Homemade paint booth?

[85boostbox]

Have any of you guys successfully made one. What did you do and how did it turn out.

Pretty much I have a huge garage and am looking at trying it out. I'm not sure on some things though. Should I do a positive pressure or a negative. What kind of filters should I use. Looking online there is a bunch of information on it but different opinions and results. Just trying to get an idea of maybe what some of you guys have done.

Paul

[turismolover22]

Nothing near a pro, but I have one suggestion. Light. LOTS of it. the whiter the light, the better. And white walls are your friend to help increase visibility in the booth.

[looneytuner]

clean well. Open joist? staple plastic up. I used to spray lacquer. If so, you need an explosion proof fan. $400. I worked at a place the didn't have one and he had a flash fire in the winter with the furnace on. If you have any gas appliances with a flame, shut them off. You probably won't have a fire but....................... it may go boom. For clearcoat you need a respirator. MOP the floor, turn on the fan and blow off everything in the area several days in a row before painting. Get a GOOD gun! You young guys are lucky with the invention of hvlp! You can make a compressor from a vacuum cleaner motor for cheap. Just pick up an old vac and put the motor in a particle board box.

[86Shelby]

I've seen some good paint jobs come from a couple of locals with homemmade paint booths. Perhaps they'll check in.

[83scamp]

I never took any pictures of it, but here's what I did:

Made a frame out of 2x4's, hung visquene over it to seal everything. Then on one wall, I mounted 6, 20 x 20 pleated air filters for inlet air(don't use the cheap fiberglass ones). On the other end, I installed a squirrel cage blower out of a home HVAC unit. This gave me cross flow ventilation. Hose down the walls & floor, and start shooting...(obviously I'm skipping a few steps here. I assume if you are even contemplating this, you've done your research into propper body prep).

Worked fairly well. Make sure you have LOT AND LOTS of light. I'm talking 6-8, 4' fixtures overhead, and at least 2-3 on each side( mount them on casters so they can follow your work). Shadows are your biggest enemy while painting. You want everything lit up like a Chinese temple....

[dodgeman87]

I painted my engine compartment in my garage. First, get as many box fans as you can find. Second, line them up next to each other blowing out and put garage door down on top of fans and turn them on, if you don't have enough fans block off rest of area with a piece of plywood. ( This assumes you have an open screen door on opposite end of garage door.) Third, wet floor to keep dust down. Watch neighbors wonder what the hell you are doing !!
Then spray your car. It was kind of ghetto but it worked for me.

[Lotashelbys]

I will have to get you some pics of my homemade booth. 2-1st place SDAC 24 cars were painted there lol

[crusty shadow]

hang thick drop cloth plastic from the ceiling like a curtain around the car. you need about 6 feet of space between the plastic and the car on the sides. you then staple plastic up to the ceiling so the entire paint area is wrapped in plastic top to bottom from the ceiling. lay more plastic across the floor, then lay 2x4's along the length of the floor where the curtains touch the floor- make sure the plastic overlaps. duct tape all the seams except for the rear where the plastic should be like a curtain entrance to the spray area. roll the car in and close the garage door until its about a foot off the floor. my garage has a regular door at the back so I left that open and set up a regular box fan in the door way, if you don't have a rear door use a window. don't try to seal the fan to the plastic- it will suck the curtain right to the car soon as you turn the fan on- you need to evacuate the air in the room more than you need airflow through the paint booth. use spring loaded clamps to hold the plastic to the garage door so airflow wont blow the plastic into wet paint. you basically enter in through the back curtain area by the garage door.

after each coat leave the spray area for about 15 minutes, turn the fan on LOW. after flash turn the fan off and spray next coat, repeat all through the paint job.

WEAR A FREAKIN RESPIRATOR!!!

I sprayed my car like that last summer and it turned out pretty damn good for a garage paintjob- spraying in the plastic was a perfectly clean environment and I had ZERO dirt in the paint.

I wouldn't bother with making a frame to hold filters and such unless you are going to make an actual frame to surround the car to attach all the plastic to- soon as you turn the fan on the negative air pressure will suck the plastic right in to the wet paint ruining your spray job.

I would defiantely shut off any gas appliances, even the ones in the house because you will get some vapor in the house even if you don't open the garage door.


after you're done roll car outside, tear down all the plastic and throw away.

I think the total cost was about 60 bucks in plastic and a roll of duct tape.