Cheap DIY Paint Booth

[BiGMerK215]

I thought some of you who have ever considered laying down your own paint job yourself might want to take a look at my set up. The booth materials cost me less than 150 and everything but the plastic can be reused. I bought 6 harbor freight support rods to make a basic 15x20 spray booth. Some box fans with ducting filters attached to help keep dust out and provide the intake and exhaust. I can go into better detail if someone is interested. Here's some pics:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[jesse_s13]

That's pretty neat. I would like to see more pictures and information especially on your fan set up.

[feito]

very similar to what i did. I am currently working on an s30 project and i will be doing a lot of painting and a lot of sand blasting, so i had to do something to keep contaminants out and blasting sand in...
Since i didnt wanna have a boot on the way, and since my project is gonna take a good year with a lot of on and off painting and blasting i kinda designed a convertible boot lol











unfortunately the next few days were crazy, i mean craaaazy windy and it ripped a little, i was completely dissapointed and mad at the freaking weather and decided to just get rid of it.... only having using it a couple of times......

[coupesallday!]

How are you keeping the plastic up like a box? With metal poles or?

[xBtony]

that's exactly how I've been doing it for a while. Works great!

[BiGMerK215]

Yea I definitely would recommend having at least three box fans for intake air. Im only using one because im lazy but it does create barely enough air. I have a industrial 12inch exhaust fan that works awesome but the booth is supposed to hold a "positive pressure". Meaning you want more air moving in than out.

[hellion240sx]

Yes, post details.

[blkvrtswp]

I'm painting my S13 vert in a big empty 2-car garage. Doors etc are all off the car and will be painted while hanging. The garage has painted walls and bare concrete floor, but very high ceilings.

My plan is to use a leaf blower & shop vac to get as much dust out of the garage as possible, then wet the floor and spray. I have 2 box fans with a furnace filter for ventilation, 1 blowing in & 1 out.

Should I bother setting up plastic lining the walls & garage doors like a booth? Does it sound like it will help a lot in my case? Will the overspray make a mess if I don't?

I have huge rolls of plastic to use if it will help in keeping trash out of the paint. Just wondering if I should make a small booth, just line the entire garage walls or skip the plastic altogether.

Thanks for any advice!

[OnTheChip]

Here are some pics of one I made to paint my Integra. Wish I had put plastic on the ceiling and floor like the bigmerk215.

Home made paint booth

[BiGMerK215]

This is my second diy paintjob. The first time I did it I made the mistake of only using plastic on 3/4 of my garage and over spray manages to get f*ckin everywhere. It really depends on how much you care about the paint job and your garage.

*Bugs are one of the biggest issues for me*

you would be surprised how many bugs those filters have caught and I don't know what it is but they love committing suicide into my wet paint.

Someone requested for more pics I will do that as soon as I get a chance, sorry for the delay.

[BiGMerK215]

On my next paint project I'll make my setup similar to this (The correct way to ventilate).

Use one of these harbor freight Ventilators for intake air, Hung at ceiling level


Then have the box fans at floor level like this guy set his up. You want a downward draft of air to move things most efficiently.
[IMG][/IMG]

Hope this helps

[shift_down]

Where does the ventilator push the air, and where do the box fans push the air?

[new2sr20]

I had mine made with frames made from PVC and tarpoline with 2 fans on the back bottom to draw air out. Worked GREAT.

[new2sr20]

OHH...I also had AC filters ON the box fans to at least somewhat clean the air coming out of the garage.

[BiGMerK215]

[IMG][/IMG]

Any design similar to this will work great. Just make sure you have air moving inward than outboard to maintain positive pressure.

[OnTheChip]

If fumes are exhausted outside, there needs to be a way for outside air to get back into the building. I set mine up to recirculate within the building to minimize outside environmental effects (temp. and humidity), but my garage has A/C

[blkvrtswp]

Thanks - this is perfect timing. I am going to go all out as suggested.

One question: I have read many people say no plastic on the floor, spray the floor with water just before painting. What do you think?

Here is the garage I will be using, I will post a pic when I have the booth constructed.

[BiGMerK215]

I would say plastic on the floor is optional. It turned out the same both times I did it so I can't really make an argument either way. I laid down plastic the 2nd time because I had surplus and I thought it couldn't hurt. Your garage is also far cleaner then mine.

Water definitely helps, just don't go crazy with it because it adds humidity to the booth, slowing down the dry time. Sometimes if you get too much dust collected on the ground your spray gun will make the dust go airborne.

[BiGMerK215]

Ventilation is key here, focus on that the most.

[OnTheChip]

Originally Posted by BiGMerK215

Ventilation is key here, focus on that the most.

True! My single fan setup was not enough to keep from "fogging" up the booth.