do you need to spray paint your Mini ?

I'm looking on eBay at gravity feed guns and some are 1.4mm; 1.7mm and even 2.0mm - so what do I need?

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

I think 1.4 is for Acrylic, other dor 2 pac, correct me if i am wrong!!

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Dave,

To do with size of spray job. A large panel or roof or whole car at one time then larger size, greater volume of paint over a greater fan area. Most guns will come with the extra nozzle and needle valve included.

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Dave K.
1979 Moke Californian + 1981 'Coke' Moke

acrylic or 2k?

Buy the what you need as a kit.

A replacement tip and needle for my star gun was $85. The gun only cost $190

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The size that the manufacturer of the particular paint you are using recommends.

Or just wing it, split the middle and go the 1.7

Sorry i just look at my gun it's the other way around. My gun is 1.8 and give you a good thick acrylic coat. I am definitaly not a pro but i try painting with a 1.4 gun, the acrylic coat was too thin and the result not good at all, i had much better result with a 1.8 (still not perfect). As the other one tell you try to get a kit with different nozzle size. And a good gun is really worth the money.

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mm i havent looked at much material lately but i recall the tip for primer usually being 1.4, and the tip for colours and clears usually either 1.7 or 1.8 sometimes 2.0. fact is (depending on the gun) you can adjust the feed and pressure so that the atomisation is sufficient with any of them

http://www.anest-iwata.com.au/products/sg.php
Heres the Iwata web site link. If you look at what application your needing a gun for(acrylic, 2pac or undercoat) in the selection guide, then checkthe code up in the manual spray guns link. This will tell you roughly what size nozzle is needed.

You need to consider the size of your compressor, which drives the spray gun.

This is all getting a bit confusing..............

Pure and Simple.

Acrylic Lacquer Topcoats...............2.0mm Tip is the recommended, Some people out of personal preference will like to use a 1.8mm tip.

2Pack paint Topcoats..........1.4mm is the standard size, Some people will use a 1.2 or a 1.3mm tip again for personal preference.

Primers......... 2.0mm for both acrylic and 2pack.

Thanks 850pete Exactly what I wanted to know

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

In practice he's right and for all purposes you’d follow it.

But, if you wanted to be pedantic about it all, it's still entirely dependant on what the paint manufacturer recommends. For example, an acrylic lacquer I have here recommends a 1.5mm when using a gravity fed gun (1.8mm for suction).

Very true but I think you would also find (being pedantic here too) that this recommendation would also include you using that particular paint manufacturer's brand of Thinners, Retarders etc as well.

In practice, and I'm talking the average Joe painting his mini in acrylic at home, very rarely is a matching recommended Thinner used nor is it ever mixed accurately like you would with a mixing stick using 2K.

It's a crazy world of painting cars as everyone has a different opinion on how to do things, the key is to take all the information you find and muck around until you find a procedure that acheives the results your chasing.

Whoa, someone that makes sense.

Agreed totally

I've always gone on using a 2mm tip for priming and nothing special, then for your colour and important coats, you use a 1.4mm (or smaller) and thin the mix down more.

I've spraying mine in 2pac black, just been using a 2mm tip for everything so far, but I had to respray my bro's falcon ute front bar, which I used my 1.4mm tip, came up a treat.