Post by Doright on May 5, 2008 10:28:25 GMT -5
Hi all
Well have you ever wanted a spray booth? I have for a very long time ever since I painted my first car In my Garage attatched to the House,(Bad idea by the way very dangerous!) And even more so with most shops not wanting to do whole paint jobs any more. And when you do they want about Five too Ten grand to paint a car now days depending on the amount of body work you have, As they make considerably more from dent repair and collision damage too want to mess around with whole paint jobs they are just too time consuming.
So I priced out a few New booths boy thats expensive!
Then one day my wife tells me about a used booth in the local paper.
(This should have thrown all kinds of flags up too me not to do it)
Any ways I didn't go look at it right away as the guy wanted 3k for it, the following week the add was still in the paper so I went and looked at it. As it turns out he had a bunch of people come and look. (I was the dummy who stayed)
The thing was sitting behind the guy's house totally disassembled and in a big pile, well we played with all the metal laying it all out several different ways trying to figure out how it went together neither he nor I could find a solution to it.
(He had two more like it at his Cabinet shop he owns so we had an Arkansas blue print.)
This was over two deferent weekends and others still came and looked at it as we hadn't come to a deal on it.
All though we were close too figuring out how it all went together, We had figured out its basic shape but couldn't figure out the filter box's for the air entrance. He insisted it was a Cross flow Booth, The metal we had was saying different too me.
So In the end I low balled him bad he countered and I countered again with $1200 and he had too throw in a Neat Auto Paint heater dryer thingy.
He agreed too it, As out of all who came and looked I was the only Dummy who showed any real interest in the Mess.
(The light Heater thingy retails for over the price I paid for the whole mess so even if I scrap the whole mess I can still resell this Heater paint dryer thing and recoup some if not all my money)
Well long story short Its taken me 6 months of constant work to straiten out every piece of metal and patching all the holes and tears in the metal, And I don't want too talk about the expense of rebuilding the light fixtures which needed all new ballast's from sitting out side in the elements for 5 years and new lights and light holding thingys, then there was the expense of haveing the motor rebuilt. oh and all the new glass for the lights. And then the Painting of all the lights and the booth. oh and all the silicone to seal all of it, oh boy thats alot of silicone!
Then theres all the safety stuff still working on some of that and all The electrical stuff wow thats stuff pricey too now days!
The Wire alone needs to be financed at the bank! oh and the new pieces of metal which had to be special made for the ones that were missing. (EGAD! thats outrageous) oh and the list goes on, Well besides all that the Air box was too tall and had to be shortened by about 2 feet too get the fan mounted and sitting on top of the Air box and under my Rafters, (I have a 12 foot ceiling too) and then the 34 inch fan and the duct well I didn't want to modify my Rafters so I took the 34 inch exhaust duct and reduced it down to 22 inches so it would fit in between my Rafters. Yes I will loose some air flow.
The Reducer from fan too duct was a nother project as was Reducing the Air duct, I would rather not discuss or show any one my work on those two projects as my sheet metal skills are not the best as it turns out, But it is all functional.
That and I have gotten in a hurry this last month or two as this whole thing has just taken way to long to build.
All said its all up and almost ready to paint cars in, I have been working on painting the booth interior and the light fixtures before putting them together.
Its almost done now and I actually used it yesterday while painting the interior of the booth and the light fixtures, It works good by the way. In the end I wish I had bought a new Booth it would have been a faster project and yes alot more expensive but when you way in the fact that you can order all new Booth custom made too your specs you get new metal and things like ALL the hardware and it comes with new lights and sealant and new motor plus you don't have too clean all the metal and straiten every piece your far ahead of the game! yep I saved some money but the loss in time wasn't worth the savings. Too me!
A comparable Semi down draft booth is very expensive and I did do good on the deal But it has been a very labor intensive project.
I am ahead in actual dollars spent for what I have got as long as you don't count labor and frustration!
I have spent about $3000 maybe $3500 total on the whole thing so far and I am not total done yet. I still have a few more things to buy and do.
A comparable 24 x 14 x 9 Semi down draft Booth from one of the sellers on Net before shipping is about 15k the last time I priced them give or take a little.
Would I do it again? NO WAY!
not unless I took the booth apart myself! I will buy a new one next time.
I am happy and proud of my monstrosity it looks like doo doo on the out side but you work on the inside right?
If and when I get a Digital camera I will take some pictures of it and share it with you guy's.
Not to mention The Paint jobs that will follow.
Well have you ever wanted a spray booth? I have for a very long time ever since I painted my first car In my Garage attatched to the House,(Bad idea by the way very dangerous!) And even more so with most shops not wanting to do whole paint jobs any more. And when you do they want about Five too Ten grand to paint a car now days depending on the amount of body work you have, As they make considerably more from dent repair and collision damage too want to mess around with whole paint jobs they are just too time consuming.
So I priced out a few New booths boy thats expensive!
Then one day my wife tells me about a used booth in the local paper.
(This should have thrown all kinds of flags up too me not to do it)
Any ways I didn't go look at it right away as the guy wanted 3k for it, the following week the add was still in the paper so I went and looked at it. As it turns out he had a bunch of people come and look. (I was the dummy who stayed)
The thing was sitting behind the guy's house totally disassembled and in a big pile, well we played with all the metal laying it all out several different ways trying to figure out how it went together neither he nor I could find a solution to it.
(He had two more like it at his Cabinet shop he owns so we had an Arkansas blue print.)
This was over two deferent weekends and others still came and looked at it as we hadn't come to a deal on it.
All though we were close too figuring out how it all went together, We had figured out its basic shape but couldn't figure out the filter box's for the air entrance. He insisted it was a Cross flow Booth, The metal we had was saying different too me.
So In the end I low balled him bad he countered and I countered again with $1200 and he had too throw in a Neat Auto Paint heater dryer thingy.
He agreed too it, As out of all who came and looked I was the only Dummy who showed any real interest in the Mess.
(The light Heater thingy retails for over the price I paid for the whole mess so even if I scrap the whole mess I can still resell this Heater paint dryer thing and recoup some if not all my money)
Well long story short Its taken me 6 months of constant work to straiten out every piece of metal and patching all the holes and tears in the metal, And I don't want too talk about the expense of rebuilding the light fixtures which needed all new ballast's from sitting out side in the elements for 5 years and new lights and light holding thingys, then there was the expense of haveing the motor rebuilt. oh and all the new glass for the lights. And then the Painting of all the lights and the booth. oh and all the silicone to seal all of it, oh boy thats alot of silicone!
Then theres all the safety stuff still working on some of that and all The electrical stuff wow thats stuff pricey too now days!
The Wire alone needs to be financed at the bank! oh and the new pieces of metal which had to be special made for the ones that were missing. (EGAD! thats outrageous) oh and the list goes on, Well besides all that the Air box was too tall and had to be shortened by about 2 feet too get the fan mounted and sitting on top of the Air box and under my Rafters, (I have a 12 foot ceiling too) and then the 34 inch fan and the duct well I didn't want to modify my Rafters so I took the 34 inch exhaust duct and reduced it down to 22 inches so it would fit in between my Rafters. Yes I will loose some air flow.
The Reducer from fan too duct was a nother project as was Reducing the Air duct, I would rather not discuss or show any one my work on those two projects as my sheet metal skills are not the best as it turns out, But it is all functional.
That and I have gotten in a hurry this last month or two as this whole thing has just taken way to long to build.
All said its all up and almost ready to paint cars in, I have been working on painting the booth interior and the light fixtures before putting them together.
Its almost done now and I actually used it yesterday while painting the interior of the booth and the light fixtures, It works good by the way. In the end I wish I had bought a new Booth it would have been a faster project and yes alot more expensive but when you way in the fact that you can order all new Booth custom made too your specs you get new metal and things like ALL the hardware and it comes with new lights and sealant and new motor plus you don't have too clean all the metal and straiten every piece your far ahead of the game! yep I saved some money but the loss in time wasn't worth the savings. Too me!
A comparable Semi down draft booth is very expensive and I did do good on the deal But it has been a very labor intensive project.
I am ahead in actual dollars spent for what I have got as long as you don't count labor and frustration!
I have spent about $3000 maybe $3500 total on the whole thing so far and I am not total done yet. I still have a few more things to buy and do.
A comparable 24 x 14 x 9 Semi down draft Booth from one of the sellers on Net before shipping is about 15k the last time I priced them give or take a little.
Would I do it again? NO WAY!
not unless I took the booth apart myself! I will buy a new one next time.I am happy and proud of my monstrosity it looks like doo doo on the out side but you work on the inside right?
If and when I get a Digital camera I will take some pictures of it and share it with you guy's.
Not to mention The Paint jobs that will follow.
