Greg,
I've painted three LBCs in my garage so far. Each one is painted with
DuPont Centauri Enamel. (In N. Calif.,can only be purchased in Yuba City as
far as I know. lax air quality rules in Yuba County)
I bought 10 cheap 8' 2"x2"s and suspended the four corner posts from the
rafters using cardboard and a staple gun. I then laid the rest on the floor
between the corner posts to create a complete perimeter on the ground of
2x2s. Triangles of cardboard make good gussets for assembly with a staple
gun. I step into the middle of the skeleton box and unfold a brand new,
very large clear plastic tarp. With scissors, duct tape and staples, I
enclose the entire cube, top and bottom. At the corner that is near the
side door of the garage, I cut a hole that fits the box fan and then tape it
to the hole aiming out the side door. The front of the booth is the face
that is nearest the garage door. I cut two holes in the front face of the
booth to fit large paper home furnace filters which are taped in place like
the fan. When painting, the garage door is opened a foot or so to let in
fresh air without being too obvious about what you're up to. If you like
your next door neighbor, you might take a third filter and tape it to the
outside face of the box fan. This will get most of the overspray that gets
sucked out of the booth.
You now have a large plastic box with one outlet(fan) and two large filtered
inlets. I bring all my stuff into the booth and staple the edge shut
behind me. I always use an appropriate respirator with carbon cannisters.
A head sock, goggles and disposable gloves are good as well. I always have
a handful of 'S' hooks and some screw eyes run up through the top of the
booth into the garage rafters at the outer edge of the booth space. This
lets me hang the wings, valences and other bits for painting and leaves room
in the middle for the carcass.
DO NOT reuse the plastic sheet. I did the bugeye in Primrose yellow after I
had done the persimmon Traveler, and flecks of year-old persimmon brushed
off as I moved around in the booth and ended up in the yellow. If you go
over my whole car, you will find two or three timy orange dots in the paint.
For that reason, always use a new tarp!
When you're done, it takes about 20 minutes to tear it down, toss the tarp
and lean the 2x2s back outside by the fireplace.
Glen
> Howdy all,
>
>
> What have people done in regards to paint booths? It seems after doing
> some Googling, that the PVC pipe shrouded by 8 or 10 mil plastic sheeting
is
> a good way to go for a one time paint job, and has the ability to be
stored
> for future use. I was thinking of taking this design just a step further,
> and trying to rig a way to make it a downdraft system. I've never a
> real-life downdraft booth up close, so I'm wondering what the difference
is,
> besides having the fans suck air through the floor, under the car. If
> that's the case, wouldn't some sort of simple flooring, 2X6s with plywood,
> then metal put over the plywood seem to work? Then cutouts could be made
> for the fans to be mounted in the floor. Or is there more to downdraft
> booths than I'm thinking?
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