Had my gun setup fail on a pearl white Lexus yesterday

I've been using the same Iwata spray gun for like 8 years and always swore by it. But yesterday on a 2022 Lexus IS350 in pearl white, the fan pattern started sputtering halfway through the second coat. I had to strip it back down to bare metal and start over, lost about $150 in materials before I figured out the air cap was cross-threaded from a drop last week. Anybody else ever have a loyal tool suddenly betray you mid-job?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex_coleman18d ago

Buddy of mine had his Sata 5000 just crap out on a candy red Ducati tank. Was laying down the final clear and it just started spitting little dry specks halfway through. He figured out later a tiny piece of tape had somehow gotten sucked in through the cup vent, blocking the fluid tip every few seconds. Had to sand the whole thing down to primer and start fresh. Cost him almost half a grand in materials and two full days of work. Made me check my guns way more careful after that.

webb.val18d ago

Man that's brutal. A buddy of mine had almost the exact same thing happen on a Harley fender, except it was a bit of lint from a shop rag that got in through the vent hole. He was doing a three stage pearl and it ruined all that work. He had to strip it back to bare metal and start from scratch, cost him a solid weekend and about three hundred bucks in paint and clear. It's always the dumb little stuff like that too, not even a major gun failure. Now I always put a little filter over my cup vents, just a piece of pantyhose or a fine mesh screen, keeps anything from sneaking in. Makes you paranoid after you see it happen to someone else.