Motorcycle Store Online

- What airbrush brand and model would you reccomend for someone trying to learn how to paint motorcycles?
I am interested in teaching myself how to custom paint motorcycles. I have already bought several very good dvd's on the subject. What I have yet to find is which brand and type of airbrush is good for a beginner. How many do you recommend? I want good quality but can't afford to spend a fortune. Thanks. I appreciate the answers I have received so far, but I need something more specific, like the particular model you recommend. Also some info on different types, such as gravity fed and such. Thanks

A Sounds like you're itching to get started...so lets jump in and get wet. I'm not a real big advocate of cheap knock-offs or buying starter sets. The only thing you'll get there is frustrated. If you're wanting to paint vehicles you're going to need an airbrush which can handle uro's. This means you're going to need an airbrush with teflon packing, but there's a lot of great brands which will fit the bill. Iwata (probably the most popular and considered the work horse of the industry), Grex (newer to the market but only uses the best materials), Richpen (very similar to the Iwata and another good choice, but the best for fine detail is Mike Learn's custom tuned MoJo), Harder & Steenbeck (really hard to find a better airbrush than this, and my favorite is their 2-in-1 which comes with 2 different sized needle/nozzle combinations and 2 different sized color cups). I mainly use gravity feed airbrushes since I work with low pressure for fine detail, but I also have an Iwata BCS (syphon fed) for quick color changes and covering larger areas. All the airbrushes I mentioned above are double action, and even though there's some amazing ab artists who can use a single action ab...most can not. As for compressors, buy the best one you can afford. If you're limited to a small compressor don't go overboard and spend a ton of money on a SilentAire, Iwata, Badger, or the likes. There's a $48 model you can usually catch on sale for a little less at Harbor Freight Tools. No matter what compressor you use just make sure you have a good moisture trap which can also be found at Harbor Freight. Last but not least; you're going to need paint and a mask. While you're learning I would suggest water based paints. My favorite is E'tac since it doesn't clog and handles a lot like uro's. There's a lot of other brands on the market so take some time and experiment. Find what's best for you and have some fun. With the water based paints a good 3M paper face mask will do, but once you get into uro's and clear coats buy the best mask and correct filters.