So painting is a finesse deal. Too much paint and you will have runs. Too little and it wont cover. So you need to find that perfect medium. The best way is to test your spray pattern by turning the fan tip 90 degrees. So the wings are at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock and spraying your paint on a piece of masking paper taped to a wall. You want to spray a heavy spot. The paint will run that is ok. You want that run. Your paint spot should be Football shaped and the runs should all run equal length. If all the runs are equal length and you have good coverage. (No figure 8 shapes or heavy paint on one side) you should be ready to go wild. You will have to set up your gun to your compressor. Spray guns have 2positions on the trigger you can feel this when you pull the trigger. Step one just releases air. Step 2 releases air and paint. Hook the gun up to the compressor and pull the trigger a few times to get the feel for it. There are 2 adjustment screws on the gun one on the bottom that regulates air flow and one on the back that regulates fluid flow. As far as air goes you want a good study stream. Not just all out as much as you can blast thought he
Gun, but like around 40-45 psi. (Don’t quote me; you might want a little less).
As for paint it should flow smoothly. Spray a couple of spots on masking
Paper to check fluid flow out of the gun... When paint a vehicle or any thing for that matter you want the fan tips at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions this will give you an oval spray pattern. Like a foot ball points up and down. Start by pulling the trigger to release air and swing the gun across your panel. When the tip of the gun is about to cross over the panel pull the trigger all the way to release paint. At the end of the panel release the trigger to the air only position. You are pretty much blowing air all the time. On your next pass, (swinging right to left this time) you want to over lap your spray pattern by 50%. That is why paint flow is so important. Paint should lay down as a medium coat, not dry or wet. If it looks really glossy. Stop. Too much paint. Remember color should only cover primer. Gloss comes from the clear coat. Practice makes perfect. And it takes a lot of practice. Just remember you can always let it dry, sand out any
Imperfections, ands re spray. I hope this helps.
Print this off so you have it to reference.

Any good automotive store will have paints for you. Each paint is a little different so talk with the paint counter at the auto place and find out what type they mix and the best primer and clear coat for it. Be prepared to practice a lot.

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^^^ taken from an email my brother sent me when i was going to paint the body kit on my car. I originally posted it to jbody.org in 2007.