Hi all,
I'm trying to keep myself motivated and involved with my project, so I'm looking ahead at what I'll need for future steps in my project. So I've got the space to make up my paint booth but I'm not experienced enough at how to get the right light and heat for the booth. I looked at posts like this in the "paint and bodywork forum" and it seams it's more of a pissing match in there, no offense intended. So my question is what type of heat to use, type of light needed and what temp is optimal for the best paint job.
I'm trying to get everything lined up this winter so I can get it done this summer.

Thanks in advance, Troy

 

You have a very vague question, what kind of booth and how much will you use it to justify the price. And how large do you want it, is this homeowner use or are you setting up a full paint shop. I have painted in $75,000 booths 20 years ago and we know they are heaps more today.
Lot's of great painters here and I know they will all suggest something good for you

 

Here is how I painted a truck in the dead of winter; heat garage with a kerosene torpedo up to about 75 degrees, shut off the heater, spray paint, open garage door, air out garage, turn on torpedo heater, repeat--Not a very good idea. I'm lucky I didn't blow myself up

When I worked in the body shop business the first shop did about the same thing, except we had a Modine type heater and we didn't open the door to air the place out, again not very smart. The second shop was a truck shop and had a dedicated stall with sealed explosion proof fluorecent lights and an indirect driven exhaust fan. You want to keep the potential for spark generation to zero. If you're only going to paint your vehicle I would wait until warmer weather, the cost, and danger, associated with having to heat a paint area will be expensive. As for lighting, get as much as you can. Mount it high and low so you can see everything at every angle.

The most important concideration is ventilation, personal and work area. If you're not experienced with painting this cannot be expressed enough. Do a search of this forum on painting to find discussions about painting your own truck. If you're going to do it at home, or near any residence, make sure you're far enough away from the homes, people and pets for the fumes to disapate before getting anywhere near them. Paint fumes are deadly. Don't ever spray in an attached garage. No matter how sure you have the garage sealed off from the house you just never know if the fumes can still leak.

There will be other posts giving more advice, please read them all and head all of the advice.

 

You may also want to look into renting a booth. My dad does body work for a living so I don't have to worry about it but I know friends that have found shops that allow them to rent booths for Saturdays and such.

 

Good idea except if you're doing a complete truck it's going to take a few days to do a complete job. I don't think you could get much done on a Saturday, or an additional Sunday. If you're going to do this in the dead of winter the truck would have to be warmed up before applying paint, that might take some time. Plus once you have the paint applied you would want to leave it sit another day. I doubt if the booth owner will want someone else's project sitting in their booth come Monday morning when he could be making money using it. Maybe you could find a slow shop but I doubt that in the middle of winter, that's usually their busiest time.

I'm not trying to step all your idea, which I think is a good idea for a quicky paint job or one panel repair, but if you're doing a frame up it's going to take a lot of time and you don't want to have to move the truck around any more than you need to.

If you're doing a daily driver I would suggest talking it to one of the franchised paint places. They can lay a decent coat of paint. You just have to make sure all of the prep work and masking is done properly. I knew a body shop that would send cars to Macco, after all of the prep was done, to have the final paint sprayed when their customers were too cheap to have the body shop paint their cars. Macco was able to do the entire outside of the car for about the same cost the materials cost of the body shop.

 

proud48f1--I suppose you can build a booth and have it heated. Explosion-proof flourescent lights area must -and I mounted them along the walls and the ceiling. I was in business and used rayovac/dayton heat hung high up on the ceiling and it was a binks sealed booth. EXPLOSION proof everything when you can.....I am considering building a 24 x 24 garage next yr next to my ''hot rod barn'' for storing vehicles and then as a paint booth. I will have nothing in there except bench and steel cabinet for paint products and a ray-o-vac system for heat and a dayton exhaust fan with filter. The space needed is actually 2 car --need to open doors and paint on a set of horses a hood or a panel and the room is handy. When done,unmask and detail and pull vehicle out and wash the whole garage out and squeegie the water out and clean cobwebs and then store other vehicles in there when done. Hope you the best-and stay safe!!! Bill

 

Don't forget a breathing air system is required.

I found when looking into this three years ago that the paint shops can get the paint materials for half of what I could, sometimes even less, which amounted to almost a $400 difference. That went a long ways towards the cost of them painting it. Since then paint prices have skyrocketed, so it's probably more true now. In some states you need a business license to buy paints (VOC laws).

 

After I read this mr Jimi was right I was vague. So here I go with the specifics. I don't plan on painting anything until the late spring, I have lots of fad work on the frame and plenty to do on the body, just not the cash to get the parts I need to finish the rear suspension etc.(Wife went nuts this christmas)so I can rough finish the frame. I'm doing my resto at the shop where I work(it's a 100'x200' aprox, big enough for 8 locomotives and then some, it's a railroad shop). I have alot of room is what I'm trying to say. I got the ok to set up the paint booth from the owner(my father) and it will be used for more than just my project, and I'm using company money to do this, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. Low cost paint boooth if possible.

I'm trying to think ahead and get the prep work done this winter, so I will have more time this spring and summer.

I have some experience in painting but never used a booth because the paint jobs I did at work never had to be more than average. Just wait for a nice hot day with no breeze and spray things like heavy equiptment and railcars, always 2 stage paint.

So from what I gathered I need florescent lights all around that won't explode, temp at 75 deg with a heater that won't explode and a ventilation system that won't explode and a good respirator.

I have old florescent lights from an old werehouse, is there anyway to seal them with?? to make them work and what is the temp range I need to spray 75 deg to ?????

Hope these details help, so that you guys have a better picture of what I'm asking.

Ohh and I'll post a pic or two of our steam engine we just finished it will give you an idea of how big the shop is. just give me a minute to get them up.

 

Well the pics aren't uploading, I'll try again later if anyone is interested.

 

Sounds like a great opportunity, nice to have the free space and company funds.

It makes it a little different that you're setting it up in an industrial type setting. You can pretty much do what you want and no one will bother you.

I have another suggestion, check out auctions. Look for either an auction at a body shop or a place that does some type on industrial painting. I was just at an auction that had two really nice booths. Everything was there that you needed. I didn't stick around to see how much they went for but I'm sure they went for a fraction of the cost of a new one. If you can't find one at an auction see if you can go to a body shop and see how theirs is set up.

 

I have done what Bob did several times. I have a natural gas stove (w/blower) in the garage I used to paint in. Heat it up hot, shut off stove, open window, turn on fans, paint....when the fog clears, shut off fans, close window, and light the stove again.

I am lucky I didn't blow the whole place up.

Not the way to go at all.

 

We do a lot of dumb things when we're young and invincible. Add a wife, a couple of kids and other adult responsibilities and chance taking starts to dwindle. But boy, it sure was fun!

 

No wife, no kids, just medical bills.

I would be painting my truck in that garage, but it is in the city limits and I can't get away with it anymore.

I would use a different heat source of course. LOL