Technical Paint Booth Alternative

I'm wanting to paint a vehicle. I'll be using single stage. I don't have a paint booth. I'm a south east Georgia resident. What's a alternative to a paint booth? And when's a good season for it? I do have fairly large garage to myself.

 

Third time this has been asked in the last six months. You should do a search...........
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/home-made-paint-booth.1273841/
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/paint-booth.1268365/

(Sorry, didn't put the links up when I first replied)

 

I painted mine in my barn. I’ve painted 2 cars with single stage polyurethane enamel this way. Spend a lot of time on the prep, choose a windless morning and use reducer to compensate for temperature differences. Wet down the floor if you have concrete and use common sense.

 

See...a helpful response without being snarky.
I painted my car in my driveway (Michigan) in August. It was way hot and humid and the paint flashed to quickly in some spots. Still looks decent after 11 years.

 

Maybe @Bandit Billy will chime in.
I know he used an inflatable with success.
Myself, outside in the elements..and my paint jobs show it.

 

Yep, I have painted probably 100 cars or so in an open shop or garage. I just covered everything in the shop that I didn’t want overspray on with plastic and vacuumed the floor. After pulling the air hose through a wet floor and splashing water on the rockers, I stopped wetting the floor. I also walk real slow in the shop to not stir up dust while painting. I found that I could get the cleanest paint jobs with no air movement, but I know many folks use some sort of exhaust fan. I’m not saying this is the best way to paint, but I turned out lots of really nice paint jobs with no paint booth. I could actually get as clean of a paint job in an open shop as I could the few times I used a high dollar paint booth. Biggest difference was that I could see better in the paint booths.

 

@guthriesmith I like your style.
Agree no air movement keeps dirt down. BUT. Air movement clears the fog to see the car, and clears the chemicals to lower concentration.

@TheSteamDoc a lot depends on what paint you're using. I shoot single stage non metallic - I know I can fix my screwups (dirt or runs) with single stage enamel or urethane.
If you stay consistent on sealer color, paint mix and coats you can shoot the car in sections.....transparency of the color makes a difference...much easier with white or black than orange.

 

The way I see it a paint booth (by which I mean a high end unit) enables painters to produce results quickly, almost continuously. This is driven by money. As hobbyists we can remove the time pressure, wait for reasonable conditions, and with some cleanup, and possibly the odd redo etc can achieve pretty much whatever we're able to do. Works for me.

Chris

 

There was a time that I would paint anything. I don't have a shop for big stuff. I painted big things like tri-axles and large equipment outside. Usually, no more dirt in the paint than in the shop. 90% of the dirt was on the vehicle before you start spraying. Bugs are the big problem outside. A wasp will drag it's fat butt all across the hood. Usually best to paint as early in the day as possible. The best thing about painting outside is there is no issue with lighting.

 

Looks real nice!

 

It's Pewter Metallic paint. It's available as a single stage.

 

As a hobby car DIY painter I've painted outside in wisconsin watching temp and humidity. The paint you buy gives parameters on this, very important IMO. Wisconsin is not too bad with bugs except in the early evening when our state bird the "mosquito" swarms you , calm wind days do happen and are necessary. The last paint work I did about 3 years ago, just the front of my 51 Merc using 3 step, primer/color/clear, very easy to work with IMO, turned out real good using a plastic spray booth I built in my garage with a fan to pull fumes out the open end, still makes a mess as the paint gets everywhere (never again) Make sure you buy a good mask with proper replaceable filters as the airborne paint/ fumes can kill your lungs. I'm going to paint a Midget racer next summer and will paint it outside and live with a few bugs, some dirt like in the past. If new to painting get some big pieces of cardboard to practice your overlap/speed you move the gun and follow all instructions, go to YouTube as lots of videos for some painting tips. I will PO every pro painter, as running the gun is the easy part IMO it's the prep, bodywork is what's so important, But if you desire that best of paint award, pretty tough to achieve as Many factors come in on that type of quality, experious takes time to achieve. You can achieve a good driver quality paint job IMO Good Luck !

 

The world is a paint booth! Worst thing about single stage is that it gets on everything that isn't covered up. I use the wet floor method before I start the tedious blowing and hand tacking, gives a "magnet" to help settle any dust. But I make sure to push broom any puddles so I don't have issues like Jeff was talking about. I avoid metallic single stage, simply because everything gets cut and buffed.

 

I used a Coleman 12' x 15' picnic canopy & plastic sheets when spraying epoxy primer.
My garage is attached to the house, so that wasn't an option.
Light, temp & humidity were limited by mother nature.
The paint's TDS will tell you the temperature boundaries.
DON'T IGNORE PROPER SAFETY GEAR!

More details & pictures here:
Introducing my Fuel Coupe-styled Tudor | Page 13 | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)

 

None of it will satisfy the EPA if they drive by, or a neighbor calls them lol...

 

Excellent point. I take a proactive approach- My neighbors like (or at least tolerate) me because I sharpen their lawnmower blades, lube their kids' bike chains, and keep my yard looking nice.

 

I’ve been thankful for good neighbors over the years. However, I probably couldn’t get away with it in some of the houses I painted in as a kid now. The one I lived in in high school now has a HOA that puts in complaints if you put your trash can out too early. Some people have too much time on their hands and should likely get a hobby like ours...

 

Oh, I also avoid metallic single stage since I sand and buff everything as well. I really don’t like any orange peel at all and if any trash does get in the paint, clear is pretty forgiving.

 

Do what @Bandit Billy did, get a bounce house, then invite all the neighbors and kids over, ply their parents with lots of Crown Royal, then paint your car the next day.

 

Exactly! I'm the same way! Lol... I was at lunch years ago and my wife called me, this was 98-99 area. She asked where I was and I said I'm at the Mexican restaurant. She said that she just went past the shop and there was a truck sitting out front that said EPA on the door! I about shit my pants! Everything started running through my head, I knew I had the paperwork from safety kleen showing that they picked up my waste paint materials, but there were no filters on the vent system in the paint room! I was in a panic to say the least. So I headed toward the shop and when I got close, there it was! A white Ford pickup as I got closer, I could read "solid waste" on the door and I knew who it was, one of my buddy's that worked for the county solid waste division! I told him he just about caused me to have a heart attack lmao!

 

But I have, as a young fella, built a makeshift pole building out of 2X4's and plastic. If you do something like that, be sure you pull the car on a piece of plastic also. Because if not, the moisture comes up from the grass and hits the plastic roof you've constructed, and in a sense you created a green house, and it will rain on your new paint job lmao

 

I'm a fan of driveway jobs especially if it's the difference between shiny paint or rattle can primer. Painted around a dozen outside. In my area the wind kicks up in the afternoon so it's gotta be done in the am. Single stage for me is key.

 

Some folks can't stand to see others being productive, it just simply offends them. But the the other neighbor will come hang out and say something like hey can you help me paint mine? Lol

 

We enclosed my carport in plastic, left one end open and put some box fans with furnace filters over them at the enclosed end to induce a little air movement, but not so much that it affected the spray. Laid blue tarps over the gravel floor.

 

Avoid metallic single stage with the price of materials nowadays go with basecoat Clear . Make your 0wn booth wood frame clear plastic sides and plenty of light you can do it no problem.

 

I've sprayed under a tent, in the open, an empty garage and paint booths. If you are on concrete or hard surfaces, mop the floor to contain floor dust and avoid wet hose problems. The temperatures are hardest to control in a tent with the white ones being better than the tan or green ones. A filtered box fan blowing in the end with a deflector helps some. If the tent is in the yard and you are painting over the grass, set off an insect bomb before final wipe down. Make sure it is a low residue one. A plastic drop cloth floor in the tent doesn't really help you as your shoes will stick to the overspray and you will get tangled up in it trying to follow you. On gravel you will pick up rocks as you travel about as you spray. You can achieve really nice results but experience spraying is key because you are adding more potential obstacles. Paints today are designed for drying and flashing speeds only seen in a booth with it's controlled temps and air flow.. Farm equipment paint is still forgiving under primitive conditions.

 

I have painted my latest hot rod in my small shop using single-stage urethane paint with pretty good success. All of the above information is good and I stick with non-metallic colors over a similar color primer/sealer, in this case red over a black primer. I painted the car in pieces small enough for me to spray inside the shop without any tenting or special exhaust fans. This would not be possible with metallic colors because the pieces wouldn't match - even if I used the same paint.



One other advantage of painting the car in pieces is that you can spend time making each one flow out perfectly since you are not rushed to keep a wet line going. This also allows you to use a faster reducer to minimize dust, dirt and bugs landing on the wet surface. And, if you mess up you can sand/recoat individual parts more easily than a complete car.

Using base coat/clear coat materials is probably less difficult than single-stage urethane for the hobby painter, but I don't like seeing "modern" finishes on a traditional car. This is purely an individual preference. But even if you use base coat/clear coat you need to avoid metallics for the same reasons as with other materials.
.

 

If you study Just Gary's post #15 and ClarkH's post #25 a bit you can figure out that you need some sort of frame work big enough to surround what you are painting and some plastic sheeting for the walls and maybe the ceiling and fans to move air along with some filters to filter the air.

We used some pvc pipe to make a frame and visequeen to make the ceiling and walls when we put up a temporary paint booth in the school shop. We painted about five cars in that setup.

I bought one of those 12x20 car port frames that has the tarp roof a few years ago for the price of a decent bottle of whiskey. I didn't/haven't used it to paint in but I did cover it with visqueen when I first had it and made a sealed in work area. A guy could set something like that up outside, paint in it and then take it down and put it away or even resell the framework. They don't show up cheap around here anymore though.

I'd be looking at the shop to see if I had a corner that I could easily seal off with some plastic walls so the paint didn't drift to the rest of the shop. It isn't fun to get done with a paint job and find out that you have overspray sticking to stuff including another car 20 ft away.

 

I bought one of these 10' x 12' steel gazebos that does triple duty as a sandblasting booth, an impromptu small parts paint booth and a place to hang after the job is done. I haven't painted a car in it yet but plan on spraying my 'A' in it after wrapping the walls in plastic and installing a roof air filter and side wall exhaust fans for clean air flow. It has very good LED lighting. An early spring morning with favorable weather is the plan. Good enough for the stuff I do nowadays. Theres some great tips and info in this thread!