Thread: Airbrushing

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Back in the dayz' painting at Winnebago, we did 10 vans a day. there were 4 of us painting murals. Well, usually 3 doing murals and 1 clear coating in the booth. If you do the math (8 hour day) ea. van got a mural on both sides and sometimes the front and back too. We didn't get to spend too much time on detail. The vans came down the line with a subject written on the work order like "Western scene" or "Sailing Ships" or "Train" like this one and then we usually had the freedom to paint anything with that general theme. It was fun for a while, but like anything they pushed us faster and faster. So, the murals ended up being purdy' basic.

Best way to learn how to use an airbrush is to just do it. Practice, practice, practice. The 4 of us each had our own style. You could go through the holding lot and pretty much pick out who did which mural.

Nice art there man. Ay dave what should I do to prep my golf cart if I wan't to paint it? I am doing some bondo work right now and then going to sand everything down all smooth. What do I do after that so I don't mess the paint up? Any ideas?

3 good coats of primer. apply 1st coat, sand with 320-400 grit, apply 2nd coat, repeat sanding, apply 3rd coat, don't sand that coat just paint over it unless, it's rough then, apply 1 more coat. Always wipe off sanding dust between coats of primer. This is what I would do on a golf cart. Block sanding is best.

Oh and, you being a beginner airbrusher, just get a testors airbrush from walmart and get the part that lets you connect it to a compressor. They cost around 35.00 so they won't break the bank. I have 1 and it's good enough to learn on then, get a better 1 when your quality of the airbrush work you can do is affected by the quality that your airbrush can produce.

Thanks there Matt. I am going to go ahead and get an Iwata man. I got a compressure but just need a moisture trap and regulator, I think I might run two regulators with the moisture trap up near the gun (one on each end of the air hose).
With the sanding like you said, should that be wet sanding?

Wet sanding is the best way.

Matt is dead on... I don't know what color you plan on painting the cart, but you might want to use a regular paint gun to shoot the entire area first... Depending on the color you are painting the cart and the subject matter of your airbrush painting you might want to spray a white base coat on the area you are airbrushing, this is not always necessary but it might be especially if you are painting light colors over dark...

Hope this helps...

Dave Brisco

Thanks Dave, and yeah I got the tape to make the flames with and I am going to outline that and make them and tape the flames up where they will be and the middle will be taped so I don't get paint on it and then on the rest of the cart I am going to use a dark base coat and lay down a pearl black and the flames will have a white base coat with metallic or pearl blue flames. Should I paint the entire cart pearl black first and then do the flames over the pearl black or do how I said with the taping?

Originally posted by FMXhellraiser
Thanks Dave, and yeah I got the tape to make the flames with and I am going to outline that and make them and tape the flames up where they will be and the middle will be taped so I don't get paint on it and then on the rest of the cart I am going to use a dark base coat and lay down a pearl black and the flames will have a white base coat with metallic or pearl blue flames. Should I paint the entire cart pearl black first and then do the flames over the pearl black or do how I said with the taping?

Be sure to put enough clear over the pearl so you wet sand the clear and Don't get into the pearl. Pearl is a translucent paint..... hard to fix if you sand through it.

Ok thanks Pro, how many coats do you think because I know that you have to spary those Auto Air paints really thin so do you thing about 3 to 4 coats of clear?

Originally posted by FMXhellraiser
Ok thanks Pro, how many coats do you think because I know that you have to spary those Auto Air paints really thin so do you thing about 3 to 4 coats of clear?

Hard to say. It depends how thick you lay down each coat. I would do a test panel, spray 3 or 4 coats on it, then sand it down to see how far you can go before you hit the pearl coat.

Alright sure thing boss. hah, yeah I will probably spray these Auto Airs pretty thin because I hear that Auto Air should be put on in thicker coats.