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Looks like we're "braggin' up" our home paint boothes. Here's my heated (when the sun shines here, both days per year) "booth". Air flow is pretty good though.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Looks like we're "braggin' up" our home paint boothes. Here's my heated (when the sun shines here, both days per year) "booth". Air flow is pretty good though.

I actually have a small parts "booth" as well under the back porch where I park my tractor that is quite similar. I share it with a couple of blue jays, a nesting robin family, a flock of goldfinches and 2 chipmunks that tend to cuss me out when I paint there I was able to chase the white striped pussy cat away though.

Don,
I once made a spray booth in my garage out of some heavy tarps from a Army surplus store and some house filterers from the furnace and a fan that pulled the air threw the filterers. It kept all the bugs out and by wetting down the tarps and floor I got very little dust. When I didn't need it I just folded it up and put it outside in a storage shed. Just a thought.
Ken


IC2- Sorry I didn't see your post.
Brain Dead

Since we've deviated to the home paint booth, and I'm still on the fence about trying to paint the truck myself, Have any of you used a portable car canopy to use as a paint booth? My problem is the truck leaves about 6 inches room in front and back when parked in the garage making it very difficult to get around it not to mention no clearance on the driver's side. So I was thinkng of using one of those outdoor portable garages to have more space to move around I'm just not sure how much room on each side I would need. For that matter I could build a frame out of scrap wood and use visquene plastic for the sides. My biggest worry is actually how to spray the paint, how much to use and the whole process of sanding and buffing. I wish there was a paint for dummies book for cars!

Originally Posted by stovens

Since we've deviated to the home paint booth, and I'm still on the fence about trying to paint the truck myself, Have any of you used a portable car canopy to use as a paint booth? My problem is the truck leaves about 6 inches room in front and back when parked in the garage making it very difficult to get around it not to mention no clearance on the driver's side. So I was thinkng of using one of those outdoor portable garages to have more space to move around I'm just not sure how much room on each side I would need. For that matter I could build a frame out of scrap wood and use visquene plastic for the sides. My biggest worry is actually how to spray the paint, how much to use and the whole process of sanding and buffing. I wish there was a paint for dummies book for cars!

Steve - you need at least 3 and better 5-6 feet all the way around a vehicle to be able to walk and operate the gun successfully while attached to an unyielding air hose while you are dressed in a shoot suit and at a minimum wearing a carbon filter mask. Can you get by with less, yep, and some will say that they did, but what did the paint look like?

As far as building an outside booth, with wood and poly plastic - works fine, but it does have to be strong enough to withstand any wind lifting or ballooning the sides and kicking the dust off and keep out any breeze blown crud.

Books for "dummies" - there are a couple of pretty good ones. I'll see if I can round up my favorites and take a picture and forward later.

It really isn't difficult, just requires patience and GOOD materials. I have my preferences, as do many others and for sure am no more then an amateur painter. I tried low end sand paper, now only Norton(fave) or 3M. Epoxy primer, SPI(fave) or DuPont/PPG. Filler - only Evercoat Rage or Rage Gold. Base coat, DuPont (fave) or PPG/HOK/Sherwin Williams. Clear coat, SPI or DuPont also the others listed for base Spray gun, Iwata (fave) also Sata/DeVillbiss and others and so on. You develop a preference to what works for you, not necessarily what someone suggests. Regardless, pro level paint IS NOT cheap. Mine is listed for ~$650+/gallon and I needed 7 quarts (I have about 1.5 left to paint my hood side panels) plus reducers. Regardless, I still figured I saved over $12K by doing it myself even after buying everything.

When I worked at the body shop a few years ago, we had an excellent downdraft spray booth, but we still got tons of dirt in the paint jobs. Our detail girl would wet sand and buff them out and saved the painters tails a bunch of times. I have lost track of her, but would like to get her to buff out Dan's RPU when we do have it painted, she was topnotch.

As for home spray booths, here is mine. I have no idea why I get a bug in there occasionally.

Don

Don