars. Found a year-old Dodge 600 turbo convertible and an 8-year gray market BMW 733i. The BMW had a couple of rust spots on the top of the front fenders. I didn't buy a welder for another 20 years so it was once again a fiberglass/resin patch job. Sanded the whole car down and primed it with lacquer primer. Sprayed several coats of BMW silver on the primer and it looked pretty good (painting over the black front and rear valances with silver helped). A couple of coats of clear and it was nice and shiny and good to go. I bought a better set of spray guns (DeVilbiss FinishlLine kit with full and detail size gravity feed guns and accessories) and started using disposable (DeVilbiss DeKups) paint cups in 9- and 24-ounce sizes. I adopted the disposable cup system because I was spending too much money and time cleaning the aluminum (and plastic) cups that came with the guns. Worse than that, the aluminum and plastic cups had no name on them so I had to search through the cabinet where they were supposed to be stored and then go looking for the one that someone stored somewhere else.

Two two years later the paint started blistering. I failed to put hardener in the primer and the two part silver and clear coat reacted with it. I was going to re-paint it but left for Australia instead.

I am not a great painter but I knew the basics and helped a friend paint his basket case 1959 Corvette. He did all the fiberglass repair, filler, primer and prep work and then I helped him spray and sand a dozen or two coats of black lacquer in his garage. The Corvette won first place at World of Wheels in the Modified Sports car class.

Hoping for at least that good a job on my '72 Corvette, I bought a much better spray gun for the finish coats in 2009. Paid just under $400 for an Anest Iwata LPH400 gun. Suddenly my painting got better, a lot better. A close examination of the tip shows the Iwata having a machined flower petal shape that spins and disperses the paint better than the tips on cheaper guns.

I may have gotten carried away. I bought that same green Vaper hose gun (spray isn't an accurate description), an Anest Iwata LPH80 detail gun and a Sata Jet 2000 Digital (all HVLP).

The Sata Jet was a salvage job. Bought it for $100 and spent several weeks doing chemistry experiments on it to get rid of the petrified paint from its internal passages. Looked like it was just used every day without ever cleaning it. When it stopped spraying paint of any kind, it was just sold on eBay for a fraction of its value. I prefer the Iwata guns but at least now I know what all the Sata fuss is about.

 

[madison069]

Funny you mention the siphon style spray guns. I have those too.

I haven’t sprayed with them but they resides in my cabinet. I also got the paint cup for the finex in the mail yesterday.


Maybe my next paint job will be with the Finex.

It’s fascinating how spray guns has progressed over the years. I recall using the pressure pots for spray glue in the hvac world when spraying to stick insulation on the duct work we built in the shop.

 

[Bob Heine]

Ive never delved into painting... my autobody buddy is trying to convince me to paint the camaro myself.

Adam, I'm sure there was a time when you never delved into rust repair and body panel alignment. I believe you will surprise yourself if you give it a try. I've done just enough to feel a little sense of pride. I painted the bumpers, mirrors and headlights on the 2004 PT Cruiser so it doesn't look as bad as the other 22-year old ones on the road. We bought it used (243 miles) and it looked like this:

I recently sanded and clear coated the original (yellow and cloudy) headlights with SPI Universal clear, painted all three new bumper covers (Liane tears them up in parking lots) and replaced and painted the outside rear view mirrors to match the car (some like it, some don't but it's my time and paint). A few other mods have been made but it looks like this now:

I know high build primer is perfect to practice with cause you’re sanding 50% of it off the car anyway.

But I left the color and clear to my buddy cause he has the paint booth and experience.

Hopefully I will get some practice with other projects cause I’m thinking of doing some rust repair on the wheel well of my F250. It’s small right now, but if I don’t nip it in the bud soon, it’s going to keep getting worse.

Cody, a paint booth is a wonderful thing. So is experience. And so is a good spray gun (not $3,000 good but better than the HF guns). I truly believe you could have done a phenomenal job on the color and clear. You saved yourself some potential grief but with an investment in an Iwata LPH400 or similar gun you could have laid down some flat and shiny coats on your Camaro.

Personally, I think you should give it a go. There enough people here to assist you with any specific questions and there are actually some pretty good videos on YouTube these days. Should be much easier to learn today than several decades ago. Plus there are really some good DIY friendly products and materials available these days.

You could always practice on the substrate (ie. primer and primer surface coats) then if you didn't feel comfortable skating the color you could hire the rest out, but I think you'll be surprised once you start spraying and blocking.

Mike, you and I know painting isn't easy but like laying a nice weld bead, trying is the key. I won't live long enough to get even close to your learned skills but I've never met a painter or welder who was born with the gift. Every one of them started out expecting it to be easy and have everything turn out perfect on their first try. Some give up and some try again. Others get old and wish they 'gave it a try' when they were younger. I'm living proof an old dog can learn a new trick or two. Maybe not impressive tricks but acceptable ones.

 

[madison069]

Adam, I'm sure there was a time when you never delved into rust repair and body panel alignment. I believe you will surprise yourself if you give it a try. I've done just enough to feel a little sense of pride. I painted the bumpers, mirrors and headlights on the 2004 PT Cruiser so it doesn't look as bad as the other 22-year old ones on the road. We bought it used (243 miles) and it looked like this:

I recently sanded and clear coated the original (yellow and cloudy) headlights with SPI Universal clear, painted all three new bumper covers (Liane tears them up in parking lots) and replaced and painted the outside rear view mirrors to match the car (some like it, some don't but it's my time and paint). A few other mods have been made but it looks like this now:


Cody, a paint booth is a wonderful thing. So is experience. And so is a good spray gun (not $3,000 good but better than the HF guns). I truly believe you could have done a phenomenal job on the color and clear. You saved yourself some potential grief but with an investment in an Iwata LPH400 or similar gun you could have laid down some flat and shiny coats on your Camaro.

Oh yea, that paint booth was very nice! Nice air flow filtration system with a lot of bright lights in the room! I’ll keep spraying stuff that’s not too critical just to build up experience. One of my project at the other house is to refinish the window awnings. They are metal awnings that’s been painted several times. So some paint striping, metal straightening, and painting is in order and those would be some good practice with spraying with the hvlp guns.

 

[madison069]

One of the nagging issue with the forester was this power port at the front of the console wasn’t working. I checked the 12v plug fuse at the fuse panel and it was good. So I had a power plug ordered due to they have a thermal fuse built into the socket and I thought it had blown.

Here we are with it all apart and ther thermal fuse tested fine via checking the resistance.


So I checked the fuse panel and would you know that Subaru still calls this “cigarette”,

Checked the 10am fuse for Cig on the fuse block and of course it was blown.

Atleast my fuses were organized and easy to find.


Then I took the console lid apart again. When my cousin visited us for Christmas last year, she apparently broke the lid again just like she did the first time ,

After some time being broke, it has started to irritate me but not $180 irritating. So I took it apart and put a piece of ABS on it, I cut a piece of coupling I had in my stash and flattened it out with some heat and a hammer. Using two part epoxy I glued it on and now waiting for the contact glue to dry to a tacky feel before I reapply the leather cover.


I set up a search at the junk yard website to watch for a 2014-2018 forester when one arrives in the yard. Maybe I’ll get lucky and can get a new console lid that’s not busted for cheap.

 

[madison069]

All back together


Did a quick wipe down on the interior but need a detail inside. With the snow and rain we will see soon, it’s pointless to detail it.

 

[zanyad]

Nice fix on the console lid!

 

[madison069]

Nice fix on the console lid!

Thanks, sadly this is the second time I’ve fixed it. We will see how long this fix lasts. End goal is to get a used one from the junk yard but the junk yard close by rarely gets this new of a car.

 

[madison069]

As I mentioned several post back, I wanted to see about getting rid of the brown filing cabinet. I was able to clear it out and put it on marketplace for $10. If it’s not gone by Monday night, I’ll set it out for the scrap man.


I got my masks transferred to a drawer in the other filing cabinet I had near the brown one.


Along with the gloves. The cotton gloves will go in the bunker at the other garage since I only use those while cooking on the grills or yard work.


I just need to find a home for the battery chargers. I can put it on a shelf with the car parts for now.


I’m watching Facebook marketplace for cabinets like these I have now.


These holds a lot and they are 25.5” deep so would be perfect for under the bench at the new garage. At 42” tall, they would make the bench height 45” with the bench chair I have it would be a good height for it. If I’m not mistaken, that would be close to the height of a bench on a big lower toolbox? I know U-Line sells them but at $400 each I’ll wait to find them on Facebook marketplace.

 

[zanyad]

I’m watching Facebook marketplace for cabinets like these I have now.

Those look nice and beefy!

 

[madison069]

Those look nice and beefy!

They are very nice! The left one is currently loaded with all of my painting supplies, paint cans, body work supplies such as bondo and filler, and also has the cleaning stuff and all tools involved. Needless to say, there’s a lot in it.

 

[madison069]

Parts of the tumbler came in sooner. Got a load currently going, so we will see how it works.





So far it’s rolling along fine, it’s not very smooth though. The metal bars came in bent so I had to bend them straight-ish. The pillow bearings are pretty tight so hoping as time goes, it will loosen up from being used.

Currently there’s $100 in this project. I know a small rock tumbler at harbor freight is $80 before taxes. Hopefully it’s worth it in the end.

 

[madison069]

11hrs later, here is the results of the first run.



Overall the bolts aren’t as rusty but th threads are still dirty.



I’m going to let them tumble til later tonight to see what another 12hrs does to the threads.

 

[madison069]

So after 24 hrs this is what the hardware looks like.

This was the same bolt from this morning. Threads don’t look any cleaner.


So I just pulled them all out and set them aside for more cleaning in the threads, then sort them, and treat them with something.

Here is the resin media after 24 hrs of use.


This next two sets of bolts are greasy looking so I decided to soak them in power power before they get put in the tumbler.

Up close.


Second set of bolts


These two sets got purple power treatment.


This set was relatively clean, just some surface corrosion so they went in the tumbler.



I did have to make one modification, seems the barrel rubber was rubbing against the pillow bearing. So I put a sacrificial washer and a clamp on the rod to keep the barrel from rubbing on the pillow bearing . Figured if the washer can turn with the barrel it would reduce the damage to the barrel over time.

Overall, the tumbler is doing a good job of removing the rust, but not really cleaning the thread. This does cut down on time spent at the wire wheel, but would be nice to get the threads cleaned in the tumbler too.

We will see how it goes with th next batch and also the batch that gets cleaned with purple power.

 

[Xti04]

I have a rock tumbler and a vibratory tumbler. The vibratory tumbler really does well on brass casings with walnut hulls, in the rock tumbler we used an abrasive slurry. It would get into the thread troughs to clean them out.

 

[madison069]

I have a rock tumbler and a vibratory tumbler. The vibratory tumbler really does well on brass casings with walnut hulls, in the rock tumbler we used an abrasive slurry. It would get into the thread troughs to clean them out.

What’s the abrasive slurry makeup? Is it sand or?

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Cody, I'm thinking you need something finer...and would bet the slurry would work. Finer abrasive with water.

 

[madison069]

Looking at Silicon Carbide Grit at 60/90 grit and 120/220 grit to make the slurry with. Yall think this will do the trick?

 

[bugnut]

Cody, I have tried to use a small stone tumbler with various media, albeit from HF, to tumbler fasteners, etc. I have always been disappointed even doing brass fasteners.
I have ended up with Dawn Professional and then Evaporust in an ultrasonic. This is much faster and much better at cleaning then the tumblers. My tumblers, picked up cheap from garage sales,etc, are in a box, sitting on the shelf.

Ultrasonic has a place on the workbench.

YMMV

 

[madison069]

Cody, I have tried to use a small stone tumbler with various media, albeit from HF, to tumbler fasteners, etc. I have always been disappointed even doing brass fasteners.
I have ended up with Dawn Professional and then Evaporust in an ultrasonic. This is much faster and much better at cleaning then the tumblers. My tumblers, picked up cheap from garage sales,etc, are in a box, sitting on the shelf.

Ultrasonic has a place on the workbench.

YMMV

I have a little harbor freight ultra sonic cleaner and it’s great, but small. I will get a bigger one in the future.

At this point I’m trying to get rust and corrosion off the hardwares, so I figured the tumbler would get most of the rust off so I’m not sitting at the wire wheel for so long. But maybe I’m wasting time but at least I’ll learn something by experience.

I did order some silicon carbide grit, 60-90 and 120/220 grits. So if bolt cleaning is no good, maybe I’ll polish some rocks I collected from my trips.

 

[Xti04]

Beat me to it! I had to go back and look at what we used.