Purely hypothetical question here. So what would it be worth to you to rent a spray booth for your paint job? 16x30x15 temp controlled down draft. So there's plenty of room to blow a car apart in there or separate a truck bed from the cab. Included would be a final prep area, the booth with filtered & dried compressed air. Panel stands, horses, and racks. Cut and buff area. Just want to see what you cheap guys might pay to be able to use something like that? Some of y'all paint in the driveway, dirt floor barns, and the garage attached to your house so I don't see those guys having much value here. Then there's the macco thread/option that's really cheap paint job:
Used to rent mine out on Saturdays 8 am in 4:30 out for $125 with a $125 cleanup deposit that would be refunded on the following Monday of it was cleaned up and ready to go.
I have used a booth twice and for whatever reason my garage and driveway has yielded in better results ... The only worry I have about outside painting is a bird decides fresh paint is good target practice ... 100-200 for a weekend is probably fair for both parties , but I don't like to be rushed.. Rather not even bother
There is a local body shop that rents the booth out $150 a day on weekends. No deposit, but the owner makes you sign some paperwork stating you'll leave the place like you found it
You don't rent anymore? $125 is a great deal to have a booth for a whole day. I was told $100 to $200 around here but I don't know how much time that gives you. Spray booth definitely a huge advantage over a garage which I have been squirting paint in for too long
Agreed. Ii just hired a pro painter to spray mine last week. First time I've ever done that. Always done my own. I will never spray again! Best money I ever spent. Painted it in a chicken ban. Looks like a million bucks. Money well spent.
$125 to $150 sounds good to me. It costs me that much for spraying in a tent till you factor in time and plastic for the floor, filters and replacing the tent every few jobs. Also delays and uncertainty because of fluctuating temps or humidity. I used to have use of a booth for free at a former job so I have a good idea of the benefits of booth use.
I wish something like this was available near me. $150 to 200 for a couple days use just to do the final color and clear in a clean space sounds good. Otherwise, I will probably spend half that $ on plastic and tape for the walls and time cleaning the garage enough to spray inside of it. Not to mention air compressor problems.
It cost at least $150 in time and labor to temporarily convert my shop into a ''booth''. $200 would be a seriously good deal from my standpoint. To get the real thing, you bet!
Used a real booth years ago and got more crap in a frame than I wanted. Reshot a week later in the driveway and the car went on to be a National First place winner. I'm sure booth filters are better today, but getting a disassembled pre 1932 project to a shop with a booth, set up and ready to shoot sounds like a lot of work, and a rush job. Still I would think $250.00 would be a doable price, more in the winter. Bob
Wow, 150 a day- Lights, compressor, heat, $ + $ + $ Somebody there that can run it and make sure you don't kill yourself. Wear and tear, filters, blah blah blah. At least that much. What brought this up : I was talking with a friend of mine last night trying to solve the worlds problems. He's got one car that's about 1-2 days away from the booth. Another that's 1 weeks worth of away, another about 1 month. And then 2 on deck not even started yet. I've got one that's a weeks worth away, another about 2 weeks of work away, one that's almost out of metal work stage, 3 on deck. Anyway that's a bunch of "close" a bunch of "soon" and bunch of "it's coming" right? So what's the hold up, the catch, the problem??? Due to space constrains, the shops need completely cleaned, converted to spray ready conditions (about 2 days) and the ready ones painted. Then the next ones get the body work done and then prep the shop again, paint again, rinse and repeat. Oh and that's x2. There's the weather to contend with here too, I swear it rains more here than Seattle so moving them outside isn't always possible. So we were talking about this spray booth, but its a bit much for 4 jobs then months before the next ones. So maybe we rent it out between. 200 a whack won't cover much, especially since someone needs to be there while y'all are painting. There wouldn't be a rush, but its just for paint and last minute prep. (Not blocking)
When I had my shop, my professional full downdraft w/direct fired gas air make-up and bake cycle, would cost more than $100.00 per day. Many of these guys who rent out their booth may have a cross draft with no air make-up. I'd rather paint in my garage at home and take my time.
Wow, the ''repeat'' process throws a whole new dimension to the scene. Would you be able to control the climate in the shop you already have? Then there wouldn't be the loading and moving of what, 4 of his cars and 2 of yours if I understand. Plus loose parts. Sounds like a weeks labor in man hours just to move the stuff to the booth. Any way to rent a circus style tent and leave it up? Ok, that's far fetched. The 57 was in paint limbo/jail longer than it ever should have. Damn, I got tired of moving it around!
It's kind of screwy. His 1 car that's 1 or 2 days away from paint has been that way for 6 months due to the cold weather. There's just no sense getting it to the final stage unless its going into the booth as soon as its ready. When the Fans go on, then the cold air comes in faster than it can get heated. Same problems here. Shuffling cars isn't that big of a deal, it's worse thinking about it than actually doing it. But yeah, I get it moving a mess from place to place sure seems like waisted effort. That why it doesn't happen. Who wants to waist those hours- In the mean time the calander just effortlessly clicks off waisted day until you waist some hours.
This will give you an idea if you are good at factoring inflation. We used to rent the spray booth in the shop for 50 dollars for 8 hours in the mid to late '80s. That was when we were not busy and it a friends price as in no walk ins. While I would not want the pressure of trying to et in and get out quickly in someone else's place I would think that 300-400 dollar a day range would not be out of the question.
LOL I have put off stuffing an engine in a frame all weekend, it took me all of 15 minutes just a little bit ago. But I almost had a disaster and did have a finger trapped while I waited for the missus to come rescue me. In the back of my head I knew that something was not going to be normal on this one. Go figure. that said I also put off tearing onto some rocker shafts that needed to be clearance and set up the last week and when I finally got started it went exceptionally smooth and was a by the numbers type of a repair. I have some painting that I would like to do here, it is not something that I need a lot of room to do other then I want to shoot paint and let my things set without being bothered by anyone and it is lacquer so I really don't need any special setup. problem is that I am still working in an attached garage and the missus has respiratory problems, so I really need to set up a decent exhaust system even if I a shooting paint when she is not home. I probably am not going to drop coin on someone else's booth anytime soon, but I don't think that what I suggested would be entirely out of line in today's economy.
The only place I have seen around me, advertises booth hire at $400/ 8 hrs (in Australia). However since i would only ever use it to shoot colour/clear and I would already have invested in gear to do primer at home, plus the hassle to get all your parts there and then to be under the pump to get in and out, I would rather take my time and chances in my garage. Maybe if you were just doing a re spray and the car rolled in and out, drove even then it would be a lot simpler. For most of us, our projects are in 1000 pieces and they all need a coat of paint, seems like a PITA to me. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
A guy down the road from me converted an old cow barn into a body shop. Built a nice lighted paint booth inside. I asked him what kind of exhaust system he had, he showed me a torpedo heater sticking through a port hole in the wall. On the back side of the wall he said he built a box and covered it with paint filters so its always blows clean air. On the other end of the booth he put filters for exhaust to the outside. I thought, Man that's crazy. Aren't you afraid you'll blow this place up with the open flame? He said the fumes never build up enough, cause your always forcing them out the other end. I guess its no worse than guys I've seen using wood stoves for heat when painting. He does get good results. I guess to answer the question, $200 probably wouldn't be out of line. But most of us wouldn't have our shit together enough to get it done in a day.
"So we were talking about this spray booth, but its a bit much for 4 jobs then months before the next ones. So maybe we rent it out between. 200 a whack won't cover much, especially since someone needs to be there while y'all are painting." Most of the comments mention shops that rent out booth space on weekends, so I'd assume these are shops that routinely use the booth M-F. In your situation, your booth would be empty for long periods of time. Rent it out M-F, that way someone doesn't "need to be there" (on the weekend) while they paint. Blocking, cutting and buffing would be done at home. The booth would only be for final prep, shooting and dry time (unless someone wants to rent it consecutive days to come back to color sand, re clear, etc. As for crummy weather days, set back the booth in the shop so you have a staging area that is inside the shop/in front of the booth. The area could also be used to unload/load the car from a covered trailer. I think $200-300 would be a bargain for a self painter. Dry, filtered air in a professional booth. No dickin around building a booth at home and all the costs and labor associated with it. Not to mention the chance of compressor issues, hassles with neighbors and potential health issues to the family if spraying in an attached garage. Home painters save a lot of money doing their own paint work. What's a couple hundred additional bucks to make the job a little more pleasant and most probably improve the quality of the paint job?
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