Need painters advice

[CalebTaylor]

So I just spray my engine bay with a hvlp gun (first time spraying anything). Very happy with the results but in some area I've got a bit of orange peel. My paint setup I had was omni brand paint, can doesn't say why type of paint, but with a reducer and hardener at a 8.1.1 ratio. I've done a fair bit of research on getting rid of orange peel but haven't come up with a solid answer. Can I wetsand with 2000-2500 grit and then polish it with a hard polish or scratch remover? Or will that mess up the metallics in the paint? I could just leave it but would like it to look as nice as possible. Thanks you guys in advance

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[C. Anderson]

Is it base coat/clear coat or single stage? If bc/cc, yes you can. If single stage, it will mess up the metallic.

[CalebTaylor]

It's a single stage, thats kinda what I figured so I'm just gonna leave it. At least its just the bay

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[silviaks2nr]

If it really bothers you and you want it perfect you're going to have to sand and respray it. I strongly suggest using a base/clear if you attempt it again as it's much more forgiving especially with a metallic.

[LoSt180]

Orange peel comes from dumping too much paint too quickly. Few tips depending on the area: 1) open the fan area. If the spray pattern is a small dot, then too much material will build up. 2) Adjust the nozzle to reduce the amount of material. You want a nice even coat of material, too little and it will come out "dry" and look like sand, too much and it will model up (aka orange peel) or have a bunch of runs and drips. Also, HVLP stands for high volume, low pressure; lower the pressure going into the gun itself. Running higher pressure with dump a lot a material as well.

An engine bay is a bit tricky to get the balance of fan pattern and material.

[CalebTaylor]

Originally Posted by LoSt180

Orange peel comes from dumping too much paint too quickly. Few tips depending on the area: 1) open the fan area. If the spray pattern is a small dot, then too much material will build up. 2) Adjust the nozzle to reduce the amount of material. You want a nice even coat of material, too little and it will come out "dry" and look like sand, too much and it will model up (aka orange peel) or have a bunch of runs and drips. Also, HVLP stands for high volume, low pressure; lower the pressure going into the gun itself. Running higher pressure with dump a lot a material as well.

An engine bay is a bit tricky to get the balance of fan pattern and material.

I'll keep all of that in mind. I plan on spraying my car instead of wrapping it now. I'll have to play around with the gun settings before start spraying pannels. I think I had the pressure way too high. The gun said to have it at 40psi but only 8-10psi at the nozzle. So that's probably where my mistake was. Appreciate the info my man

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[Standard]

Like others have said, the single stage paint isn't doing you any favors. I've heard people say single stage is easier than spraying base/clear, that is incorrect. Much less room for error, a beginner painter would be much better off with base/clear sprayed separately as opposed to single stage. Base coat is easy to spray and you can use multiple coats for proper coverage and wet sand if needed in between and after completion. Spraying clear can be tricky however, it's a bit of an art form. You spray it on wet, as thick as possible before it runs, that's your biggest enemy, if you spray it too light, just re-do it. Blending clear is also a bit of a bitch, so you need speed on large panels, a small compressor won't cut it.

At the end of the day, it's an engine bay, and I'd say it looks pretty damn good all things considered

[Dirk Jan]

I will never understand why people go through all this effort to spray an engine bay and not remove the brake booster and lines. It's only 4 nuts, come on.