Painting/cleaning the gun question

[VaSteve]

I know we have a bodywork forum, but this place is more happening and I want some eye traffic. I will be painting some motorcycle parts this weekend with my new gun. I have never painted anything with a gun, just rattlecans.

So, I have primer and paint all ready to go. Once I mix up the paint and the activator how long do I have to use it? The parts I have to paint are a fender, a tank 2 tiny batter covers and a tailpiece (about the same size as the battery covers).

I don't know how long it will take to dry so I don't know if I should do a coat of primer, clean the gun, do another coat then repeat with the paint. Seems inefficient and like I'll need to clean the gun and will need to mix very small portions.

Thoughts, advice>

[Tim Hancock]

It depends on the pot life of the primer and paint whether you can mix one batch or two, but if I have to wait 10-15 minutes between primer or paint coats, I leave it in the gun..... If I have to wait longer but still within the pot life time, I will dump the paintgun contents back into my mixing cup and dump a gurgle of appropriate thinner in the gun and squit some through it..... When I am redy to spray again an hour later, I will test spray the thinner, then dump it and refill with the paint or primer giving it a test squirt to get the remaining thinner out and to insure the paint is spraying nicely. Of course if the time frame between spraying is over a few hours, I will thoroughly clean the gun with thinner between spray sessions.

This is assuming you are you two part urethanes or two part epoxy primers.... With old school lacquer primer, you can let it sit longer in the gun (especially if you are using an old "primer" gun.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

I

This is assuming you are you two part urethanes

It's 2 part urehane, I just looked on the can. And it said it had a 2-3 hour pot life. Glad I asked, I wouldn't know what that meant when I got around to doing this.