Paint type

[Marelton]

Hi I need some advice, I've recently bought a compressor and gravity spray gun to paint my ST kit.

I want the finish to be black base coat, light silver base coat on top (marbled with cling wrap) then cherry red candy over this, finished with a few coats of clear to give it depth.

Considering I will be painting this at home in my garage what is the best paint type and combination I could use? (Acrylics, enamels,2 pack, etc) there seems to be a lot of different options, but from a finish and safety point of view I'm not sure which is best.

[Dedman]

Personally I use auto acrylics because they are fast drying and fairly forgiving about mix ratio. I've done cars with enamels, slower to dry and they need hardener or they are too soft, you really need to mix it right, 2 packs are getting too toxic to be spraying around home even by my lax standards and again, get the mix wrong and you have a sticky mess :P.
I use a bottom feed touch up gun on guitars and a couple of different sized air brushes, a couple of big bottom/suction feed ones and small top feed one.
Wear a mask no matter what you spray.

[Marelton]

Thanks Dedman, I hear what you're saying about the 2 pack, that's why I mentioned safety, I'll definitely stay away from that. I've got the mask and I wouldn't think to spray without one.
Only thing I need now is an airbrush (thinking of including a mild black sunburst) and acres of plastic sheet to ensure the inside of my garage doesn't end up matching the colour of the guitar!

Thanks again for the advice

[Brendan]

Marelton - check out the vids - under the Guides section - Jarrod did a pretty complete look at sprays and how to... from memory...

[Dedman]

Marelton, I spray in the car port early in the morning before there is any breeze, it saves have to sheet everything, the over spray usually finds away around it anyway

[dingobass]

If you are spraying Guitars, the most reliable stuff to use is Nitro..
You can get a good selection from these guys, https://www.guitaraust.com.au/
In my experience, acrylics are unstable and never fully cure on timber.