Building a temporary paint booth!

[71greengo]

After allot of Soul searching I have decided to paint my Charger myself...

I have painted numerous cars and some have turned out quite well....and I have done ALL of the work myself on this car as I have done on every other car I have rebuilt/restored....And I want to be able to say I did EVERYTHING on this car to..its a pride thing I guess
But I was very concerned about the condition of my shop to pull off a really nice paint job...So after some thinking I have decided to build my own temporary booth...
I have listed out the priorities to make sure I cover all aspects of controlling LIGHT>>>>DUST>>>>LOTS OF ROOM>>>ADEQUATE AIR FLOW FOR EXHAUST>>>> FILTERED INTAKE AIR>>>AND MOST OF ALL BUG CONTROL...lots of bugs this time of year at my shop...
So I have a plan for a 24' x 14' booth constructed out of medium weight poly...with at least 4 ultra fine furnace filters for intake air on the furtherest part of shop so air flows over the car....or maybe under???
I have a 36" steel door with a steel frame that will be used for entering the shop and the poly will be the wall around it...with some wood framing.......the Poly will be attached to the floor with 1 x 4 strapping hiltied to floor and then stapled to it.
Lighting will be additional 4 bulb florescent fixtures...
Exhaust will be with an 18" barn style exhaust fan that has an explosion proof motor.
I will get some raid bug bombs to debug shop day of paint....booth will be totally sealed for non entrance of bugs..
I have a head to toe lint free new paint suit...and a brand new Sharpe Paint gun that I splurged on...
All in all it will cost me $150 to build booth...$500 for paint supplies...so roughly under $700
To send it out was around $1500...I am not saving enough to do this because of the money, this is purely a pride thing.

I will want some Tips from guys that have wet sanded/polished out their cars....
such as ...how long after painted (base clear) do you sand/buff
and any and all other tips
And please tel me what you think a booth should be constructed like!

Thanks

[DynoDave]

I've seen temp. booths like this used a couple of times, including in a pole barn I used to co-rent with some room mates.

A little water on the floor will keep dust down as you move about.

Some lighting down low is really helpful too. Even a couple of simple 2 tubes cheap $10 fluorescent lights can be used. Get a couple of cheap L shaped shelf brackets, and use them for legs/stands so the lights can sit on their side. Placed on the floor on either side, they can really help you see what your spraying down low on the rockers, lower quarters, etc., especially on that fuselage style body that really rolls in at the bottom edge.

If you aren't covering the ceiling with plastic, be sure to clean it well first, so dust doesn't come off of it. Same with the light fixtures, or anything else mounted to the ceiling.

Either install the plastic tight enough that it can't pull in due to the air flow of the exhaust fan, or, build the booth over sized enough that if it does bow in some, you aren't rubbing against it.

If you think you'll need it, set up a work space with table, tools, etc. inside the booth. Once you are inside, have the car wiped down and the fans going, it would stink to realize you forgot something and have to go back out of the booth, and come in again.

Protect your lungs! Make sure you have good breather equipment, rated for the kind of product you will be spraying.

[71greengo]

Yep...I plan to cover the ceiling tight with plastic also...and build a little mixing table inside the booth......I have a air supplied mask with a filter system that mounts on my back......but I will try my standard 3M mask with organic filter cartridges on it......
Good idea about lights down low......I will make something up for that

[Deleted]

One step alot of people overlook when painting a car is the masking paper on the glass and on the rest of the car that is masked in. Make sure you blow off the paper and run a tack cloth over it before you paint. Believe it or not, but alot of the dust comes from the car itself.

[rocky61201]

Can't wait to see pics. I'm on the fence right now about going the same route because living in San Diego has it's advantages. Any other climate and I probably wouldn't do it.

1500 bucks? For just shooting the car right cuz I know you've done all the prep work yourself (same here). The lowest quote I've got on a two-stage paint job is 2500. Probably because I live in San Diego

[71greengo]

I got that quote from a small paint shop in a small town.......nice set up and really nice work.

I will start construction of the booth in the next month......I will be applying the FINAL coat of high build primer over the next two days and then block it out one last time!.......yea!...blocking is allot of work...but man do you ever find the flaws when you do it!...

the first parts I need to apply color to is bottom of trunk and bottom(underneath) hood...then remount them and mask off...I also am going to paint the jambs and inside of doors and remount them then mask and spray entire car.....

I will post lots of pics..for Sure

I will start another thread about polishing out the car after paint...as I need tips as I want the paint as perfect as possible!

[Deleted]

Sounds awesome. The pics will be great.

[brock]

Jul 1, 2009 11:06:51 GMT -5 Bob said:

Sounds awesome. The pics will be great.

+1

I can relate to the pride portion of your decision too