Painting…now there’s something I should be doing more of. One of my first large-scale products involved painting an early 1980s Mercury Capri and over the years I’ve done occasional spray-bomb work and some small-scale projects, but the paint gun I currently own has seen exactly zero use in the entire time I bought it. I’ll work on that issue when the time comes…which might be sooner than later. Painting is to the gearhead what coloring was as a kid. It’s an exercise in artistry that you can do at home. Sure, you’ll be paying a hell of a lot more than a few bucks for some Marine-approved snacks, but the work can be just as fun and rewarding…and if you take your time and do things carefully, the results could quite possibly surprise you.

A modern paint gun is basically a barrel of paint ready to go, hooked to an air supply and fanned out in a spray pattern that you can adjust. Sounds like a pretty straightforward approach, right? A century ago, this wouldn’t have been such a straightforward approach. At least, judging by the looks of this Crown Spray Gun piece, it sure wasn’t. Looking like your typical barn-find oddity that has only just barely weathered a century of work, this is a combination paint sprayer and compressor in one and utilizes two diaphragm pumps that move air out to the paint sprayer point. A century has gone by since this little unit first started laying down paint…how will it do after it gets a complete restoration?