I've never painted anything with a HVLP gun before, and have done next to nothing paint wise. Anyway i want to repaint the hood blackout on my 71 demon. The paint on the car is 35yo damaged and bad anyway so this doesn't have to be top notch just a fun project for me to try. I'm going to use SEM trim black #39144. should i spray it straight out of the can and follow the psi recommendation, or will something else work better? the hood should have slight texture anyway. Also should i take the hood off or is that more work than just taping off and covering? what type of tape and paper should i use, don't want over spray everywhere. here is the hood now

here is what it looked like in 1975 before it was painted in 1980. this is what i want to look like

The SEM trim black in quart/gallon form needs to be reduced with their reducer 1:1. I would start with SEM's gun recommendations, and you may need to tweak from there. Test on some paper or scrap before attempting on the vehicle. Holding the gun far away may end up getting you some slight texture. You will definitely be faster to R&R the hood. Less chance of getting overspray on the car, because even masked off you will find some somewhere...paint manages to get to the most crazy places. For materials any paint shop should have paper, tape and fine line tape for the edges. Home depot stuff won't do the job for this one.

Thanks for the info!

Now that I think it over a little more, I have to paint the cowl anyway. Better to leave the hood on then tape the engine compartment?

If it was me, I would prep and tape off the outlines and detail on both, then remove the hood. Tape off the cowl with 18" paper over some plastic sheeting covering everything else. You are shooting such a small area, the overspray will be minimal. That also gives you a place to make sure the hood goes back as it came off. Your back will thank you as well, because if you want you can shoot the hood vertical.

if you don't want to see those lines from the old stripe your going to have to sand the hood down with a d.a. sander and at least 400 grit,most likely means painting the whole hood unless you get a short throw d.a. and your good with it.