Setting up a booth

[Justin B]

Nice to see this discussed here some. I plan to be painting my 2002 myself when it comes to time to do it.

[DPI]

My friend and I did my VW in his garage, no makeshift booth. We just moved some things out of the garage and sprayed away. It helps if you wet the floor to keep dust down.

The VW was painted a flat color also so there was no buffing it, and it turned out good with minimal imperfections.

The car is alittle dirty in these pictures.

[einstein57]

i've found that the best tool for me is tack cloth. I wipe down between each coat of color and right before clear. No debris in the paint. But the clear coat is another story. I just used a quick drying clear and a lot of prayer. But if your going to wet sand and buff anyway it will look fine. And I always paint out side to speed up dry time between coats. I do everything wrong but it comes out okay.

After two years of abuse on my spoiler and rear valance. And i never wet sanded.

[TwoJ's]

Not bad. You guys are giving me confidence that my friend and I can do it ourselves. Although it's going to be black and that is the most difficult color to do; or so I hear.

I just bought a box fan, 200ft. of 3/4" PVC and about $50 worth of couplers, T's, +'s and elbows. All of that and I ran out of PVC with the bottom layer done. I've got it built 20ft. long, ~13ft. wide and 4ft. high. I'll buy more PVC tomorrow and finish it up. I'll get a pic or two up as well.

As for the danger of a non sealed electric motor igniting lacquer based paint, I think a simple solution would be to have the fan blowing in so just fresh air passes through it. Think this will work?

[Farbin Kaiber]

your e30 that lowered that it will fit under a 4 ft. enclosure.

[DPI]

your e30 that lowered that it will fit under a 4 ft. enclosure.

Yeah, and wouldn't 4 ft. high make it hard for you to spray around the car? Like being able to stand?

That was actually one of the pains we ran into painting my car, the room around it. Especially if you have the bumpers and mirrors off and on stands.

[einstein57]

another backyard creation

[Justin B]

Looks pretty darn good for an outdoors shoot. What kind of compressor and spray gun are you using?

[einstein57]

husky hvlp and a huge 4 foot tall husky compressor that was on clearance.

[TwoJ's]

All of that and I ran out of PVC with the bottom layer done. I've got it built 20ft. long, ~13ft. wide and 4ft. high.

Sorry for the confusion. The bottom layer is 4 feet, and the top is 5 feet. it stands about 9 feet tall.

[xLibelle]

It might be advisable that you'll want your fan blowing IN with the filter before the fan. Your booth should be positive pressure. You may miss some holes while taping and that could risk sucking dust in that misses your intake filter. In most cases, the air will be escaping your home made booth so you wont have problems with the way your filtered blower works.

Another tip, after cleaning the floor, wet it. Not soaking, just damp so it clings to the over spray settlements. I havent done this method yet, but it sounded worth mentioning.

[einstein57]

hairspray the floor. It sounds retarded but it will temporarily suspend the dirt particles for at least a day so you don't have to keep rewetting the floor and kick up particles. No long term effects either. put some glitter on a piece of construction paper and spray it with hair spray. if you turn it upside down most of it should adhere to the paper. Its retarded but it works. AQUANET FTW