Touch up using Air Brush

bill3337

bill3337

Member
I have a couple small scratches on my engine that I would like touch up. Can I spray automotive base/clear through my airbrush? These are small areas, about 1/4" wide x 1 1/2" long (sanded area). I have a Devilbiss traditional touch up gun and an Iwata HVLP, but they both seem a little big for the touch up. I think it will likely spray the base, but not sure about the clear. If I thin the clear more than the recommended mix, will it screw up the clear?
 
I do that a lot for touch-ups using an Iwata Revolution aitbrush. Depending on the tip size you may have to mix the paint down a little more than recommended. I'm confused though what you said about using automotive paint. Does this engine see heat cycles?
 
The engine is all in base/clear. I just meant I've never tried to spray base clear through my air brush, but it is good one, sounds like it will be ok. The base clear stands up well on automotive engines, my '33 has been painted for many years with no signs of failure. This one is for my '37 and I scratched it by the motor mounts putting it on the dyno last week.
 
Just an update. Everything worked out great, invisible repair. I used a little blending clear around the edges while the clear was still wet. There were 4 scratches, two on each side right above the motor mounts about 1 1/2" long, from lowering it into my engine dolly and it slipped down between the two motor mount supports. I had to fill the scratches with two part polyester as they were pretty deep, but the scratches didn't go through the epoxy undercoat.
 
I wasn't aware you can use automotive paint for an engine due to the heat a motor operates at especially when you get near areas where the exhaust manifolds contact. I have always thought that was for garage/trailer queens that never started up. Have you had many engine temperature cycles? I always use the ceramic can stuff that I removed from the can and put into a quart can. If I needed to thin it out for airbrush usage I just added some acetone. I even used the VHT flame proof paint extracted from the cans and mixed my own custom blend to get Chevy orange to use for the factory exhaust manifold over-spray look.
 
I've been using base clear on engines for 20 years. My '33 has over 50,000 miles on the current engine paint job and looks as good as new.
 
Yes, regular bc/cc or ss works fine on engines. Just cant do things like exh manifolds and turbos. Automotive is good for about 350 deg.
 
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