[QUOTE=ArchaicArcane;6461351]"So I got out my favourite 3in 1 oil" NOooooooooooo!!!

Calls the rest of the article into question within about a half paragraph...
/QUOTE]
LOL, the same thing went through my head. I didn't end up with orange peel, but it's for sure not as smooth as a professional auto paint job.

For what it's worth....

The primary difference between a professional paint job and an amateur one is the prep and finish.

Prep is making the surface under the paint as prepared and smooth as possible.
Finish is making the applied paint (and clear coat) as smooth as possible

Shooting the paint is the easy part

I painted a 1973 Dodge Challenger using "rattle cans" and it came out looking great. Instead of about 4 hours of a professional's time at $100+ per hour it took about 20+ hours of my time at whatever I felt it was worth at the time.

Sand body to metal
Primer and then Block sand smooth at least two times, preferably 3 or 4 times
Paint a THIN layer, allow to dry, lightly sand smooth, repeat at least 4 times, preferably 6-7 times
Clear coat is done the same as the paint layer

"Orange peel" is commonly caused by insufficiently thin coats or insufficient drying time between layers, not usually the device involved. Although cans of paint usually apply it too thick from the start.

Mine has paint damage on the post and bed plus decal wear so I'm strongly considering it too. I priced the ones at Roxanne's since I adored the polka dot one she had up but she wanted $1000 with a 6 month turn around which was too rich for my blood and I use my FW for almost all my piecing since I get a better 1/4" seam with it. My other machines have feed dogs in the way at 1/4". :( No dice. Now I'll find someone else I think. "Sewing Machine Steve" does lovely work too and more than just FW's.

My husband and I repaint the featherweights and the 301 sewing machines and have some for sale on eBay. Our eBay names are: sewkrazy301 and steelers1000...check out our machines.

The polka dot is fun to look at but I'm sure it would drive me crazy sewing on it!

I agree that unless the machine's body is messed up I wouldn't paint it. But if I find one that is sewing great but the body is messed up I would love to have it painted!

Will be watching your auctions...

I completely agree that the bulk of the work and where it shows the most is in the prep and finish. I must be doing something wrong with the rattle cans then, I alternate between orange peel and runs, and the paint never seems to be thin (I've never gone through when sanding the orange peel out) and always orange peels visibly by the time it's sprayed. Give me my hplv paint gun any day!

I did the tremclad roller method on a truck we used to own. That creates orange peel like crazy! (As you'd expect) With lots of coats and good sanding though, it turned out looking better than the rest of the truck. ;) The neighbors loved that too. It was before we built the garage, so there I was out there on the front driveway with the sander and fill and paint with rollers... LOL!

Do you have any thoughts on what Dave McCallum does? "The black baked enamel was not phased by the hot water as it removed the shellac, even from the hard to reach places. Some of you know I do not advocate removing the black baked enamel as it is a very good foundation to apply paint to, so to me this was great!" - http://www.featherweight221.com/fwrx...95046357133719

I'm going to give his method a shot on the machine I next redo. If I can save a lot of time by leaving the black coating and just sanding it smooth, then that would be awesome. Removing all of the paint was a pain.

We tried the water thing but it takes a LOT of really hot water. I decided that once he'd run the hot water tank out once already that we were using way too much water doing this (pretty much just flushing it down the drain) so DH took over with the isopropyl alcohol. Works as well, stinks more, feel less guilty with the water usage.

Did you try soaking it in the hot water rather than just running it? I have a big, tub kind of sink in the garage that I could try it in. The machine could literally be submerged for a while.