building a paint booth,and newbie paint/body attempt any tips?

[ricky]

well,i've decided to try my hand at building a temp paint booth,and also doing some body work/paint on my latest project

my shop has 20' tall ceilings..so,was planning on building a paint booth out of 2x4's..and hopefully being able to take it down,store it to be used again as I have a cpl other projects that will be needing paint work in the future

how tall do the sides.etc need to be? since my ceiling is so tall,and this area of the shop is fairly open, looks like i'll need to make five sections, had planned to tape tarps on the floor to keep overspray on the concrete at a minimum.. from what I have read, i can get the rolls of plastic from places like walmart (I have seen it there in the past anyway)

any tips on what fan/fans to use? i'm guessing set the fan up so that it pulls out of the booth,with a/c filters on the opposing wall? car is a 99 mustang that is fairly straight,has a cpl small dings,but that's about it..its rio red,and plan to sand it down and paint it torch red (factory ford red) with all 03/04 effects to make it look like a cobra..front/rear covers,trunk spoiler,side scoops and hood....I have helped sand cars before,but that's about it..paint that is on the car now is original and pretty thin,typical ford clear flaking on roof and fenders,no rust
...anyone want to throw out some tips? i'll take them lol thanks

ps, what lights are best to put inside the booth? brand,wattage?

if I get thru this,and it turns out decent,then I will be attempting to paint my 68..figured I would try the car first..don't want to hurt the bronc! thanks in advance

 

[TN1776]

I have a two car garage with open rafters (would be an 8' ceiling). I went simple and just taped plastic sheeting to form walls and a ceiling, and sprayed the floor down with the garden hose just prior to spraying the paint. Gave myself enough room to move around the bronco comfortably and went at it. I used a cheap box fan blowing in through cheap hvac filters with a filtered outlet on the other side. I choose positive pressure because box fans are not exactly "explosion proof" like what purpose built fans are. Lighting was just my fluorescent fixtures that are already in the garage, shining through the plastic sheeting.

This setup is not ideal and to do it again I'd cover the floor with tarps. I did not have any issues with dust embedding in the paint and for my purposes its pretty much exactly the paint job I wanted - its a 10 footer job. I get lots of compliments.

 

[old 71]

Ricky,
Go to harbor freight and buy the car port I think there about 150 on sale 20x10 and can easily be stored for the next project.
W x L x H = cubic feet ,some fans have a rating on them for how much air they move per minute, you want a fan or fans to be able to change the air in the booth enough to keep the over spray down.
Put the fan on the inlet side so the spark from the motor doesn't ignite the fumes.

Good luck.

 

[Bferrari]

I did the same thing, however my carport frame came from Costco about 10 years ago. It wasn't wide enough for my liking so I used 1 1/4" EMT conduit to extend one of the sides. I used 10mil plastic on the floors and the thin transparent painters plastic on the frame. I used a total of 10 home depot box fans in which I taped hvac filters to each. All in all, worked pretty good and was happy with the results. As long as you mist everything down and tack your car real good prior to paint I think it would give as good as paint job as many booths that I have been in. Here are a couple photos of it when I was primering.

 

[ricky]

thanks a lot for the tips everyone ,really appreciate it!. great ideas and all.,.thanks!

 

[allenfahey]

About 5-6 years ago we got extremely slow at work. We found a used car dealer that needed body/paint work. We wound up doing it in my small 2 car garage. We did everything you can think of to keep the dirt to a minimum. We built a booth. Used intake filters on the bottom of the garage door. We tried everything imaginable. We would do all our body work on 4 cars at a time, primed and ready for paint. The shop was a mess. We would blow out the garage after sweeping and as we blew it out we left the exhaust fan on. It would take us a good 10 minutes to blow it out. We would leave the fan on and as it aired out we would use the same car covers that we use to cover the car (3M 0624) on the areas around the car and cover up the tool boxes, benches, ect. We didn't build a booth but just covered everything from overspray and trapped any dirt left over from blowing around. The plastic has a coating on one side that paint overspray clings to. Most times when I cover a car I don't use paper but use the plastic. If you use regular plastic found at the hardware store the overspray won't stick to it and cause more dirt. We would then soak the floor with water and the edges of the plastic would stick to the wet floor. We would then blow off the car outside before bringing it in the garage.
I know it sounds strange but we would leave the exhaust fan on and shut the garage up. No intake filters, just exhaust. We would have some dirt but by doing it that way we would cut 90% of the dirt from doing it other ways. I think the key was the shop was clean, plastic covered any remaining dirt, and the floor was wet.

One other thing, try to spray in the early morning. If you spray at night you will have bugs to deal with.

 

[Rustytruck]

Don't put plastic on the floor it will drive you nuts. There is too much static cling attracting atomized paint and not holding on to it. The paint and crap gets all over you, your hoses and you track it everywhere. On the walls its out of the way, on the floor its right there. Use a cloth tarp on the floor if you need to. Plastic on the floor may work if the floor is very wet and you put plastic over the wet floor. But even then after you spray the first coat and leave you come back in to a sticky floor and lift everything under your feet.

You may be better off sealing the floor with a couple of coats of Zep wet floor finish and when your done Painting and making a mess use Zep stripper to remove the wax build-up and the paint overspray on top of it.

 

[ricky]

more good info!

so,its best to setup fans as pull thru? and put the filters on the front of the fan,to keep particles from being drawn in?
also put the same amout of filters on the opposing wall ? what bout fans on that end,to pull fumes and all out? I understand it would need to be a type of explosion proof fan

I will look for cloth type tarps,that sounds easier..since I am starting from scratch..and my 60 gallon compressor has no filters..whats a good setup to get for it? I plan to run about 50' hose or a little longer to where the booth will be located..will buy new hose for the painting..also have a cpl gas hand held leaf blowers to blow out the shop,etc..to help clean it out..not sure about spraying water inside though..thanks everyone!

 

[jperry1290]

Fyi I did a garage spray job about 4yrs ago with a built in booth and fan to pull fumes out. It worked well but I noticed that all the plastic items in my garage "absorbed" some of the blue tint maybe due to static electricity. A few days after the spray we began smelling a slight paint smell in the house. I think the fumes permeated every crack and crevas of the home and slowly seaped out. Also I spoke to a coworker that used to be a pro painter. He said the isocyinates/poison in the paint are drawn to moisture (ie eyes, nostrils, sweat glands, etc). May be worth sending to a shop

 

[Dbarnes72]

more good info!

so,its best to setup fans as pull thru? and put the filters on the front of the fan,to keep particles from being drawn in?

Most people that have done it this way have gotten away with it but do you want to be the one that doesn't? The solvents in the paint are explosive in right mixture with air. The fan that you're pulling vapors through is a potential ignition source. Kaboom. The fuel to air mixture has to be just right but you have no effective way to control that.

 

[gnpenning]

How long untill you will be doing your next paint job?? With a 20' ceiling I think I would consider just hoisting up the booth and lowering it the next time I needed it. Things like the fans and maybe extra lighting would go to a shelf or other storage spot.

 

[rjrobin2002]

Your over thinking it and if its your first on its gonna have problems your have to wet sand out anyways. Booths are only good if your technique is perfect with no runs or orange peel and 100% no dust or bugs and you can be done after spraying. If your making a homemade booth and spraying a first time it is gonna have dust, runs, and orange peel that has to be sanded off. Do all the prep and prime have it ready to spray. Push it to a nice clean covered slab and mist some water on the concrete to stop dust and shoot it about 9am when its about 80 degrees and low humidity and no bugs. Mine have turned out great. Then do wet sand with 2000 grit to knock off any dust or bug spots. Then polish that bad boy with a 3 step foam pad set up and a progress from a rubbing compound - swirl remover- polish - wax.
Here are a few I have done with no booth and "AllenFaheys" advice

The red was my first and a single stage shot with a Harbor Freight gun that I wet sanded and buffed to make pretty.
The Ginger was a base coat/clear coat that turned out way better thanks to experience, using base/clear coat/ and using a devilbiss gun.

 

[lowbush]

We built a booth out of PVC and plastic painters film (moisture barrier film) one time, you just build a frame with the PVC then wrap the long walls and the top with the film, you just get a bunch of house AC filters and built a wall on both sides with them, then get one of those big shop fans and build a tunnel from the fan up to the filter wall on one side with some plastic and PVC, this will create a poor mans semi-downdraft positive pressure booth. It works surprisingly well for maybe $150 bucks in materials (not including the cost of the fan).

Tarps and shower curtain rings work well if you want to make the thing more durable and portable. Though I prefer the film for two reasons, the first is it is generally statically charges and attracts particles and the second is you can replace it after every job which makes for a cleaner paint area. We ended up tarping the top and sides from the exterior and then running the film on the interior to get the best of both worlds.

 

[Landho]

Hey, since you're in Beumont - not too far... I have two 240 volt flourecent light things... the kind that go in the recessed/drop ceiling of an office or a school or whatever. I am pretty sure they have the ballast (will check if you are interested)

they do not have the shield, so would just be exposed flourecent bulbs...

they hold 4 bulbs each, so you can get whatever color/temp bulbs you want.

PM me if you want them... I live in Northwest Houston, could probably work out something to get them to you (maybe you could re-spray my rollcage or bumper or something in your fancy paint booth when it is completed)

 

[ricky]

sorry,have not been on here,working too much! but thats slowing down..anyways,thanks for all the tips everyone..a friend has the pipe frame from a large tent that the plastic rotted,wore out on..i forgot what size,but its pretty big..going to give it to me,so that would be a good frame to hang the plastic on..will check it out this weekend

rjrobin,those two broncs look really nice! what hood do you have on the ginger one,and what size tires on the red? just curious..i like that hood,and will need to get something with some clearance for mine

landho..you are in tomball? i know where that is..i am supposed to grab some free lights this weekend,will let you know if they (fixtures/ballast) are not any good,thanks for the offer!