Paint guns

[Captain Swampy]

I'm looking at a 3 gun set for $80 from TCP Global, the G7000.  Or the 16580 kit from 3M for $200. It's one gun with interchangeable tips for spraying different thickness materials. Has anyone used them? The 3M gun will spray in any position (even upside down), how helpful is that? I've never used a spray gun before, so I have no clue what to look for.  Thanks  for any help and insight.

[VileZambonie]

What are you trying to do? I have about a dozen guns. I have small gun for tight spots, air brushes, a few cheapo's for spraying garbage, a few primer guns that spray thicker material, and I have guns I use specifically for painting (devilbiss) and I have a few I only use for clear. If you are just looking for weekend warrior stuff, you can buy a decent DIY'er set from so many sources even harbor freight but get the more expensive ones they sell. The cheap ones are good for trashing and saving money on cleaning supplies (reducer etc) because you don't care about them. Painting parts, frame, whatever else that doesn't need to be perfect. For finish work just don't use a cheap piece of garbage or you will be disappointed.

[Captain Swampy]

 Everything we've done on Brooke's pickup has been done with rattle cans, or brush and roller for the POR 15. The paint isn't hard and scratches easily. The paint and primer tend to gum up the sand paper. Curt brought some professional grade primer and the difference was amazing.  I'd like to use better products in a gun with a decent spray pattern. It's hard enough to learn without using cheap products that make it twice as hard to do. I want us to practice now with probably a single stage paint, just to learn and make the truck look better with the parts we have. We eventually need different doors, RF fender, and box. Then we can do a nice job.

So I'm looking for something of decent quality to get started with. The 3M gun has tips IIRC from 1.0 to 2.0 and different size spray cups can be bought for it. It's being marketed as a professional quality gun that is easy to clean and maintain. It can spray most thicknesses by changing the tip size. The liners in the cup are supposed to save time and money.

The other kit has 3 guns. I guess they spray pretty good. We need to start somewhere.

[winky]

for primer i would probably start off with a harbor freight or walmart gun, for the color i would look into a devilbiss or sata, you can find pretty good deals on ebay or amazon. The main thing when buying a used gun, or at least what ive noticed is the spray pattern. If your not spraying metallic it isn't as crucial. just make sure you read reviews, its hard to learn how to spray when your gun isnt laying it down properly.

[Captain Swampy]

A friend of ours owns a body shop. When he helped us put the new sliding rear window in, he mentioned a spray gun kit. I was at my favorite parts store and bought the 3m kit, thinking that was it. I shot a text to my buddy and he told me about the TCP kit. He wouldn't  recommend it unless it was decent. So I'm contemplating taking the 3M gun back. I was hoping one of you had used them. I like the concept of the 3M thing, but will the consumables be cheaper than the time and solvent used cleaning the other guns?

I'd like to get the paint from him so if I have problems he'll be familiar with it. If he doesn't have a single stage paint, I'll get that from Carquest. I think he's using PPG water based color and solvent based clear. If it isn't much more expensive, maybe I should be learning with what we'll use on the truck when we're done. I just thought we should be learning while doing smaller repairs. I've learned I'm not impressed with POR-15.

[werewolfx13]

Just a hunch on the 3m gun you have, but if its the one I'm thinking of, you wont see much benefit from the PPS cups unless you are painting a LOT. Body shops I call on all use the PPS system, but with a 22 oz 3 panel consumable set you're looking at 50 cups for about $100-150...I'd pick the gun you want, and if you decide you want the pps system, snag the gun adapter for your brand for pps for about $30.