Well it is that time again to shoot the underside of the truck. For years I have used a pump up weed sprayer, and I thought maybe its time to evolve. So with HF in mind,,, what do I need to look for, they have some for like 20 bucks, on up. So tell me what I need. And I am most likely never going to paint anything with it,, well clean it out and shoot the outside of the garage with latex paint,,, maybe.
Spray guns
- Thread starter skeets
- Start date
NCL4701
Well-known member
Equipment
L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
If you’re spraying latex house paint or something of similar viscosity a decent airless sprayer is hard to beat. I got a Graco a few years ago (I believe the current comparable model is their X5). Yeah it was about $350 but I had to paint 3 textured faux raised panel aluminum garage doors and either paint (cheap) or replace (much more expensive) all the vinyl underpinning on mother in laws trailer so it was either hire it out or buy a sprayer as that was the only option to get an reasonable finish. If I never use it again it paid for itself at least twice just on those jobs. Also use it to spray deck stain.
Setup and cleanup are a bit of a job but it will shoot unthinned latex house paint at up to 3000 psi atomized so fine the finish on the garage doors looks like factory finish with one coat. Being able to adjust the pressure and use a variety of tips allows spraying a variety of materials of widely varying viscosity. Deck stain is thinner than house paint, so I turn it down to more like 1500 psi or so. It’s only rated for recommended use of 125 gallons per year so no, it’s not a professional grade sprayer.
I’ve used a variety of the handheld cup type sprayers for thick materials like house paint but never one that throws the quantity of paint or quality of finish of the little Graco direct from the bucket unit. Honestly, if I didn’t want to put the money into buying a unit at least as good as the one I have or if I had a job for it only once every few years I would consider renting a paint sprayer v buying a cheaper handheld cup unit.
Someone may know of one of the lesser cost handheld cup type sprayers for high viscosity materials that’s reliable and produces a high quality finish but that someone ain’t me.
Low viscosity materials such as furniture stain, varnish, automotive paint: totally different topic. I have an old siphon feed air sprayer for thin stains and varnish, for which it’s quite adequate, but there are much better options these days. I’d be looking for a better low viscosity gun if I still painted cars but I haven’t painted a car in the past 30 years.
Setup and cleanup are a bit of a job but it will shoot unthinned latex house paint at up to 3000 psi atomized so fine the finish on the garage doors looks like factory finish with one coat. Being able to adjust the pressure and use a variety of tips allows spraying a variety of materials of widely varying viscosity. Deck stain is thinner than house paint, so I turn it down to more like 1500 psi or so. It’s only rated for recommended use of 125 gallons per year so no, it’s not a professional grade sprayer.
I’ve used a variety of the handheld cup type sprayers for thick materials like house paint but never one that throws the quantity of paint or quality of finish of the little Graco direct from the bucket unit. Honestly, if I didn’t want to put the money into buying a unit at least as good as the one I have or if I had a job for it only once every few years I would consider renting a paint sprayer v buying a cheaper handheld cup unit.
Someone may know of one of the lesser cost handheld cup type sprayers for high viscosity materials that’s reliable and produces a high quality finish but that someone ain’t me.
Low viscosity materials such as furniture stain, varnish, automotive paint: totally different topic. I have an old siphon feed air sprayer for thin stains and varnish, for which it’s quite adequate, but there are much better options these days. I’d be looking for a better low viscosity gun if I still painted cars but I haven’t painted a car in the past 30 years.
Last edited:
Need a pretty big tip for an hvlp to spray latex decently. Should do fine for most thinner undercoat material. Typically a Schultz gun is used for undercoat. Basically just an air siphon. Pretty generic thing, some have hoses some have little cans on them. Used to be real cheap to pick on up. Think guys use them for bed liner (diy types) nowadays. Worst your gonna do at hf is grab a $20 spray gun and not like it.
Cheapest HF spray gun and don’t look back. Forget about spraying the latex with it. You can rent the airless when that time comes
I used this one, worked great. With 3M Undercoating on my 2020 GMC 2500
Amazon.com: TCP Global Air Undercoating Spray Gun with Suction Feed Cup - Apply Sprayable Truck Bed Liner Coating, Rubberized Undercoat, Rust Proofing, Chip Guard Paint - Pneumatic Automotive Application Sprayer : Automotive
Amazon.com: TCP Global Air Undercoating Spray Gun with Suction Feed Cup - Apply Sprayable Truck Bed Liner Coating, Rubberized Undercoat, Rust Proofing, Chip Guard Paint - Pneumatic Automotive Application Sprayer : Automotive
D2cAT,, I have been for more years than I like to think, shot the under carriage, frame underside of the bed cab corners and what ever else I could get to of every truck I owned with used motor oil,, yeah I know Im killing the world. Since I started back in 74 with my Jeep truck and they were noted to rot out in a year or 2 and when I got rid of it the underside and body was good. I try to do it like every other year and since its going to be hotter that 9 kinds of hell next week I figured the oil would soak in to places. So thats it my friend, just thinking about saving some wear and tear on this old body