New to the Forum - Questions Regarding Direction of Travel

milanomaroon

Promoted Users
So while this is my first post, I have been visiting this forum for a long time. I continue to find the level of knowledge and the time and help you guys are willing to give others to be incredible. While I am pretty new to some of this. I have, in the past, prepped several cars for paint, done some minor body work, done some priming and I’m sure made a lot of mistakes. But so far it has been more enjoyable than work and I have gotten a lot of satisfaction from doing it. I am planning on painting a complete car in the near future and I would like to get the best results possible. So while I will have questions about that later I'd like to start off with these

I don’t have access to a spray booth so I am going to use my garage. I would like to hang poly sheeting on the walls to help control dust and overspray. I have 3 or 4 box fans I want to use with filters to exhaust the air. Not sure yet whether I will exhaust out the front or the back.

When I plan the space and locate the fans is there a rule regarding fan placement, airflow direction, and where you start spraying the car?

Do you start spraying the end opposite the fans and let the overspray drift over the unpainted car or do you do the opposite?

I have more questions but hopefully this will get me started. Thank you all for your time.
 
What most people don't realize is that the amount of airflow in a professional booth is way more than a few box fans are going to produce.

You will need to have an intake air source equal to the exhaust fan airflow capacity at one end of the booth and your exhaust fans at the opposite end. I am no expert but would suggest the intake air source be higher than your exhaust fans so the air flow covers your vehicle.

I personally spray in a homemade booth in my garage. I find spraying with the airflow works best for me.
 
You will need to have an intake air source equal to the exhaust fan airflow capacity at one end of the booth and your exhaust fans at the opposite end. I am no expert but would suggest the intake air source be higher than your exhaust fans so the air flow covers your vehicle.

I personally spray in a homemade booth in my garage. I find spraying with the airflow works best for me.

Thank you for the reply. Did you set up both supply and exhaust fans? Or do you have something else?
 
remember that a positive pressure in the booth will be cleaner because you wont be sucking in dust through cracks that are unsealed. if your using poly sheeting to make a booth and you have too much negative pressure then the plastic will suck in toward the workspace. if i had a setup like what you describe i would have fans on intake and exhaust. i would have same amount of fans on both ends or one more on the intake side than on exhaust.
 
I did as Jim C stated above. When I first started I had plastic sheeting for one wall. I wrapped 2x4s in the bottom of plastic sheeting and put some weight on top of it. Living in a fairly rural area on 7 acres, I simply installed intake air fans with filtration on one wall and then used my garage door to control the exhaust flow from the booth.
With the garage door half open, I would start the fans and then gradually close the door until the plastic sheeting was slightly bulging outward. This gave me a positive pressure in the booth and I was able to get some pretty decent results. The booth needs to be kept clean and you need to wear a painter's suit with a hood or painter's sock to cover your head. Most of the dirt comes from the person doing the painting.
Booth 2.jpg
 
I did as Jim C stated above. When I first started I had plastic sheeting for one wall. I wrapped 2x4s in the bottom of plastic sheeting and put some weight on top of it. Living in a fairly rural area on 7 acres, I simply installed intake air fans with filtration on one wall and then used my garage door to control the exhaust flow from the booth.
With the garage door half open, I would start the fans and then gradually close the door until the plastic sheeting was slightly bulging outward. This gave me a positive pressure in the booth and I was able to get some pretty decent results. The booth needs to be kept clean and you need to wear a painter's suit with a hood or painter's sock to cover your head. Most of the dirt comes from the person doing the painting.
View attachment 19148
Wow, is that right out of the gun?
 
Thank you guys for the information. Very helpful.

In your opinion is the plastic sheeting to primarily protect garage contents from overspray or is for dust control?
 
68 coronet, that is a really nice looking car. Very beautiful paint job. I hope that with more experience, my paint jobs will look as nice as yours. Glad that you and all the other pro's here are part of this group always helping out with good advice and giving out pointers. I came to the right place to get schooled on what it takes to be a good autobody and paint person. Thanks to all of you.
 
Thank you guys for the information. Very helpful.

In your opinion is the plastic sheeting to primarily protect garage contents from overspray or is for dust control?
I had the same question and did some searching on this forum awhile back. If you search on "dust control" you will see some good content and some really funny stuff, like a guy who paints in the nude ;)
Even some stories about guys getting show quality paint in barns with dirt floors, or 100 pounds of sand (from blasting) on the floor.
Here is a quote from an older Barry post:

"Sources of dirt- Just my opinion??
Masking paper #1
Car seams #2
Head and body of painter #3
Last 3 feet of hose by paint gun #4 (tack it)"

Bottom line answer to your question is that the plastic sheeting is to protect the shop from overspray, not to control dust.
Also, an enclosure of some kind will help control the air flow and where the overspray goes (like not all over the stuff in the shop and not landing back on the wet paint/clear.)

Again, do a search and you will find lots of other tips on controlling dust, and some fun reading.
 
I had the same question and did some searching on this forum awhile back. If you search on "dust control" you will see some good content and some really funny stuff, like a guy who paints in the nude ;)
Even some stories about guys getting show quality paint in barns with dirt floors, or 100 pounds of sand (from blasting) on the floor.
Here is a quote from an older Barry post:

"Sources of dirt- Just my opinion??
Masking paper #1
Car seams #2
Head and body of painter #3
Last 3 feet of hose by paint gun #4 (tack it)"

Bottom line answer to your question is that the plastic sheeting is to protect the shop from overspray, not to control dust.
Also, an enclosure of some kind will help control the air flow and where the overspray goes (like not all over the stuff in the shop and not landing back on the wet paint/clear.)

Again, do a search and you will find lots of other tips on controlling dust, and some fun reading.
Nude? Would never work for me. I paint outside.
 
For those of you who have hung poly in your garage or shop what did you use? Heavier like 4mil or 6mil. Or light like what you might use to mask off a car? It would be taken down after this car.
 
For those of you who have hung poly in your garage or shop what did you use? Heavier like 4mil or 6mil. Or light like what you might use to mask off a car? It would be taken down after this car.
I agree with Don, heavier better.
You asked about the stuff you would mask a car with . . . that is very thin and tears easily. And for masking the car, important to use a product designed for auto refinishing. Thin plastic from Home Depot will flake dried paint from previous coats.
I'm new as well and just learned this as well.
 
I live in a residential area so I will be painting in the garage with floor to (10ft) ceiling plastic on 3 walls, no fans, and the garage door open.
What can I do to mitigate overspray landing back on the car?
Do I need to go higher than 7ft with the sheeting? I built a 7ft tall PCV and sheeting booth to recover media when blasting and could reassemble it in the garage.

-----
Emil
 
I would be more worried about getting lost in a fog of clear overspray. Beyond that the overspray is going to drift pretty far. I hope your neighbors are far away. Cover your cars and anything else you care about.

Don
 
Don is right. If you have a window or two going towards the backyard in might be better to try and push the over spray out those. Simply put two or three box fans facing into the garage and then close the door to sit on top of them. This will be drawing fresh air from the drive way and pushing the fumes out the open windows. Not the best set up but better than nothing.

Hopefully you have a proper mask to spray in. Isocyanates are very hazardous to your health, especially your lungs.
 
I hung plastic once …..ONCE ! Sprayed the base everything was fine …started spraying the clear and the static sucked all the dry base off the plastic, of course I even did the ceiling which is probably where most of it came from ….dirtiest paint job I ever did - I didn’t use the plastic that is designed to have the base stick to it
 
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