| Central Pneumatic Mini Air Gravity Paint Gun - Tool Of The Month
Unless you live in Southern California, you've probably experienced the grief and aggravation of trying to find a body shop that is willing to perform small paintwork jobs on your ride. If you're into restoration, getting a shop to properly corrosion protect and paint the backsides of replacement fenders and valance panels is a similar challenge. Most body shops very much prefer to do crash work for insurance companies, and who can blame them? It's a lot more profitable. The solution, at least for guys like us, is do the job yourself.
Body and paint work is clearly not something Tool of the Month can teach you. But if you have a basic knowledge of this type of work and you're willing to buy a book and learn it yourself, or a case of beer for someone who can teach you a few things, there's a lot to be said for being able to spray your own small paint jobs. For example, I'm involved in a long and somewhat traumatic 1977 BMW 320i restoration. The 320i has perhaps the most complex front fenders BMW ever made, at least from the standpoint of seam sealing and use of what the Germans call "underbody schutz" for corrosion protection. I want the new fenders painted body color on the inside, and I don't trust anyone else to seal or corrosion protect them. But you have to do this work before installing the fenders. At the same time, I didn't really want to use a full-sized, high pressure, old fashioned spray gun inside my garage as they create too much overspray. So I went looking for a cheap gravity feed miniature spray gun.
Paint spray guns are fairly precision tools. Good ones, the ones professional painters use, are very expensive. A professional grade gravity feed miniature spray gun could cost $300 to $500 easily. I'm not painting custom bikes for Orange County Choppers, though; I'm just painting the backs of some fenders and a nose valance panel. Someday, I'll probably need to spray rocker panels, an old motorcycle, or my koala bear driveway light. So I went to the local Harbor Freight store.
The Central Pneumatic Mini Air Gravity Paint gun, part number 43429, is made by our friends in independent Taiwan, Republic of China, and sold by Harbor Freight Tools for $50. It is a no-frills tool made of stainless steel, with a self-tensioning needle and fluid tip for easy cleanup. Three adjustments allow stepless, round, and flat spray control. The gun includes a wrench, brush, filter screen, brush cup, and a non-drip spray cup. For my purposes, this spray gun is probably the last one I'll ever need to buy. For fifty bucks, it has already paid for itself after just one job.
Your air compressor will also require a water filter and a pressure regulator set to 38 psi to use this tool. Use paint thinner to clean any paint gun after use, spraying it through the gun thoroughly. Of course, proper ventilation, eye protection, and a spray mask filter is required for any paint work.