AIRBRUSH INFORMATION

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There is a lot to learn when approaching priming, base coating and finally clear coating a car, bike or truck. If your goal is the artistic end of kustom painting you might want to leave all that to the pro's at an auto body shop and just do the art work. If you are like me untrained in this aspect of custom painting you will find it much more financially rewarding to stay away from the priming, base coating end of a project. The reason I say this is it takes a great deal of time to do body work, prime, sand, guide coat and base coat a bike, car or truck, boat, airplane if you are untrained in these aspects it will take you even longer. This time on your part might well be better spent rendering art work or graphics than playing with body filler and sand paper. Adding the art work is where you make your money or want too anyway so leave that type work to the pro's.

I do my own clear coating on bikes, helmets but I would never try to clear coat a car, truck, bus or boat. I have in the past done all the work on custom bikes from bear metal to finish clear; I do my best to avoid it and if cornered into doing it charge what time is worth. Don't kid yourself painting two square feet of metal as in a gas tank is not as easy as it looks. With such a small area every square inch must be perfect or it will be noticed. With a larger surface such as a car, boat, truck having such as large surface small imperfections will not be as noticeable; not so with a bike fender or tank. Food for thought stick to the art work let the pro's do the body work, priming, base coating..

For SATA spray guns check here: SATA USA .

There are a lot of spray gun companies out there Sata being one of the best. When choosing a spray gun make sure you do your home work. Know what material you will be spraying most often and what size tip is required and purchase your gun accordingly. I have one gun for primer only, one for base coats, one I use just for clear coating and another just for shooting flake. For more information on spray guns check out my other web site www.howtocustompaint.com.

Don't forget all the safety equipment you'll need also spray suit, spray booth, paint mixing room, respirator, mask etc.

For larger areas involved with adding airbrush art work, graphics a bottom feed or siphon feed airbrush generally works best. By larger areas I mean like the sky in a mural on a car door, hood. Clear coating is best accomplished using a full size spray gun or touch up HVLP spray gun and not an airbrush. Examples of some of the leading manufactures of bottom feed airbrushes are listed below.

Below are links to consumer product reviews you will find helpful in educating yourself on the different brand airbrushes. Post a review of your favorite airbrush while you are checking out the product reviews.

For rendering detail art work, graphics a gravity feed airbrush works best on hard surfaces.

Don't forget the airbrush holder, hose, cleaning tools all come in very handy.

Paint for use in an airbrush on hard surfaces there are a lot of choices and it comes down to personal preference and local availability. You have the solvent based paints like House of Kolor PPG, Dupont, Sherwin Williams all make custom paint lines now with many other smaller companies jumping on the band wagon. House of Kolor products where from day one meant for one application and that is and was custom painting. PPG, Dupont make some very fine products as does Sikens, BASF. It comes down to personal preference and availability in your area.

You can download in PDF form all the tech sheets for House of Kolor products here TECH SHEETS. They explain how to use the products including suface prep.

You can download the latest tech sheets for Auto Air here: TECH SHEETS The tech sheets explain how to use their products.

Water base paints such as Createx Auto Air have grown in popularity over the past several years and has some very unique advantages over solvent based paints. With the new improved reducers Auto Air sprays much like their solvent based brothers and is differently worth trying. Aqua Flow also makes paint for hard surfaces.

If all you will be doing is using gravity feed airbrushes than any of the small oil less piston airbrush compressors will work just fine. Using a siphon feed, bottom feed, spray gun or touch up gun you'll need at least a five horse power, thirty gallon air tank commercial compressor from Home Depot, Lowes, Sears. With this type of compressor you'll need an air regulator, moisture trap. All airbrush hose's on the compressor end should just screw onto the air out let fitting of the compressor.
You can also use CO2 as an air source; you might want to check into that if refilling the tank won't be a hassle for you.

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