Hot Rod Forum banner

Building my own one time use paint booth.

11K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  Huskinhano 
#1 ·
Any advice appreciated. Here is my plan and if anyone can help me improve it I would be grateful. I am painting in the spring so i have time. This is going to take place in my two car garage.

Heavy plastic across rafters and hanging down to floor for the "walls". Duct taping the corners and using 2X4's at the base. Leaving the garage door open about a foot and cutting an intake hole in the plastic with a furnace filter on both sides of the hole. Cutting a hole on the other end high in a window frame for exhaust. placing a filter on the inside and a sparkless fan on the outside to draw air out. compressor will be outside garage. I will mist the floor with water. Also some halogen lighting outside the booth shining thru the plastic for light. Anything else?
Using JD Bltz Black paint in a Brinks gun.
 
#6 ·
I used a 2500 cfm attic exhaust fan and a 3x4 ft. intake area up high on the opposite side of the booth from the fan. While the fan probably was an explosion hazzard, I am still here. It worked very well having the intake up high and the fan down low. It pulled the overspray right to the floor.

Chris
 
#7 ·
To me still air in and area where you cannot filter all of the air is better than moving air. I would be worried about what contaminants you are moving around. A home air conditioner filter does nothing for small stuff and you IMO will be bringing a lot of pollen and small dust into your area. I would focus on making sure I had good air to breath and keeping the air in the room still. Let the dust would settle to the ground and your dry car (tack it off) and not on your wet paint.

Again I am not an expert here so feel free to dispute me!
 
#10 ·
Thats almost exactly how I painted my coupe. Matter of fact I'll be painting the cab of my truck tomorrow in the same booth.

Here's the booth, and the results.







Centerline
http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com
 
#12 ·
Actually the fans up top are incoming air. I use one fan for exhaust so it winds up being a positive pressure booth.

Centerline
 
#14 ·
If they are forcing air into the garage, that lessens the chance of explosion, as they are pulling fresh air through the fans. Most household box fans, at least the ones I have come in contact with have fractional horsepower induction motors that have no brushes.

Vince
 
#16 ·
The High Dollar paint booths the big boys use are down drafts. Makes sence because the spray mist is heavier than air and wants to go down and the down draft helps it. If you are exhausting high, the booth tends to fog up and you tend to have a bigger overspray problem. There are some super air conditioner filters available on the market. Just read the label and get the smallest micron available (usually can tell by the highest price tag)

Trees
 
#17 ·
Locate the fan or fans for incoming air where they will pick up the least amount of dust. Could be high or low depending on your set up. In the booth I'm using this weekend (which is smaller than the one in the pictures) I'm using one fan on high to supply air and another fan on the opposite side on medium to pull air out. Both are sitting on the floor.

All you need is enough pressure inside to keep the plastic walls from moving freely. The side benefit is that it also keeps the dust down. You'll never get rid of all the dust painting in your garage but if you plan to color sand and buff, any dust nibs you get will sand out anyway.

Centerline
http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com
 
#18 · (Edited)
thrown_hammer said:
I was told to have the intake low and the exhaust high to keep the over spray from setteling on the car. But then again thats why I am here.
Chris, Did you have any overspray issues?

Nope, it could not have worked better. Everything stayed inside the booth if that is what you mean.

As far as the above arrangment, I am not too sure. From what I have read the downdraft booths the pros use are the best so it made sense to me to do it the way I did. I had no problems with dust or overspray settling after the final coat. I left the fan running for about an hour untill the paint was past the tack point. This varies with different paint, but you do want to leave the fan running to keep things moving so they do not settle in the paint. Dust will find its way in on even the best booth, and some nib sanding and buffing is almost inevitable to those of use with modest budgets. I will say that I had no bugs or large contaminants, and Everything sanded out.

I added a photo in my album so you can see. There is not much to it. The fan is under the big door in the back.


Chris
 
#20 ·
this is what i did in my garage..

cover all the walls and ceiling with a light thin plastic and make it as tight as possible to eliminate the plastic from blowing with the air movement from the fan, try to have the garage as empty as possible, sweep and blow it out really well the night before. i have the fresh air inlets at the bottom of the front garage door and there are 4 big filters all the way across the bottom, at the back of the garage there is a door leading outside into the back yard. i bought a cheap door from lowes and cut two holes in it and braced it very well and mounted two small attic fans in the doors, when ever i plan on painting, i pull the pins out of the regular door take it off and hang the new door with the fans. i also fabricated a box that goes in front and behind the fans that houses 5 filters to catch the overspray. three filters before the fan and two after. this is pretty extravagent for the one time paintjob, but i paint in my garage on a regular basis and i have never had fumes go into my home and i have never had overspray on any vehicles outside. i also wet the floor and all the filters before i start spraying and again before i start clearing. i have turned out some very nice paintwork in my garage and have never had any complaints from any of my neighbors.
 
#21 · (Edited)
This is really a great help to me since I plan on doing the same thing in the spring. The temporary "booth" idea means quite a bit of preparation but if a person can paint, it's well worth it. I'm tossing around the Idea of using an old furnace body and squirrel cage to move the air. With me, the scariest part of this proposition would be the neighborhood. My property's zoned General Commercial and I get along with all the neighbors I know around here just fine but there ARE a few newbies on the block. . All it would take is some do-good, one-lunged Marlboro Man to blow the whistle on my paint party and all the work I'd put into my booth would be history. Unfortunately, in Oregon, there's this government outfit called DEQ (Dept. of Environmental Quality.)
They thrive on busting the little guy for minor infractions like this, while they let the big boys slide, dumping tons of toxic crap into the air.. The story goes something like this: THEY'VE got a permit!

No - I've painted two cars in my garage and they both turned out better then I'd expected. I didn't go through near the prep that has been talked about here so anyone attempting a garage job, providing they can paint, should be fine with a booth like this whether it's an up or a down draft system, as long as those nasty particulates don't start whistling around in the paint area.
Fresh air for breathing is the single most important part of this deal.
Note: Spiders get high on acrylic urethane based paint and just love dropping in for a toke. If you see one hanging out in your area, rattle can the puppy - he'll stay put. ;)

After it's all said and done, I just might opt to take the easy way out and take a night body class at MHCC so I can use thier spray booth. I'd have to rent a covered car trailer, but in my situation, it's an option I can't afford to ignore.

Good luck on your paint project :thumbup:
 
#22 ·
PrimeMover , I'm in the same situation as you . I also plan on doing the same thing this spring . I live in a lite Industrial zone but still have the DEQ thing. this thread has given me several good ideas (Thanks All ) . Moving here from North Carolina last year I didn't have these problems there. We'll see how it goes.:cool:
 
#25 · (Edited)
My shop has a dedicated paint booth with ceiling and wall lights, water drain in the floor for wash down and wet sanding. I use a 3000cfm swamp cooler with commercial filter medium wrapped around it and rectangular holes cut in the aluminum garage door and wall on either side, again with commercial filter material. works great!

Wet sand with 400, then 600 then 1000 and you will end up with the suede look you want.

http://hotrodders.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27167
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top