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Need paint spray gun recommendations


Shran

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I'm thinking about buying a sprayer for painting my stepside truck, probably my Explorer later on, and my F150.

Currently I have the $15 Harbor Freight purple gun. I have painted a fair bit of stuff with it using Rustoleum and similar paints so I guess I am familiar enough with it but I don't know if I trust it enough to spray a paint job that I want to look fairly nice. I may just turn it into a primer gun.

What would y'all suggest? I don't really want to spend a whole lot of money but I don't want junk either. I looked at the "nicer" HF guns - I really don't see much difference, maybe they are a little smoother but for $140 or $230 vs $15 you should at least get a metal paint cup... their high end gun has the same shitty plastic one that the $15 gun does!!!

Looked at a few others including DeVillbliss Starting Line, Ingersol Rand, kit from TCP Global... they all get good reviews everywhere but so do the HF guns.

What should I do? Drop $170 on a nice DeVillbliss? Buy a couple more $15 purple guns?
 


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I have an older DeVilbiss pressure pot (works good) and a HF HVLP unit ($29 when I bought it I think-works good).....I prefer the HF gun. I have just finished painting my 5th vehicle with it.....is it professional quality? I'm not a professional painter but it does what I want/need.
 

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Duffy is correct about the Devilbliss HVLP's. Good solid painters; you could use 2 different heads for priming and final finishes.

Razor makes a very nice gun for final finish that isn't too pricey for the results, right around $250 with a large gravity pot.
 
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Shran

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I took my purple HF gun apart last night and found that I did not clean it very well, probably ever. Big blobs of dry paint. Oops. Should clean up with a lacquer thinner soak and then I'm gonna drill out the tip for primer.

In the meantime, I picked up a two gun kit at Menards. We'll see how it works, it came with a 1.4mm tip on the big gun and a 1mm tip on the detail gun. Was only $30 and both are all metal construction including the cups.

I'm not super concerned about spraying the base coat. Supposedly the 1.4mm tip on the big gun will work good for that. It's the clear that I'm worried about...maybe I just need to shoot it on a test panel and find out, but my buddy used the same clear coat I'm going to use in a purple HF gun and it turned into orange peel city...but he was working outside, in the sun and we had never shot clear before, soooo...maybe I will be OK.

Was hoping to run across a used quality gun at a pawn shop and I have really been looking but coming up dry.
 

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How much do you want to spend?
 

Shran

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Well, I dunno. There are just so many choices. I read a bunch of reviews suggesting that the Devilbliss starting line guns are pretty good, and those are well under $200. But so are a lot of other brands.

I bought another $10 purple HF sprayer and shot a hood with base and clear. I'm actually pretty pleased with how it worked - I think the sprayer itself is more capable than I am. It is definitely kinda "cheap" feeling but I'm not sure it's worth spending any money on a better one if I'm getting decent results with this one. I will readily admit that I am a huge amateur though.
 

PetesPonies

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UI a
Well, I dunno. There are just so many choices. I read a bunch of reviews suggesting that the Devilbliss starting line guns are pretty good, and those are well under $200. But so are a lot of other brands.

I bought another $10 purple HF sprayer and shot a hood with base and clear. I'm actually pretty pleased with how it worked - I think the sprayer itself is more capable than I am. It is definitely kinda "cheap" feeling but I'm not sure it's worth spending any money on a better one if I'm getting decent results with this one. I will readily admit that I am a huge amateur though.
I paint, I have my entire life. I have so many guns, I buy them for fun sometimes :) I have expensive guns, I have moderately priced guns, and I have cheapies. You tell me what you want to spend and accomplish and I'll tell you what to buy.
 

Shran

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I suppose my goal would be to paint three vehicles that I own now, and probably a few more years down the road. I'm not expecting to have show quality paint jobs, just something typical of a hobbyist I guess. Easy to clean would also be a must.

What's my best all around gun for under $100? Under $200?

I'm pretty good at sourcing quality tools from pawn shops and stuff too for cheap so if you've got an overall favorite one I'll keep my eyes peeled for that.
 

PetesPonies

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Spray guns are not a good thing to buy used. Right now you can buy a few very decent guns for around $150. I would suggest one of those and then a $20-$30 primer gun . . or the purple HF. Sound good?
 

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