Technical Paint booth

Every single inside space that I have access to has a shared wall, or walls with other units, or a floor above.

There can be no spraying inside in any of them.

I have been looking at inflatable booths, as I can get access to an adjacent parking lot, or two.

Paint has become a HUGE problem in my area, and it has nothing to do with regulations, but every thing to do with completely unreliable, to downright criminal body shops.

 

@gimpyshotrods
One of the alterations I would make to my blow up booth is it has two skylights in the ceiling, about 24X24 or maybe 30X30. I would cut them out and add vents, perhaps even fans to help control the heat. I d****d a white painters tarp over the east side of the booth this last weekend to screen out the morning sun a bit. Still plenty bright in there but it did keep the temp much lower.

 

Do you think the vent box on the moveable wall would be a filtered air inlet to the room, and the one on the back wall would be the extractor to outside??? Seems fairly obvious.

 

If so, that's not much ventilation, gag. You know it's bad when a mouse runs by and dies half way across the garage - this happened to me once sprayed the old school IMRON

 

I've never had a problem with painting out on the lawn. If it ends up with overspray as the gr*** grows the paint gets taken off by the mower.

 

One thing my Dad, who was a panelbeater/ spraypainter all his life, taught me was if an insect lands in the final coat don't try to pick it out. Let the paint dry and then sand and buff. If in a base coat pick the ****** out, give the area a scuff flat and continue coats. Yes, lots of expletives help as well.

 

I've painted a car inside on my garage one time before. The clean up after was enough of THAT experience to teach me we won't do that again. There is simply too much stuff inside of my garage, including my compressor (with the 5hp open end electric motor), that can't be removed and probably wouldn't fare well just being covered. Then there is the total lack over overhead clearance, I could not paint the top of the roof of the truck inside of the garage. The sheet rock ceiling is about 12" above the truck roof, and the lighting is below the sheet rock.

 

Pretty stressful trying to paint a whole car all at once. Lots of cars can be painted a panel at a time, with a little forethought and a bunch of masking. Body shops don’t have the time to fart around like that, but luckily most hobbyists do! Painting outdoors is a very doable option too. Best to do it in the early morning before the sun is high in the sky, or better yet an overcast day, mild temps, with no wind. It helps to keep a tweezer handy to remove big bugs! Probably good enough for a traditional hot rod…especially one that really gets driven. If a $500 paint job that looks like a $5000 paint job sounds good, give it a try. If you want a paint job that looks like a $15,000 paint job, you are probably going to have to spend $15,000!
Nothing wrong with street rods…but a really fancy paint job will push a traditional 50’s style build in that direction.

 

Strung a nylon rope in eyelets around the perimeter of the ceiling in the garage and use spring clothes pins to hold poly up and form a "booth" when needed.

@gene-koning Would it be possible to take the wheels off the truck and set it on blocks to get it low enough to paint the roof inside your garage.

 

That's basically what I've done in the past with the addition of suspending a freshly cleaned tarp from the ceiling. Wet the walls and floor down with a hose right before painting to keep dust down (and somewhat keep the over-spray from sticking)

 

I've looked at the inflatables - not for me.

I really like the moving wall.

Still inclined to use one of these pop up canopies, set up inside, right against the garage door venting out. I like the roof only version and add clear heavy plastic, replace it each paint job.
Yes, you still need to figure out filter and ventilation.

Good lighting can't be stressed enough - if you're painting in a dark space, you can't see pattern overlap, paint flash off, and you will get runs.



My shop has a 14' wall height. I'm considering a fold down hinged roof and 2 fold out end walls, outer wall would be loose and set under them. Stack and strap them against the wall when not in use.
I have a furnace squirrel cage fan, need to extend the fan from the motor.

 

Billy paint from 6:30 at night until 6:30 in the AM. All problems solved! Your welcome!

My buddy and I just picked up the exact same booth for a good price. Going to paint his 1965 Dodge Dart convertible in it. He is well back in the woods on 5 acres so no problems with HOAs or anything.

 

10 foot wide doesn’t give much room on the sides. Be fine for a compact vehicle I’d guess.

 

@GordonC
Yep, same booth. Same black overspray on the floor! If I didn't know better...

 

A few have mentioned removing the wheels to paint the roof of the truck inside of my garage.
I have 12" between the ceiling and the truck cab with the truck sitting on the wheels. In that space is the shop lights, the door tracks, and the garage door opener. I could shift it to the side enough to clear the garage door opener hanging in the center of the garage, and maybe still be able to get around the garage door tracks. (pic 1 sort of shows ceiling clearance)
The front bumper has 5" of ground clearance and maybe I could get 7" more clearance at the back end, not much help for this fat old man. (pic 2 gives an idea of the front bumper clearance and the garage right behind the truck should give you a picture of how it fits in the garage)

The good news is, I spoke with my buddy this afternoon, He has a truck he is working on this week, and thinks he may be able to prime it towards the end of next week, he will shoot the primmer on both trucks then, if both are ready.

I don't know if my truck will be ready for the primmer, by then, but I sure will be. I hate body work and I'm about at my limit on this one. Then I can final sand the primmer, and determine if the body work is good enough for me. Sealing it and paint could be a couple weeks later.

 

I’m no fan of body work either but after the first layer of dust settles in your clean garage it becomes almost the****utic, iced zesty beverage and queue the music.

 

Might not be bad if the garage was air conditioned, but with the temps in the upper 80s, the dust just sort of clings to you. I have a furnace blower fan to move the air around the shop. The 16' wide garage door faces south, point the fan towards the door, and any prevailing breeze out of the south west blows it back in, but at least the air (and the dust ) is moving...

My wife isn't too happy when I track all that dust in the house. The house back door is about 15' from the garage. She loves me doing body work too, besides the extra mess, she has to listen to me whine too.

Its only been a little over a month since I started on the truck body work, but it feels like its been over a year to me already. It will be in the high build primmer next week, and paint shortly after that. After a year or so, I'll probably be thinking I should taken another month doing body work, but then I remind myself why I didn't, and all is well.