Spraygun recommendations?

[GARANDNUT]

I am looking at buying a spraygun to paint some airplane parts. Any recommendations on what to buy? I have a large compressor, regulator and moisture filter, what else do I need? How do I mix the paint? I do not need some professional job just something to paint small parts.

[FloridaAKM]

Dupont Imron is generally what airplane parts are painted with & you buy the activator separately from what ever color you are going to spray. If you are going to use a metal flake paint, you want a sprayer that has an agitator in the pot to keep the paint uniformly distributed while spraying.

I used to paint my motorcycles doing this & it worked well. Nowdays, unless you are painting the entire plane, you can get inexpensive sprayguns @ Horror Freight that will do what you want & if you don't clean out your sprayer in a timely manner, you just trash the unit & get another. Imron has a potlife that hardens depending on how you blend the activator with the paint.

If Horror Freight is too crappy for you, Devillbiss makes great spray guns that you can pickup online or at your local paint store or look on Amazon for HVLP units.

On word of caution is to use a ventilated hood/paint booth or an airfed supplied air hood as the Imron is not good for you to breath into your lungs in a wet uncured state.

Good luck with your parts, its not hard to get a professional looking job on small stuff. Big stuff is a whole different ballgame.

[baboon]

Devillbiss is the only way to go

[FloridaAKM]

I still have a brand new Devilbiss pressure pot that I bought years ago to paint my car. Great piece of equipment that was never used.

For painting AR & AK receivers, a cheap horror freight paint sprayer is perfect & it is about $10.00. If it breaks, grab another one. The coating I use is a flat black heat cured phenolic based coating that after applying & baking on @ 300 degrees, the only way to remove it is media blasting.

Back to painting airplane parts, a Devillbiss sprayer is a great piece of equipment if you don't mind paying out the big bucks for spray painting a few small parts. Binks is another great line of spray painting gear.

[Sanders]

I've always used Binks sprayers. Just have to keep them clean, like any other sprayer. Good idea to always filter the paint you pour into the pot. Doesn't take much to clog the nozzle, and once you get in a groove, it's annoying to have to stop to clean a plugged nozzle.

I painted a Mack truck with bright red 2 part aircraft paint once. Did it on a vacant lot using the truck air to run the sprayer. I saw that truck parked in an equipment yard 5-6 years after I painted it. I can say with 99% certainty it had never been washed since it was painted and it was still shiny.

[GARANDNUT]

Thanks for the replies.

I am not using Imron or jet-glow. Cessna used automotive enamel on it in 1969 and it has held up fine. I am only painting some plastic fairings that I am replacing. Aircraft paint is like a grand a quart and the rest of the paint is marginal so no reason to spend that much on a small rudder cap. I was considering having the color mixed in a rattle can at my automotive paint shop, but the last time I did this it was $40 bucks so I figure the sprayer will be more cost effective since I have several parts to do. I used rattle cans on my lift strut fairings and they look great but the color for the cap is metallic emerald green so it might not turn out as good.

I have no experience with sprayers. What do I need to do to prep the paint for the gun? In other words do I have to add an activator and how thin does it need to be? Would I be better off just using rattle cans?