Q: Best "budget" clear coat gun in September 2025?

Here is my car so you folks have a visual as to where I am. Probably a month out at least from base coat. It's full epoxy and I'm tweaking the details right now. Need to know when to say when.

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I bought the gun with the 1.4 tip and purchased the others as separate line items. When I purchased last year, there were no tariffs or brokerage fees (de minimis). I hear the de minimis is now $100.
 
Ya I'm not really sure. The price for the 627 and 615 appears to be the same on Amazon that I paid awhile back. I wanna buy the new 815. But honestly I don't need anymore guns. This is dumb at this point.
 
OJ86 said:
Ya I'm not really sure. The price for the 627 and 615 appears to be the same on Amazon that I paid awhile back. I wanna buy the new 815. But honestly I don't need anymore guns. This is dumb at this point.
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Out of curiosity I looked up the 815. I know you like the brand but $400+ for it? :eek:
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Buying a bunch of no name guns over the years starts to add up. My philosophy with guns buy the best, pay for it once and it ends up being cheaper over the long run. Being able to get parts for your gun 5 years down the road is important, at least to me it is.
 
I completely agree with that 100%. That's why I really wasn't trying to push it, I just saw the title with "budget" and figured I would chime in with my experience with a cheaper end gun. I will say, for a lower end gun they are pretty well built from what I can tell.

I doubt they will have as much success with their new pricing IMO. But who knows, I am usually wrong, lol.

Now you wanna talk about cheap cheap. I am still using my $75 Vevor 1.7 to shoot primer(2K and epoxy) and damn it does well, lol.. But this gun feels and looks like a cheap POS!

These are the only cheapo guns I have.
 
I went with used top brand guns. Not much difference in price between them and the more expensive budget guns. I have found SATA and Iwata both have very good resale values. I just sold my SATA 2000 NR last year for $5-$10 less than I paid for it 20 years ago. Of course that's not counting inflation.

So they do hold their value and if you don't like the gun chances are you can get most if not all your money out of it by selling it on.
As posted above these spray guns get a bit additive and I know of no painter that only has 1 or 2!
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To be "clear" :) I do have two cheap guns (the astros) which are fine ish. I don't have anything good to compare them to but I did paint the engine bay, wheel wells and trunk with them. The full exterior I'm trying to uplevel my game due to how much time I'm putting into the body work.

Feels like the LPH is the hands down winner and I'm looking for a used one while still explore cheaper options. I see a what looks like a great condition orange cap LPH in Ft Worth for $400, etc.

Even though I don't paint often I am a tool nutcase and would keep the gun "forever".. However if I knew a $200 gun was awesome enough then I would absolutely consider it. See, I'm waffling around.
 
Yes the only downside I have found is with used guns your never sure how they were cared for. But since they are expensive when new I think most people do take care with $600+ gun! Again try this list as the guys on here have a LOT of different spray guns!
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LPH silver cap 1.4, euro clear 4/1/1. 2.5 turns out of fluid, about a quarter turn in from full fan. and a slow and steady , deliberate technique with about 80% overlap and about 26-28psi is my recipe and i can duplicate results ever time. it took me a few years to figure this out, since im just a hobbyist. my advice is the just buy a good gun and forget the budget part of it. the budget part will come into play when you start doing things yourself and dont have to re-do things because your gun acted up.....
 
Just received an email reply from spraygunsdirect in the UK. So, that may still be an option and just letting you folks know. They don't sell lph400s however.

Hi Jason,

We charge 12.9% in the checkout, we then cover duty, import handling etc. so there is nothing extra to pay, no surprises and no delays – guaranteed.
 
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The best advice IMO for someone looking for a gun is buy a good one, Sata or Iwata, use it for your project. Keep it clean and cared for. When finished if you don't think you want to paint again sell it and recoup much of what you spent on it. 60-80% on Ebay. Good clean Sata on Ebay will bring top dollar. Chances are though once you finish your first project you'll be wanting to do another. :)
 
jsnppp said:
To be "clear" :) I do have two cheap guns (the astros) which are fine ish. I don't have anything good to compare them to but I did paint the engine bay, wheel wells and trunk with them. The full exterior I'm trying to uplevel my game due to how much time I'm putting into the body work.

Feels like the LPH is the hands down winner and I'm looking for a used one while still explore cheaper options. I see a what looks like a great condition orange cap LPH in Ft Worth for $400, etc.

Even though I don't paint often I am a tool nutcase and would keep the gun "forever".. However if I knew a $200 gun was awesome enough then I would absolutely consider it. See, I'm waffling around.
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Looks like you already got the “budget” guns covered with the Astro’s. Time to pick up a LPH.
 
So on the LPH, I am painting metallic basecoat and then SPI universal clear.

Is the silver cap (1.3) what I need for both? Or? Thanks
 
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