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Iwata paint gun

6K views 33 replies 7 participants last post by  benchracer1 
#1 ·
I recently purchased an Anesta Iwata lpv 400 sparay gun. Orange cap. I have painted a couple bike tanks and I love it. It was rather difficult to get use to holding it close and slowing it up. I have always used a conventional siphon gun. Here is my question for you guys that are proficient with this gun.I have had the volume screw at two and a half turns out and the fan I just kinda winged it on and air inlet at 16 psi . I now am going to be spraying the outside of an entire vehicle and would like to be a little more precise in gun adjustment. The other question I have is on paint reduction. I will be spraying restoration shop Acylic Urethane. The directions say 4:1 paint to hardener and up to 1 quart of reducer to a gallon of paint. For the anesta gun (1.4 aIR CAP) what would be the best way to determine the poroper reduction. On most paints I have used in the past have a mixing ratio for paint, hardener and reducer. I really dont want orange peel or runs because of improper reduction......Steve
 
#2 ·
I went ahead and sprayed the paint today and for the most part came out well. I did however end up with a couple of runs. How long do you generally wait to wet sand and recoat single stage acrylic urethane. A little color sanding and 1 coat and it should be fine. Temp when I sprayed was 62. A little cool i guess.
 
#5 ·
With respect to solvent popping...what are you using for an exhaust fan?...and did the the top panels pop and the where the sides OK? Solvent popping is often caused by the top of the paint you sprayed skimming over due to too much air moving over the car. If you the paint does skim over, the solvents left underneath the paint are still trying to get out and causing a volcano effect (or solvent pop) when they do finally get out. If your air flow is OK, the speed of your solvent (reducer) or hardner can also have a bearing on solvent popping.
 
#4 ·
On the recoat time 24 hours should be suffient with the s/s. And spraying at that temp I would use the fastest reducer you can get, also go double if not triple on your flash times. The colder temps it will take longer to flash even with the fast reducer. That could be the reason for the runs and the sovlent pop. As far as what you should go for as a reduction, that is something you are going to have to play with (on a test panel) to see where you are comfortable with what percentage of a reduced mix that sprays out the best in your temp range. Usually 5 -10 percent.
 
#6 ·
A little more information about your location would be the most help Ramona could be in the middle of alaska, on top of a mountain in Bolivia, in a swamp in Brazil, you get the picture?
I'm not a paint expert by any means, but around here Ive found I have to wait at least a week before touching single stage in this ultra humid climate., even the body shops where they have fancy spray and cure facilities, I ended up waiting almost 2 weeks on a hood one time in real moist weather for them to get 2 good coats on it , now if youre in the desert, its a different story

Needless to say, i wont fool with the stuff unless the car already has it and its just a repair. because Im working outside, and having to wait a week or more to sand the inevetable bugs that land in it out is enough to drive you insane.
 
#7 ·
sorry, fixed that in my profile. Its outside san diego, ca. I dont have an exhaust fan just the prevailing breeze. The panels i sprayed were actually vw fenders. I think it was alittle cool and light rain and I did not give it enough time between coats. I am going to let the fenders sit for a week and spray the rest of the car later this week. Ill be a little more careful of btween coat times. I ll post the results....steve
 
#11 ·
I began sanding the fenders today and found a couple of edges that needed a little bit of attention. I sanded the filler and expose a couple small areas. I have a couple more small spots to do. I really dont want to spray the whole fenders with sealer again mainly due to the fact that it will be alot of material on the fender. Can I just lightly prime the affected areas and then sand and put the additional color coats. The picture is an area about 1 or 2 inches long.
 

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#12 ·
I would recommend that you don't seal or prime the entire fender, prime the areas that you are concerned about, prep them with your finish grit of paper. If your spraying single stage (I can't remember if it was base coat or single stage), I would recommend that you prep the entire fender and put color on the entire fender. If it's base coat, same procedure but you wouldn't need to put color on the whole fender, just prime, prep the affected areas, blend your color and clear the entire fender.

Hope this helps.

Ray
 
#13 ·
That is what I was hoping to hear. It is a single stage. I knocked down the runs sucsesfully. After I prime and prep the area would it be a good idea to put a light tack coat of color to hide the prime then shoot 2 coats of color over the entire fender or just shoot the 2 coats and dont worry about it....Steve
 
#16 ·
the reshoot came out much better. I did however end up with more dust and a couple bugs. I will definitely be colorsanding and buffing. what grit sandpaper should I use to knock down a few small runs and then colorsand. ALso a few years back when i painted my Blazer I used some Meguiars compound after sanding. Cant remember the numbers. Any recomends......Steve
 
#18 ·
I re-read the thread trying to find out if it was single stage metallic or solid color you sprayed...if it's a metallic color,sanding and polishing is not an option...as you sand for polishing you will knock the tops of the metallic's and that can't be polished.

If what you sprayed is a solid color single stage any good quality, non silicone polish would be recommended, Meguier's, 3M, Mother's etc. You should have enough material to polish, it sounds like you put on a bout 4 coats after the last re-do...if you wanted to you could put another two coats on without a problem...any more and your getting a bit to much mil thickness.

Ray
 
#19 ·
sorry, solid color. i have 4 coats on the fenders an 3 on the doors and hood. I think what I am going to do is put 3 coats on the body shell then maybe give it a quick sanding and shoot two additional coats on the whole car. I think Ill shoot earlier in the day and I wont get so much debris. no booth
 
#24 ·
Went ahead and resprayed a few panels. Damn if i didnt take adeep breath and get a run on the door. All in all it camevout pretty good. I am sanding it with 1000 followed by 2000. I am then going to buff it with meguiars 95 and 93. Guess i need to practice breathing
 
#26 ·
actually I was a bit inaccurate in my post. I was going to go 1000, 1500 and then 2000. I have been using a harbor freight polisher for the last several years. I am finding it to be heavy and a bit awkward. Does anybody make a lighter unit? I also have several areas that are difficult to get at with a power buffer. Is it possible to do a satisfactory job by hand in these areas?
 
#27 ·
It is possible to hand polish those tight areas that a polisher can't get into, but, be prepared for lots of rubbing. In those hard to get at areas, follow the same cutting procedure you normally would, just make sure that you finish extremely fine, I like to finish areas like that with 3,000 Grit Trizac from 3M. Other company's make a 3,000 grit product for less money but in the long run, you save time and energy by stepping up to a quality product like 3M. Use the same polish and a micro fiber towel, lots of elbow grease and it'll come out like the rest of the vehicle.

Ray
 
#29 ·
There are many company's that make lighter polisher's that have better speed control. Most quality air tool manufacturer's make polishers. These polisher's are, like many things, personal preference. I was fortunate in the fact that I went from body shop to body shop when I was a paint rep and tried out many different brands until I found the one that I felt worked for me. It might be worth a few calls to local shops and get opinions from the painters and or detailers in those shops...if they let you hold one in your hands that's even better...that way you can check it out for balance, speed and agility.

Ray
 
#32 ·
I went ahead with color sanding. I did 1000, 1500, 2000. I then took a wool pad and used meguiars 85 followed by a foam pad with meguiars 83. This was recomemnde to me by a meguiars rep. It came out pretty damn good. I can however see some light sanding scratches under the flourescent shop light. Is there another step that can get rid of this? Im looking forward to the day when I can spray a coat of paint and just buff it and move on. I feel that I spend as much time cleaning up the paint job as I do prepping for it LOL
 
#33 ·
Your last comment is not uncommon. It will feel as though you are spending as much time cleaning up the paint job as it took to prep it. Then, just when you get better, you start spending more time prepping the paint job to get it straighter and to give you that better substrate so you can lay that beautiful, flawless paint job on it. After that you still cut and polish it. It's called the pursuit of perfection and not to worry, that's one difference between a painter and an applicator.

The light sanding scratches may be from not spending enough time using the finer grits. What the idea is when you move from one grit to a finer grit is to remove the previous grits sand scratches. Make sure your paper and surface is clean as well, any little piece of junk will just get rubbed into the paint and look like sand scratches. Also, keep your water clean and I like to use warm water, it cuts better and helps clean your surface and paper. For now, if you want to get rid of the scratches that you see, follow the steps that I've just outlined with fine paper over the area that has the scratches and run the polisher over it again. The do come out eventually.

I hope this helps.

Ray
 
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