Show me: Your temporary garage paint booths

My current setup is a mix of ladders and shuffleboard sticks which works more as a dust magnet rather than a dust preventer. I'd like to build something that's easier to setup, with air flow and more sealed. Any ideas/pictures of what has worked for you?

I paint outside on my gravel driveway. I get shockingly good results. Wet the gravel first and spray early in the morning. 

Dusterbd13 said:

I paint outside on my gravel driveway. I get shockingly good results. Wet the gravel first and spray early in the morning. 

How far away from buildings to prevent overspray?

Heated poll barn......

I find that with my Harbor Freight gun adjusted properly about 50 ft. Rustoleum stays wet longer without hardener so you need more if you're spraying that. Legitimate automotive finish though 50 feet is plenty

I staple the plastic to the ceiling. Open the garage door high enough to fit a big box fan in the opening with a furnace filter over it and plywood to cover the rest of the door. The plywood doubles as a place to do test shots for gun setup.

And for the added question:

If I make a booth attached to the walls and ceilings, can I do this in an attached garage or am I asking for trouble?

My garage was attached. There's no airflow between the paint booth and the house so it wasn't too stinky.

In reply to tuna55 :

I personally wouldnt, my garage smells like paint for about a week after. 

Hell, I smell like Paint for a week.  I don't have the outfit Keith Has and My Painting Reflects that. I sprayed the Fiero last week Right where it sat, in the Shed, I waited till mid afternoon when the wind isn't moving So much.

In reply to tuna55 :

Tape the door to the house shut and invest in a can of spray paint. With the garage door shut, empty out the can of paint on something or other. If you don't get called on the carpet, then you are good to go.

If you have a step-up to the house from the garage, you have a much better chance than if the man-door to the house is level with the garage pad.

My last booth was boards stapled to the ceiling and matching boards on the ground forming a plastic cage inside the garage. Go positive pressure with filtered air blowing in. I used about 4 furnace filters.

GTXVette said:

Hell, I smell like Paint for a week.  I don't have the outfit Keith Has and My Painting Reflects that. I sprayed the Fiero last week Right where it sat, in the Shed, I waited till mid afternoon when the wind isn't moving So much.

If you don't have at least a Tyvec suit and a proper mask, you'll want to spray in the open. Read up on isocyanates.

Keith Tanner said:

GTXVette said:

Hell, I smell like Paint for a week.  I don't have the outfit Keith Has and My Painting Reflects that. I sprayed the Fiero last week Right where it sat, in the Shed, I waited till mid afternoon when the wind isn't moving So much.

If you don't have at least a Tyvec suit and a proper mask, you'll want to spray in the open. Read up on isocyanates.

I does matter is that's the kind of paint your using but there are a number of other kinds of paints that don't require a total cover up.

Truthfully, I know i'm being SLACK,  Sprayed Deltron Shop line 2 Stage, Color/Clear. I did open the Barn doors, I think a quickie Polish will eliminate any trash that stuck and mostly it was tiny Flying bugs and they are Soft.

It's awfully hard to find an automotive paint that doesn't include isocyanates. Read your MSDS.

My setup is similar to Keith's and NOHOME's...

I use an old easy-up frame, covered in plastic, and plastic on the floor.  One fan blowing in, and one blowing out, at a lower speed to keep positive pressure.  The 'in' fan is an old garage 'swamp cooler', so it's got a pad on one side that acts as a filter, but I run it dry.  I use typical house filters stapled to a frame on the exhaust side to catch overspray.

I've painted everything from RC helicopters, to motorcycle parts, to my NA Miata's door and hardtop and gotten good results.

As noted above, a bunny suit and good respirator are essential.  The other essential is light... as much as you can get!  Almost all of the minor issues I've run into were because I couldn't see clearly enough how the paint was going on.

I don't have enough room to do a full car, and fortunately haven't had that need.... yet. 

I like the EZ-Up frame idea, that's good. 

Thanks!  I originally used a frame I made out of pvc pipe, but it was a PITA.  The easy-up frame is much EZ-er! 

The second time painting PE I at least covered the tires so I didn't get overspray on them. Pretty darn pleased with the outcome.

 The winner is the E-Z   And I just happen to have one with a Broke leg. At 10x10 I can mod an extension for the Car to be Under it.

thanks for this thread Enyar.

For the fans: they bring air in or remove the air from the paint booth?

In reply to HFmaxi :

I used fans for both.  You really need an exhaust fan, or your 'booth' will fill up with paint vapors.  I used an intake fan as well to provide a slight overpressure to keep the plastic from getting sucked inward.

Used an EZ Up for the Jeep. It also had a plastic divider inside so that i could spray 2 different colors. It was not idea but it worked. 2 EZ ups would have given me more space. Any parts that could be removed were sprayed in a shed that was lined with plastic.