Touch up with an Airbrush Paint?

An airbrush works well. Have been trying it out on an old panel, then to fix a repair. The hardest part is getting the correct control on the pen for blending. I used an airbrush compressor kit.....a full artists kit with compressor would be very expensive. I would only be interested in that if I was doing graphics etc. I would still use the paint stick for a rock chip repair though, as it is very small.

It's a truck. If you are that picky, you should by a car.

Or, a new truck.

It's a bumper. Bumpers get bumped.

It doesn't not matter how the paint was applied. What matters is what the painter did BEFORE applying the paint. The surface preparation is what matters. Airbrush, pot sprayer paint brush. I've used them all. If you can paint it does not matter.

My advice is if you like the truck, buy it. If you use it, it will get paint nicks.

My 2001 truck still looks pretty good, good enough for me anyway.

My 2006 looks pretty beat but it's only got 30K on it! It's work truck, and it works!

187,000 mi. Everything still works.

'09 Toyota here with over 95,000 miles on original brakes and spark plugs. Surprisingly, the water pump and alternator both blew about six months ago. I own a shop, so, as they say, "No big deal!", but the failure(s) occurred on a trip 400 miles from home. I had to buy tools and so on, but I still got away for about three hundred bucks.

Not bad.

If the bumper paint fails in the future, sand and prep the whole thing and give the entire bumper a new face. Heck, you might even spice things up with a contrasting color. On the other hand, if the salesman felt guilty enough to confess to a virtually invisible problem, one must wonder what he is doing with the other hand.

I met a guy one time that was looking for a box liner for his new pickups box liner so his first box liner would not get scratched up.

Yep. People like that exist.

He should have used that 'spray-on liner' the Mythbusters tested. That stuff withstood a BOMB BLAST, with it sprayed onto a plywood wall. They didn't mention the brand, but I'm sure you could dig it up with a little searching. If it could stop bombs, dog bites, and lowish-speed automotive collisions, it'll protect your truck bed from scratches.

An air brush is just a scaled-down version of a paint gun so mode of application sounds fine so long as correct paint type and proper surface preparation prior to application were also considered.

The above not withstand... don't let this influence your decision to buy one way or the other as you'll likely add plenty of your own scuffs over the years. There are other more critical things to worry about when buying a used truck... unless this is a new truck and the dealership did the air brushing... rather than some arbitrary prior owner.

Then just get an adder to the contract that if you experience uneven fading during 'x' number of years, they they'll fix for free.

It matters more that you get good value for your money, if you can't find any defects you're not looking closely enough...Offer what you think would be a good deal for yourself and stick at that price....

Good advice seems to be, "bicker about the price and walk away to get a better deal" "but if it is a good deal and good value for your money, still bicker but do not lose a bargain."

Firstly, great post, makes a lot of sense. GA

I have always "hankered" after such a unit, now I know what to look for if I even take the jump, many thanks.....

Its simply that I need one less than once a year and the outlay for such occasional jobs is too much really.....

By the way, are there not "oil catcher" units that can be used on a compressor with oil lubrication.....there seems to be some on sale on the internet, though I have never ever used one, I have to admit, for any reason....

The oil removers are OK, most commercial paint shops rely on them for all of their work. Also, the amount of oil in the compressed air is going to be relative to the amount of oil consumed by the compressor. As the rings of the compressor wear, the oil has an easier path to the compression head. I have seen paint booths that had the filters changed before each paint job. (So I was told on the inspection tour) I have had a few airbrushes over the years. The duel action designs are much better at giving you the control over paint flow. Depending on the work you want to do with it, it might be worth it to start with an inexpensive one, and try to wear it out on non essential things, like painting your fingernails, toenails, airbrushing in a six-pack abdomen. You know, just stuff.

Thank you Andy, for the vote of confidence.

Frankly, I would not go the route of an Oil catcher, as BobC suggests. It's a real pain in the you know what to maintain, plus it adds another level of complexity. I've talked with other modelers who have used one and they mention that the filter doesn't catch 100 percent of the oil, as there can be blow-by sometimes. With the advent of reliable high quality oil-less compressors there's no need to go with a oil lubricated (for the piston rings) air compressor.

Absolutely right on the oil catcher. But, if he already has a compressor, I don't think it would be necessary to buy a new compressor for the once a year airbrush use.

In your opinion, are the airbrushes more or less sensitive to oil contamination than HVLP automotive paint guns? The compressor capacity needed for car painting would be expensive in airless design. All of the paint body and repair shops I have ever seen had oil lubed compressors. How do they get by?

Bob, it's been my experience that the rubber O-rings are very susceptible to oil. I learned the hard way back in the early 2000's by lubricating the airbrush innards with 3-in-1 Oil after cleaning in it out following a painting session, before storing the airbrush. I honestly though that by doing so that the lube job would help the guts operate better after storage. WHAT WAS I THINKING? WRONG!!!!

Nobody had told me beforehand that you can't do that. During the next painting session a few months later, I discovered that the paint was spitting and splattering, all due to deterioration of the rubber o-rings. Lots of blow-by. Additionally, during the painting session I was not able to fully purge the lubricating oil itself, which destroyed/contaminated the work. I had to remove the newly applied paint and start again with another airbrush. Following that, I asked other experienced modelers in our club (and at online modeling forums) what could be the problems I was encountering. When I mentioned how I cleaned and lubed the airbrush guts they all immediately jumped all over my sorry ass over the oiling thing. I had to order new rubber o-rings and install them. While they were not expensive, it was a major hassle and undertaking replacing the worn o-rings, which the thin needle glides back and forth within. I don't ever want to have do that again!

Word for the wise: NEVER introduce any sort of oil through a modeling airbrush!

I think trucks with a few scratches look macho.

Trucks that have shiny chrome and perfect paint jobs that have never seen off road use are wussie trucks.

Besides, having a few dents allows you to tell your buds how you were racing down pikes peak the other day when all of a sudden ,,,,,

jenif,If you're really particular about keeping that truck looking like new, buy a cheap air brush and keep it in the truck, along with some touch-up paint.The cheap ones come with a spare tire Schrader valve adaptor so you cam power the air brush with your spare tire while your away from home.

Always buy a white truck because Appliance White in a spray can will always be close enough. Never wash your truck so the touch up won't show. Always change your oil often, and your truck's more often. To qualify as a truck it must be able to close the tailgate on a full sheet of plywood. Anything else is a fraction of a truck (6/8ths for example)

"Anything else is a fraction of a truck (6/8ths for example)"

Anything else is an SUV with a birth defect.

What size 'full sheet?' 4x6? 4x8? 4x12? All of these are 'standard sizes' for plywood, and can be considered 'full sheet' (as in uncut).

I'm pretty sure I know which one you meant, but some others might be confused. Remember, details save lives.

On that subject, what does the metric world use for 2x4s?

I ran into this problem during the design of the VA National Cemetery in Saratoga back in '96~'98, the first all Metric construction project them.

There is "HARD" Metric and "SOFT" Metric. On that project, we choose to go the "SOFT" Metric route, because importing Hard Metric building materials from other countries would have been outrageously expensive and busted the Fed's budget. The Fed's who specified this bonehead approach, errrr decree, had no clue what a can of worms they were about to unleash, until our firm pointed this out to them. It took an entire day sitting around a VA table in Washington DC to finally convince them of their waywardness.....

I suggest that you look Northwards to Canadian wood standards.

Firstly I really don't know.

But many things are still imperial, steel gas and water pipe threads, jam jar sizes and weights of contents.Old stone road signs are still marked in miles.....still to be seen if you look around....but not used by anyone....I do not know how old they might be..... many things, but I cannot remember them all right now.

Even the metric folding measuring rods used in Germany are called a "Zollstock" = Folding Rule, but "Zoll" is their name for an "inch". A word for word translation really is "Inch-Stick"......

I was surprised at just how much has remained Imperial, but nowadays I hardly notice anymore....

Depends...

Get this book, see 7-6 for more info:

https://books.google.com/books?id=HhbwBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

And a pretty good book all around, I have found it useful on more than one occasion.

We use one and a halfs by three and a halfs for 2x4s here.

MMs???

A late reply, but I have said this before. If you want to have a truck, have a real truck. A real truck has dents, scrapes, and mud, and a couple of empty beer bottles rolling around under the seat. If you want a show piece, buy fancy sports car that you keep in the garage until the weekend when you wash and polish it, and maybe take it for a drive if the weather is fine.