Hot Rods what is the best harbor freight paint guns -primer-- base coat-- clear

The heading tells it all. I know this has been discussed before but I sure can't find it. Bill

 

I don't think all of the info has been in one place though... I'd like to know.

 

The purple one

 

The purple one

 

How much will your paint plus the prep work cost? My paint was over $1,000 and the prep took me weeks of time. I bought a HF gun for $30 but never took it out of the box; I spent a few hundred on a better gun…. it matters.

John

 

the black widow has great reviews on base/clear coat.

I would use the cheap gun on the primer as your going to sand it anyway. I wouldn't have any fear trying out the black widow. I haven't heard much bad about it.

I've used cheap guns, sata's, binks, devilbiss etc and I found most do fine, its all about prep, practice, and knowing how the gun flows.....

'

 

I used the purple gun for etch primer and filler primer on one of my cars, as per the previous post figuring it was going to get sanded. Both primers laid down well. Painted some garnish moldings later with their touch-up gun, in which I was surprised how well it did.

 

I’ve only done matte and primers with my Purple guns. Probably works better than my self taught skills show.

 

IF, you get the purple gun make sure you disassemble it and clean it well.
I was amazed at the junk (assembly lube) inside it.
It doesn't come with a wrench for the nozzle and none are sold separately. I made one from from some 1/8" flat stock.

 

This ^^^. Mine was all sorts of crapped up out of the box. I also replaced the o-ring (got spares too) where the reservoir attaches. I got it for around $8 back in 2015 and was ready to chuck it after I was done with it, but was able to clean it to my satisfaction.

I did all of my interior with it, Duplicolor white for the floor pans and GM metallic black for the dash and garnish. I did the primer with spray bombs, wet sanded all that and used the HF gun for the finish. I was surprised how well the paint went on.

 

The $15 HF purple gun can be used to lay down a really nice paint job by a good painter. My main complaint against it is that the trigger is stiff compared to other guns and that can cause some old guys like me with arthritis in my hands problems.

I bought an Astro for less than $100 that has a trigger that is smooth as glass, a wider pattern than the HF gun, uses less air, and is easier to clean (smoother inside.)

 

The Black Widow is the only one I would ever buy (if I would even buy another from them). Many of the folks in my paint groups on FB have bought & reviewed it with pretty much all positive comments. If you buy the "Purple Gun" & even after cleaning it well, get a good pattern out of it....You should buy a lottery ticket.

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

Ha! I tried to clean my first one, after 20 minutes of putzing around I thought “what the heck am I doing “?
The next time I was close to HF I stopped in, saw they were marked down on sale for the 10 dollar or so price, bought three.
I do clean and keep the cups. Have to look in another drawer to see what other parts I keep also, I don’t spray very often, but after sanding, masking, spraying…I’m done. Pretty much all of the gun goes in the pile. My grandfather would whack me on the head several times with his cane if he were around and saw me do it.
I’ll deal with that later

 

My gun isn't from harbor freight, so old don't remember where it came from but it gets cleaned by me after every job so it lasts.

most of my friends and I see alot of you tubers will buy the cheap purple one, they have good luck with them for a one or two time use. Even bad chad uses them. his girlfriend brought him 50 of them one time when they were on sale. Cheaper to throw them out after each use then it is to spend the money on cleaning them.

That is the problem with them, paint guns don't get cleaned out right. You can buy a thousand dollar gun but if you don't clean it out right, it will work just like a $10 gun then after 1 paint job and poor cleaning. .

 

I agree, but why spend time and effort and money to clean a 10 dollar gun, when you’re done, it’s still a 10 dollar gun, you could have been cleaned up and ready for dinner by then

 

Oh, I totally agree why clean a cheap gun and if you are not going to clean it out right then don't buy an expensive gun to start with. .

 

I would never spray 1000$ worth of paint with a 10$ gun.

 

Make no mistake.....even though I am free with my money, I will never do a half-assed job cleaning either of my $500.00 guns! (Teckna Copper or Iwata LPH-400)

These days paint is VERY forgiving (Basecoat/Clearcoat), I have often said I could teach a monkey to pull the trigger & it would look great as long as the guy who was doing the bodywork knew what he was doing! Wet sanding & buffing can make a lot of "Piss Poor" paint jobs look decent these days!

If you think a $15.00 gun can shoot as good as one of my $500.00 guns, you clearly don't understand what a quality paint job is & are happy with something that "just has color on it"

If it was that easy....The quality guys would not get the big bucks!

God Bless
Bill

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

I used the cheap purple gun for all my primer and epoxy sealer. But when it came to painting my car I bought the $150 Spectrum. Not their highest priced gun, but it worked extremely well for me.

 

I have bought cheap HF guns in the past to shoot glue out of. I usually knock paint guns off the table and break the neck. They never need to cleaned out, just put more glue in them and shoot. I use it often. Sometimes, a few days go by or even a week. The last one I bought (a couple weeks ago), it shot the glue in a 45 degree angle from the tip. Tried a couple things and chucked it. Went to the parts store and bought a 75 dollar gun. HF has failed me more often than not. Like 75% of the time.

 

All I need to know.

 

The cheaper guns are built with unhardened, low alloy easy to machine aluminum.. This erodes away faster than the tougher conditioned surfaces in your premium guns. The accuracy of the machining of any guns should be consistent regardless of price point. The ability to provide a consistent spray pattern with adequate paint atomization will go away faster with use. Cleaned Initially and trial adjusted, the cheaper guns will get it done with the skills of the average hobbyist and last for the occasional paint job as well. A fine painter will get annoyed compensating for wear and a production shop will go through them quickly. Paint is more abrasive than you would imagine..

 

I follow a guy on FB who treats the purple ones that he buys by the case on sale as consumables. Says outside of pre use cleaning he never cleans one. Uses it for a painting session and tosses it. He will do a room full of body panels at one time though. On the other hand I follow along on a group that quibble over what 500+ gun to use. The paint jobs they do go for more than the trucks he builds do though.

 

That makes a lot of sense. You get the quality you pay for. I figure the HF guns are good for one or two complete jobs, where a higher quality gun like a SATA or DeVilibis should be good for several jobs before it needs rebuilt. That being said, for a hobbyist like most of us, a mid range priced gun would probably meet most of our needs a long time.

 

I use a purple gun a lot, but I also shoot a lot of single stage enamel for non automotive stuff. I ran thinned latex thru one last month to do interior house doors, yep, worked fine. I've never had an issue getting a good spray pattern out of them. Have drilled the tips for more flow - works fine if you lap the needle in with a drill and valve compound - wanted to see if it would work

Automotive paint, I use nicer guns.

It only takes a few minutes to clean a gun.

Purple guns, I just clean with gasoline

 

Why not set your sights higher than a Harbor Freight spray gun. Spraying $400 a gallon paint with a $30 spray gun makes no sense.

 

But a 10$ gun sprays 30 dollar tractor supply paint just fine.
I’d never buy 1000$ in paint and attempt to spray it myself, even if I was given the best gun and set up known to exist.
Not directed at you, please understand, but covering bare metal that’s been primered then just putting some paint over it, is better that rust, IMO.

 

I should walk away here because I’m not a wart on a painters ass, but, if one chooses to purchase 400-gl paint, he/she probably knows how to paint, has a good gun and knows how to use it.
Anyone that doesn’t know how to paint and buys 400 a gallon paint, probably won’t get the results they want with a 400 dollar gun anyways.

 

I bought the Black Widow guns, around $200 each. I bought both the HTE with he 1.3 tip and the HVLP with the 1.7. So far I have only sprayed out of the 1.3 and was very happy with it. It's such a close copy of the Sata 5000 that I'm pretty sure the parts are interchangeable. I put the 3M PPS2.0 cup system on it and it was great, though in retrospect, I should have used the HF cup system just because of how much cheaper and easily accessible the refills are, and they are compatible with the 3M PPS1.0 system. I sprayed an engine in HOK Shimrin2, and on the advice of a friend who is an elite painter, mixed the HOK KD3000 primer as a sealer and sprayed it through the 1.3.

$200 is expensive for a HF gun, but very cheap for a good quality tool. A new Sata 5000 for $200 would be a steal.

 

When you think about it, a paint gun does not have that many parts, and the guns are all about the same design. A successful paint job is more about the person standing behind the gun, rather than the gun itself.