My $200 Paint Booth

I think what will be interesting in regards to your booth will be with the clear. I painted a tailgate in my shop with the garage door partially up securing a cheap fan to pull out the fumes and such. This is more area than your booth. No problem with primers and basecoat, differently story with clear. Had a serious fog in there when spraying the clear. Good luck to you and please keep posting.
Yeah, agree. Clear is what I'm the most worried about. Think I will do some smaller test panels first, both to test the booth performance and to get the gun really dialed in.
 
The experiment and learning continues.
Here is the final Epoxy Sealer coat. SPI Epoxy Primer reduced 20% with Urethane Reducer.
Looked good at this stage.

Final Sealer Coat.jpg


And here is my 1st try at the Base Color Coat. I took the picture after the 2nd wet coat, when it was still wet.

1st try at base coat.jpg


It probably looks good in the picture. But up close, many issues, not ready for prime time.

On the good side:
-Really happy with gun settings and spray technique. I think I can do this!
-Body work came out really well. The areas that I repaired look really good, including a difficult repair to the center body line that was dented in. I think I can do this too!
Improvement needed:
-Some sanding marks are showing through from 400 grit sanding of the 2K. Tech sheet for the SPI Base Coat said it will cover 400 grit sanding marks. NOT! Need to finish with 600 I think.
- A noticeable low "dimple" that made it through the guide coat block sanding. WTF? No idea. This will have to be glazed.
-Too much dust landing on the wet paint. I know what the issue is and how to fix it. Just look at the floor . . .

Next steps:
-Fix low spot and sanding marks with glaze. Sand the whole Base Coat with 600 and then 1500
-Clean the floor and booth walls to eliminate dust
-Re-shoot the Base
-Intercoat clear
-Mask off rally stripes
-Paint white for rally stripes
-Clear over the whole thing.

Still learning a lot and having fun :p
 
Nice work. I have to add on about the box fans. Last year I painted my shell in my 15x20 room with 3 windows and 2 box fans....that clear fog was over whelming. Especially if you are spraying at 35ish psi. Even worse if you have a beard. I had a sore throat for a few days. The box fans just don't do it. For a fender or some small pieces sure. A cheap step up would be a squirrel cage type of fan. Primer epoxy and base coat are different...I ended up buying 2 24 inch exhaust fans from tractor supply and they clear out the fog in about 2 minutes. U may get better results with the nibs n stuff by hanging the panels. I bought a parts hanger off ebay for 85 bucks and it was a great investment. I hung my trunk and hood and got essentially no trash. Laying a 25sq ft panel horizontal in a make shift booth is extremely difficult to pull off without nibs and trash landing on it. I struggled for a long time until I spent 85 bucks!
 
Nice work. I have to add on about the box fans. Last year I painted my shell in my 15x20 room with 3 windows and 2 box fans....that clear fog was over whelming. Especially if you are spraying at 35ish psi. Even worse if you have a beard. I had a sore throat for a few days. The box fans just don't do it. For a fender or some small pieces sure. A cheap step up would be a squirrel cage type of fan. Primer epoxy and base coat are different...I ended up buying 2 24 inch exhaust fans from tractor supply and they clear out the fog in about 2 minutes. U may get better results with the nibs n stuff by hanging the panels. I bought a parts hanger off ebay for 85 bucks and it was a great investment. I hung my trunk and hood and got essentially no trash. Laying a 25sq ft panel horizontal in a make shift booth is extremely difficult to pull off without nibs and trash landing on it. I struggled for a long time until I spent 85 bucks!
Thanks. Lot's of learning and I like your idea of a parts hanger. Vertical vs. horizontal will probably help with "nibs and stuff" a lot in our makeshift setups as you noted.
FYI, 35 PSI sounds really high for clear. My Devilbiss (Tekna) Pro Lite has a max input pressure of 30 PSI. That may be why you got so much fog. Not sure of your gun etc. and I'm no expert, but "The Gun Man" on YouTube (who has lots of very legit training videos) recommends low to mid 20's, with nearly wide open fan and pretty high fluid opening. Just food for thought.
 
Thanks. Lot's of learning and I like your idea of a parts hanger. Vertical vs. horizontal will probably help with "nibs and stuff" a lot in our makeshift setups as you noted.
FYI, 35 PSI sounds really high for clear. That may be why you got so much fog. Not sure of your gun etc. and I'm no expert, but "The Gun Man" on YouTube (who has lots of very legit training videos) recommends low to mid 20's, with nearly wide open fan and pretty high fluid opening. Just food for thought.
Yes I follow gun man. Different guns technique...so many variables. I still struggle. I get less texture or peel with 35 psi than I do with 29...doesn't sound like a big difference but its like 20%
 
I use these fans(s) in my home booth. Much more power than a box fan.
Then I use this ducting to the get the air out of the garage and into the yard.
 
Ksungela, could you describe your garage setup? Where you have your intake filters and placement of your fans?
 
If you are spraying solid color base those 400 scratches will never be seen after you clear it imho.

Don
Thanks Don. Since I've never done a Base/Clear job before, I have no idea what will show at the end and what will not, so I'm a little paranoid. Since this "test panel" is all about learning, I may just leave them in and then observe how it looks after final clear.
 
My "booth" is less sophisticated than yours. This is my third generation booth with no inlet filters. I've had those in the past and didn't really keep dust out of the paint job. I'm only using this for primer and final paint of small parts. I have 4 post lift with plastic draped over it, some steel cables on the floor which have binder clips holding the plastic onto them. I then have one fan I mentioned above exhausting air from floor level.
 
So, the experiment is done. I set out with two goals and then added a third.
Goals:
1) Find out if I could set up a cheap, temporary paint booth in my shop, that worked well enough to paint my whole car
2) Find out if I could actually get great paint results and have the confidence to paint the whole car myself, at home.
3) Added goal - Set up a cheap, effective fresh air hood system to use (vs. 3M respirators) I did this and the results are posted on another thread.

Here it is with basecoat black, and with SS stripes taped off and ready for white paint:

1st stripes taped.jpg


And here it is with the white sprayed and tape pulled:

1st stripes bleed.jpg


As you can see, the white bled through my "professional grade" automotive masking paper. I asked the guy at the auto paint supply store about that. He said, "Oh yeah, the green paper will bleed. For that kind of masking you need the blue paper." Thanks for that post facto information . . . :mad:

Ended up not mattering as my taping of the front corners totally sucked and the stripes had to be redone anyway.
I'm almost embarrassed to post this picture they are so bad. And what is really embarrassing, as the GM aficionado's will spot, is that I put the rounded corners in the wrong place. They go on the outside corner, not the inside. Doh!

1st stripes corner.jpg


The whole point of this exercise was to learn, and I learned a lot!
So, back to the drawing board and sand off the stripes and start over.

1st stripes sanded off.jpg


And, of course, I sanded through the black basecoat in some spots, and even through to metal in a few others. And the exacto knife used in the taping process cut through and left deep scratches that had to be glazed.
The bare metal spots were really small and I had used up all of my epoxy primer.

So, I thought, "I'll just use a little rattle can primer on those spots, that should be OK."
Huge mistake! When I sprayed the next coat of black basecoat, the cheap primer reacted with it and caused the based coat to crinkle up. Argh!
So, sand things down, get the right paint, do it right.

Here is the next go 'round after I got the black basecoat fixed.
Taped off the stripes (with BLUE Paper) and skipped the whole curved corner thing.
Learning to tape those curves will be another project for another day, before I get to the "real" project.
And, the early SS stripes didn't even have curves, they are squared off like I did.
And, the GM officiando's will point out that '68's didn't even have these kind of stripes. They were introduced in 1970. But they look way better and many people put them on the earlier cars, which is what I did.
**FYI, I used "Intercoat Clear" between the black and white. The SPI rep recommended that and it was a great idea. Allows minor tape bleed to be fixed. If the white was on the black without intercoat clear, no way.

2nd stripes taped.jpg


Second time the stripes came out awesome! So, time to clear coat this thing and wrap it up.

Earlier in this thread I had asked about how well the clear will fill in 400 grit scratches. Many said it not to worry, that it would.
Wow! Totally amazed at what the clear filled in. Really impressive.

Also, someone else had mentioned that they were using a similar booth setup and that overspray was not a problem with primers and base, but that the clear was a whole other thing. Roger that! A lot more overspray and fog was on the edge of being a problem.
Will need more airflow for bigger project for sure.

Here are the pictures of final product in clear, without any cutting or buffing yet. When I do that, the experts say it will get even better.

2nd stripes done.jpg

2nd stripes 2.jpg

**That crinkly look is the plastic tent being reflected, not the paint ;)
Tape measure test.jpg



I'm pretty happy with how it came out!
All my goals were met and I think I can do this.
It was pretty fun actually and I enjoyed the whole process, even the mistakes.

**Notice in one of the pictures I have the tailgate on sawhorses. This was a reproduction one that I had ordered and it arrived damaged. Decided to use it for test sprays and dialing in the gun/distance/speed.
Sheet Metal is much better than cardboard!

Thanks for all your interest and comments on this post. I got lots of great feedback and ideas and really appreciate this forum.

Dean
 

Attachments

  • 1st stripes sanded off.jpg
    1st stripes sanded off.jpg
    129.5 KB · Views: 165
Last edited:
That's very nice! Again, thanks for sharing. Curious about your first goal? Do you think you'll be able to pain an entire car in that temp booth?
 
That's very nice! Again, thanks for sharing. Curious about your first goal? Do you think you'll be able to pain an entire car in that temp booth?
If I were to do the whole car at once, it wouldn't work. Too narrow to open the doors and shoot the jambs. But it will work to shoot the panels off the car, and the shell will just fit with enough room to move around and spray.
 
View attachment 13493View attachment 13494View attachment 13495I
View attachment 13497
Really appreciate this forum! Already found lot's of great information here.
I thought I would post my ~$200 paint booth solution.

I have a 36' X 36' shop and want to DIY my restoration (1968 el Camino) paint in it. Only one bay, 12' X 22' is available. Chassis, parts, etc are in the rest.

Here are my priorities for the paint booth:
-Great paint job, without any dust, bugs, contaminants etc screwing up the paint job
-Not get overspray all over the shop
-Temporary. Easy to put up and take down. May use it again in the future.

So, I did a bunch of research and came up with this solution.

-Quictent 10'x20' Party Tent Gazebo Wedding Canopy with Removable Sidewalls. $115 on Amazon
-(3) Lasko 20" Box fans at Home Depot, $19 each = $57 total
-Rheem 20" X 20" X 1" furnace filters, 3 pack, $16
-Ram Board to cover the floor (I have a really nice Epoxy floor and don't want to get paint on it, if concrete, I could skip this) $$60 at Home Depot

I used 2 fans for input and taped the filters on them and mounted them in 7/16" OSB that I had laying around. I mounted the input fans ~ 5' high.
The Lasko fans move 2500 CFM each. Assuming a 30% loss with the filters on the input, I have 3500 CFM coming into the booth, of filtered air.
Output fan is at ground level and draws 2500 CFM, so I have positive pressure in the booth and air moves end-to-end and down.
I put the output right at the exterior overhead door and cut some OSB panels so only the exhaust fan area is exposed to outside. This is because I'm in the Northwest and painting in the winter, need to keep as much heat in the shop as possible.

Volume of the booth is 1900 ft/3 (10W X 20L X 9H) so my air turnover is less than one minute.
The booth is in no way "airtight" but since the input is greater than the outlet CFM, excess air just moves OUT through the seams and bottom.
I taped the corners just to hold it together and control airflow.
I will add some painters plastic to the visible side seam and tape it so I have an easy entry/exit point.

Attached pictures show the setup, and a simple airflow test with a lighter. Definite air movement the way I wanted!
I also did a "cigar test." Fired up a big stogey and blew smoke and it moved rapidly the way I wanted :)

I think this is going to work!

Yes, 10' wide is a little narrow for a whole car paint job. But, the legs of the tent angle outwards giving a floor width of 12'. A typical muscle car is ~7' wide and I can "nudge" the booth over (it is very light) a foot when I do each side, so that will give me ~4' of space when painting each side. I think that will work.

I post an update and pics when I start shooting. Looking forward to that and your comments!

Dean
Thanks for all the details on your setup. I'm in Michigan, and in the process of doing something similar with a garage third stall, except building a temporary wall. I'm curious how successful you were painting in the winter. My heat source is in the other two stalls (Hot Dawg). I know there are a lot of factors (insulation, BTU's, etc.). How cold was it outside when you painted? Thanks for considering my reply.
 
Very nice however, I would not use a fan that is not rated for explosive use. Pulling fumes over a cheap open wire fan can ignite and cause an explosion.
 
Back
Top