MX5Ireland

Daughter picked up the new compressor from lidl today, a decent upgrade on my 13 year old aldi one



Last job done now with the aldi one, used the lidl spray gun but the compressor struggled to keep up but result is ok
Double sided tape is a right pain to remove

Results are OK for diy


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Oh very nice!

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Looks great, Pops, well done. Did you paint then sand and lacquer, or does the paint dry with the gloss finish? I did the boot lid and spoiler with rattle cans during lockdown (should post pics - I took plenty!!!). It dried matte, then I had to wet sand before lacquering, then sanding again and buffing. came out ok, but I imaging it would have been easier with a proper machine...... and as I'm thinking of giving the whole car a freshening up, you've really whetted my appetite with that compressor!

How long does a charge last? (and one other silly question - and I'm asking this as I've never owned a compressor before) how do you recharge the tank?

I should have said above, I did the bootlid and spoiler TWICE!!!! First time I used two different shops to buy rattle cans from (I know, I know, I should have known better...). I sprayed on the primer and flatted it (used different brank for final coat). Looked fine. Sprayed on 4 coats of colour (two brands). Looked fine. Sanded and applied lacquer. Looked nice and shiny................... for a few days, then suddenly the WHOLE lid was covered in cracks / swirls (like spider webs), all under the lacquer. Looked good from about 10 feet away, but when you got closer, and the light hit it, it looked CACK. Took it too a local painter just to ask for advice - he said he'd never seen anything like it before, but when he heard about the different paints he thought that was the only reason he could come up with. His advice was..... strip it off layer at a time, however turns out it was cracked right through to the primer. had to sand right back to bear metal again. By hand. Not fun!

Hi Graham, sometimes you can get very good results using rattle cans but prep is the most important part, I'd guess what happened to you was there might have been silicone or polish contamination between sanding and applying the primer.
A compressor is very handy to have, doesn't have to be only for resprays but car tyres and footballs need air, the greatest satisfaction I've had was using it to blow out the dyson vacuum filter
I haven't unboxed the new one yet as I had already started the job before it arrived

Looks great, Pops, well done. Did you paint then sand and lacquer, or does the paint dry with the gloss finish?


I used acrylic base coat and then the 2 pack lacquer. The spoiler had very similar problems as you described so what I did was wet sanded it fully back, first with 600 grit then with 800,then I gave it 3 coats of base and left it 24 hours to see if it would react, thankfully it didn't so I wet sanded it again with 800 and then 3 coats of base followed by 4 coats of lacquer, probably a bit of overkill but by the time I flat and polish it it'll be grand.
This is the 2 pack I used, its supposed to be for diyer's working without spray booth etc, I did the merc with it and very happy with the results

This is it all set up, should be a vast improvement on the old one


Gauges for tank pressure and adjustable output pressure


Little and large, old one is max 8bar and tank capacity of 24 litres.
New one is max 10bar and 50 litres capacity

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Thanks for all the info, Pops - I really appreciate it. The new machine looks the business, especially when you see them side by side.


......it's very tempting to get a compressor now - though I'm dumb enough to start painting everything and anything!