Any gun will put paint on an object but I am sure the quality of any gun can make the job easier.

The results you are going to in up with depends of the person understanding the paint products system of mixing and "reading" the paint as it goes down and flows out.

Today's paints or all paints have a required learning curve so buy plenty to practice with on some extra panels and purchase the right drying speed reducer for your weather.
Doing a roof does have the advantage of not getting easily scrutinized and less pressure for matching adjacent panels.

The main purpose a HVLP gun is to put more paint on the car per pass with less overspray out and into the atmosphere. EPA has pretty much made this mandatory in some states for high volume shops.

They are not required for the hobbyist and its a matter of getting use to what tools you have to work with anyway, IMHO.

I will tell you that you need more than one gun to get nice results. You need one for primer which most painters have a beater gun ( a less expensive of either type will do ) for the prep work. Getting the primer down and building up the low spots set the tone for what kind of finish you have in the shine. Prep time is the most important step. Rust stoppers, fillers and primers all have steps to follow and have to be compatible to the paint product to be laid over them.

The newer paint finishes are water based and for beginners have advantages over the other two stage systems so shop around and get plenty of advice from your paint dealers or painting professionals! The more the better!!


The other gun is for color and the clear if going two stage. I myself have not done that much painting and have stuck to single stage paint systems.

Another thought, In some cases a spot or touch up gun is good for tight spots or blemishes too.

Something to look for, if you want a gravity feed gun, get one where the paint cup on top rotates for shooting horizontal or vertical low angles. They also make guns that work with drop in cups so you can swap them out. That keeps the weight down on your wrist and arms and you can make a single catalyst mix bigger if you try to do a large suface. Large volume shops use pressurized buckets that feed only the gun for doing the whole car in the allotted pot life times.

Good luck, you will be a lot wiser on the far end, after doing your first paint job after all it is a trade and art to itself. Be patient!

Phil