building a temporary paint booth

[shipwrecked]

Any idea on building a paint booth?

I was thinking of doing something like this in PVC pipe and plastic sheeting. Heavy duty stuff- like 3 mil.
Rough sketch!

My garage is super dirty- dusty, buggy.... Its flying ant season right now as it is the last warm cycle before the cold begins. They were everywhere last night! I opened up that HF garage shelter and saw the inside ground just flowing with shiny fly wings.


I thought about just putting up plastic drop cloths on everything but its too late for that.
I am mainly trying to keep the big dust and bug issues away from my fresh paint.

I am thinking if this weekend is nice, I can get the cab in paint.

[orangeRcode]

Looks like a good plan. A buddy of mine painted his mustang in one almost identical to that he erected in his garage. Worked really well. He got the floor as clean as he could and then wet it down before spraying. Had a few bugs but was mostly due to the time of the year he was spraying.

[shipwrecked]

I just measured the garage... The most I could do width wise would be 9'.. Length I can go up to 12'. If I did 8x8, the bed would be tough. The bed is 5x7 or so.

I may do a 9x12 inside the garage. Option are pvc or 1x1" and screw them together. I may use PVC cause I could easily disassemble it and put it up when I need it.

I just can't get my garage clean enough unless I fully remove everything and take a pressure washer to the inside. Not an option.

[foodstick]

Typed you out a LONG PM, then lost it? I have to leave quick but here is a way to go..

1 clean garage floor
2 staple, tape plastic to ceiling in paint area.
3 eyelets screwed in every couple feet around edges of ceiling plastic.
4 Run chord through eyelets tighten well.
5 hang sheeting over eyelets to floor, fold out, lay boards on the excess to keep it from sucking in with exhaust fans
6 tape exhaust fans in one side, several good furnace filters on opposite side to let air in.
7 incase nobody has told you the exhaust fan is not really made for or safe for this type of job, don't use a junk one that will ignite your tent like a bomb.
8 you will need a way in easy, that won't pull open when the fans on.. possibly make simple door to hold the furnace filters.
9 Ideally someone to manage the air hose and paint prep so you can just go
10 good mask obviously
11 wet floor with hose awhile before painting , when I did really nice stuff I would even mist the walls with a water bottle sprayer.

[bird55]

All good advice so far on this. I would add that conider using emt conduit with a rope running thru it instead of pvc. Just because it is more ridgid. Won't cost that much more.
BTW ths has been discussed a lot on Garagejournal.com. You might check there for example and more ideas.

I've seen a guy several blocks away from me paint two or three trucks, trailers etc. Outside in the hot summer in a booth suspended under a tree like your speaking of.

Air Temp and Humidity are things to attempt to control as much as dust.

[The Big M]

While working on our bathroom reno I came across a product at Home Depot that worked great for making a door in plastic sheeting. It's a zipper with an adhesive strip that you attach to the plastic, then you simply open the zipper and cut down the middle to make your opening. Unfortunately I don't recall the brand name of it, and I was only able to find it in the paint section of my local store (I went looking for it at another store and the staff didn't have a clue what I was talking about, lol). Not sure if the US stores would carry it but it was super handy.

EDIT: Here it is on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Homax-Products-6 ... B000KI0QXI

[River City]

I built one myself pretty much exactly like you are thinking (just a little smaller). PVC, 2 box fans for cross flow, furnace filters, and drop plastic. Worked great! Make sure to put filters on your inlet fans too, keeps the bugs and such out. Good luck!

[Michelle]

I have a 11X21 Foot awning. I removed one section from it and shortened it to 11X14 feet. Set it up in the far end stall in the shop and painted all my pieces in right there. I used two A/C filters I got from the grocery store in the back side of it and installed a box fan in the front of it. The front is only a few feet from the overhead door as to blow any paint residue outside. I would sweep it out before use and wet the floor down. It was sealed along the bottom on three sides and the door was sealed with by laying a 2X4 across the bottom of the door. I stiffened the front up with some old campaign signs I had picked up. It worked pretty well. I am sure the quality was not as good as it would have been had I took the truck to professional painter with a booth, but I would say the paint is as good as when it left the factory.

[grump]

A few years ago I painted my old Harley and I made a frame from 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 s. The temp booth I made was 8 by 8 and 7 ft. high on a stone floor. I built the back wall 2 ft. on center and bought a roll of filter material at the box store and ran it doubled up in the two center sections of the back wall top to bottom with two box fans with double filters on the front of the booth. I left the the plastic over lap in the front corner of the booth rather than making a door. Any dirt that gets in will go right out the exhaust. I painted candy brandywine with a cheap Astro hvlp gun and wet the floor good and only had 2-3 tiny specks of dirt. My next paint booth will be made of 1 or 1 1/4" pvc with 2 by end walls so I can tear it down when not using. The filter system and fan system will be the same as it works great, the difference will be I have a tubular exhaust fan now instead of box fans. If possible I like to paint in middle of the night, doesn't piss off the neighbors with the smell and it's usually less air disturbance. Damn I love painting! AS ALWAYS USE A GOOD RESPIRAT0R, A PAINT SUIT AND RUBBER GLOVES. JUST BREATHING THE FUMES WHEN YOU'RE MIXING TWO K PAINT IS BAD FOR YOU. Ask me how I know? I've been doing this part time since I was 17 and I think I'm starting to pay for it.