Morris Minor Owners Club

What heaters do MMOC members when whole car spraying with cellulose?

None - they will explode........... I only spray outdoors on warm sunny day . I do know someone who destroyed two cars and a garage by spraying with a heater on - he was lucky to escape with his life - he just happened to be right at the door when it went UP.

You must be WELL VENTILATED , heaters are a no no ,.this paint is dangerous ,there is a good reason why it isn't used in non specialist work shops any more.best wait till the ambient temperature is like a warm still summers day,then spray ,and you'll live to spray another day

ps when spraying in a garage etc,best not to switch electric circuits on and off.

I suppose water heated domestic 'radiators' will be fine - provided the machine that heats the water is far away in another building!

Thanks for warning and understood, I would not be able to heat and use my compressor though and was planning to warm the garage up then switch off?

Infra red lamps are what the booths use can be bought from machine mart no naked flame or element so no point of ignition.Idealy the compressor should be in a separate area to prevent it blowing dust about but I have sprayed dozens of cars with mine in the same garage and haven't blown myself up. Nothing wrong with getting the garage and more importantly the car heated up first with normal electric heaters then switching them off,but would advise against using the gas fire type cos they produce a lot of water vapour into the air.Make sure you get a good mask,if you can't smell the paint its not getting into your lungs.

I have a kerosene space heater and get the garage warmed up before each coat.Its the smallest one I could find but still 10kw.My double garage is warm enough for painting in no time and kerosenes only 60 odd pence a litre. I have a large extractor in the window to suck the fumes out.I turn the heater off and the fan on just before I spray a coat of paint.Of course the fan removes the warmed air as well so just go through the process for every coat.Its a bit of a carry on but I use 2k and just put on 4 coats of paint so its not too much bother.Works great for me.

Kerosene will produce water vapour so be aware of blooming

2 pack remember?Never had signs of blooming or silicones etcup to now(touch wood).

2 pack remember?Never had signs of blooming or silicones etcup to now(touch wood).]

....any sign of poisoning unless you have an air fed respirator to go with the other stuff.DO NOT USE 2pack unless you have an air fed mask you may get away with it once or twice but not worth the risk ,celly is bad enough inside but 2pack is deadly please don't use it.

Ah but poster said celly

Well I do understand the risks of making generalised comments praising 2 pack paint.I am assuming anyone contemplating using it would check on the safety aspect beforehand.There can be no dispute over the benefits as far as its ease of use,quality/depth of finish,durability etc.I am sure that if it had been available 50 years ago the factory would have used it for those very reasons.

Thanks for considered replies. In assessing my approach I realise that the roof is higher than i had first thought in order to get a consistent right angle spray pattern. Whats the best approach - wheels off, staging, chairs???

When milk came in pint bottles 2 milk crates and a plank were the perfect height.

I didn't have any problems.....biggest risk is drips from the gun.......

Depends on how tall you are of course.

The roof is by far the hardest to do and unfortunately faults like drips and runs and dry areas stand out like a sore thumb.You need to get up as high as you can and have the same box or milk crate on both sides of the vehicle start from one side and spray from the gutter to the centre of the roof then quickly get to the other side before the paint starts to flash off and start from the centre to the gutter if done quick enough the overspray will sink into the first side and not leave a dry rough line, unfortunately you can't go from front to back as a second coat to get an even finish because you can't reach the front over the bonnet ,this is where celly comes into its own because you can just put a good few coats on and any stripes or faults can be cut back and polished out takes a lot of effort but you can get a good finish.When I do a roof I always wrap a dry cloth round the gun and hold it on with masking tape then any drip hopfully is caught . Its soul destroying to get a good finish and suddenly plop right in the middle of the roof ,start all over again, been there a few times ,hope never again good luck with it.

Kennat I use a suction gun and am assuming you do also although I would assume maybe a gravity gun would lessen the chance of drips?The biggest problem I have is avoiding catching the bottom of the pot on the fresh paint.I have fitted one of the plastic lids that go on the inside of the lid with an airhole that you place on the opposite side to the airhole in the top of the gun to hopefully minimise the chance of drips coming through the lid.

I've had little bits of paint collect on the 'wings' of the nozzle - and then DRIP right on the roof..... Doesn't matter normally because any such drips just land on the floor unnoticed.

Well yes I have both type the gravity fed has the container above the gun so less chance ,if any ,of hitting the surface,but most gravity guns only have an air hole in the top and if you need to tilt the gun at an agle then you risk tipping the paint out of the hole or out of the cap since they are only screw on without a locking bar,hence the cloth wrap. The suction gun usually have a small tube from the top on the container into the securing bar so lift the level of when it might spill.But it still can, those plastic inserts do help,.Of course only filling the gun to half the container also minimises this but you need to judge the right amount of paint because if you run out before the first full coat,by the time you refill ,the paint has flashed off and you will get a hard area of overspray when finishing where you left off.The gravity guns are regarded as high volume low pressure,and to be honest work as good as suction the benefit is that if you only have a small compressor they don't use as much air,and they produce very little overspray because they work at about 20lbs pressure as long as you get the paint thin enough,they don't seem to like 50/50 mix.needs to be a little bit thinner, or higher pressure which defeats the object a bit.As said the roof is by far the hardest to do,its not possible to hold the gun at the correct so that the fan is at right angle to the surface .the best you can do is to hold it as far over as you can before covering the air hole,and rather than aiming for a 50% overlap on each stroke as you would do if at right angles,aim for a 25% and do twice as many passes,you will get stripes on your first attempt but if you give it plenty of coats you will eventually eliminate them to the point where a good cut back with compound will get a good even finish. You will also find that with the minors ,as you know,the gutter runs down the side of the roof so you are faced with where to start and finish the roof,ie when does the roof become the body,there is a body moulding running across the back of the car side to side and its tempting to stop the roof painting at this point,I did once, don't stop at the moulding because its difficult to get rid of any hard lines or overspray because its easy to rub through to the primer on the hard edges of the moulding (Don't ask why I know this )spray to well below this moulding then when you do the rear panel and wings and come up to where you stopped and its easier to blend the edges.You do know to start at the roof and work downwards if you start at the bottom and go up when you do the roof there will be lots of overspray on the bottom panels to cut back unless you mask off and do each panel separately,which is probably the better way for a diy type compressor. But then you still have the problem of where to mask off the rear panel and roof, With a pro compressor that will not run out of air I would think that the boot surround to the wings and roof would be regarded as one panel there is no clear point at which one stops and the other starts,I also take the bonett off cos its similar to the roof,you can get a beter angle. GOOD LUCK