Prepping and Acrylic 2k priming with a Earlex Pro HV5000

24th April 2011.
After all the work on the body work was completed I decided that it was in desperate need of a respray whilst the body was of the chassis. My friend had just purchased a spray centre called the Elonex Pro HV5000 and from what I had read on the internet this seemed to be as good as the air compressor sprayers with the added advantage that it maintained constant pressure. It came with two needle sizes 2mm and 1.5mm. I opted for the 2mm as I was intending to spray 2K primer filler. I purchased a litre of Mipa prima filler to start with and this purchase was dictated by price unfortunately this was not to be a good move as the rep for Mipa had told the company I was buying the Primer Filler from that no thinners could be used with there product. This was catastrophic as the first coat showed that the resulting coverage was not good and covered in orange peal. This was a disaster as most of this primer needed to be sanded down. I was helped by a friend to do this and the primer was sanded back with 400 grit sand paper. I decided that at this point there was no option but to buy better quality paint I purchased 3L UPOL 2k Primer Filler a 5L can of thinners and a litre of 2K hardener and 50 measuring cups. The consistency of this product was much runnier and seemed to be a better product all round. Using the UPOL was pretty simple with the measuring cups as the cups had graduated marking on them showing the percentage of each component to add to make a good spraying solution. I started with 400ml of paint and added the amounts of thinner then hardener to the cup. I added the thinners first as I was told chemically that it is better to mix the hardener to a weakened solution of paint and not add the thinners to a mix of hardener and paint as it would not act as well. The first coat sprayed on fairly well. I repeated this with a a second mix of paint only to find that the sprayer would not spray. I was going to start to learn the problems with spraying with this stations very early. There are two problems that you must be aware of. the first is you must not stand on the vacuum hose as this makes drips come out of the gun onto your nice prepped surface. the second is that the little pipe that comes out of the guns paint pot and disappears into the head of the gun gets easily blocked. This severely impedes the pressure of paint out of the gun. The very last thing to be aware of is that the intake for the sprayer is on the underneath of the unit. This is a problem if your spraying on grass like I was. The solution to this was fairly simple i laid the sprayer on its side. With these four problems in hand the spray system sprayed fantastically.

I must add that if you are going to primer your car with 2k Acrylic primer filler. I would ensure that you have a good friend at hand to help you wet and dry the primer down after each coat as the flatting off of the primer is very labour intensive. It took two of us to flat of the primer with 400 grit wet and dry. I sprayed three coats of primer onto the body work. Prior to flatting it off to take the basecoat. The body work was then sanded with wet and dry 800 grit in preparation of the basecoat.

Next time I will be spraying the basecoat.