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Garage Painters....

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spyderdrifter

10+ Year Contributor
5,267
711
Jul 11, 2009
Somewhere in, Colorado
I'm getting a bit tired of waiting for someone to get things ready to have my car brought to them to paint. There's always something new that comes up and "gets in the way". I have seen plenty of members here with their garage built paint booths, and I am wanting to do the same. I know how to paint, I know how to use paint guns ect... , but would like to see pictures of those booths here for ideas. What materials were used? What air compressor capacity did you use? (I was thinking a 20 gal compressor might be enough?) How were the fans set up? What was done for the entry to the booth? Ect.... any ideas or suggestions are welcome. I have a 3 car garage so I do have the space to build this.

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Learn how to wet sand and buff and you can make a paint job done in a windy desert look good

you dont need a very sophisticated setup to get a mint paint job out of it. if this is a one time thing I wouldnt get too crazy

a filtered opening for clean incoming air, an exhaust fan, a carefully hosed down floor, and a clean properly filtered/dried air supply that can keep up-

20 gallon? thats not the spec you should be concerned with exactly but if you mean one of those 20 gallon vertical tank reciprocating piston units( 5-6 CFM), that would be good for painting a car at home once in a while...its just enough..... it being strong enough to maintain no less than roughly 140psi at all times no matter what you throw at it would be ideal and is what matters. Those units cant exactly do that but can work. you dont want to be waiting for it to catch up in the middle of coats. To make it work you might have to pay attention and time things right. It will dog with something like an airboard or DA when you go hard but you could slow down the pace a bit there and make it work.

Milton makes great coelecing filters that work awesome, Ive been getting away with 3 of them off my tanks spread apart in the right places for years on one setup, and have never had air quality issues. A cheap way out on this important part for sure...........dont sleep on this detail. A bulb filter on the gun is cheap insurance too. Dirty air to your gun will cost you time and money.
 
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Ive painted some stuff in the garage. Couple of box fans in the window, and furnace filters on the inlet. No big deal there.

Most important is plenty of light. Like 10x what you think you need, and a good air supply. I have a 5hp 2stage 80gal compressor, and many say that's not really enough. It's 17cfm at 175psi. A smaller compressor will meet the air demand, but it's another issue you need to worry about. Condensation. With a big compressor, the duty cycle is low enough that the tank stays cool, and the moisture in the air has a chance to cendense and drop to the bottom. - you get dry air. With a small compressor, it never shuts off, the tank gets hot, and the water stays evaporated in the air.... No air dryer on the planet fixes that (except a refrigerated one= When you spray, it condenses in the spray, and you can have problems. Iso-clumping is one. Looks like dirt in your paint.

I was having trouble with this, and ended up coiling 50' of copper tube in a 5gal pail, and loaded it with ice water. Then a couple of drops, and boom dry air.

Also if you have not bought any materials, I just became a dealer for a place called southern polyurethanes. Good good stuff.
 
What do you guys mean by wet the floor? Just literally putting water on the floor? What would the reason for this be? If I do this I plan to have plastic on the floor anyway since my house is a rental and don't want over spray on the concrete either.
 
Do not ever wet the floor. Bad bad bad bad!

BAD BAD BAD? Cmon holmes ya gotta give us a scrap more on that one.......

100s........more like 1000s later and never never never an issue........


lets here it dude...............

what did you drip water off the air hose on to the car? I said careful didnt I?? We are talking garage paint jobs, and this is a proven way to to keep dust to the floor if done correct. Its not for everyone, some guys could phuck up a free lunch..........

Is there some type of phenomenon possible that Ive just been lucky enough to never suffer from?

I know your a sharp dude, and have your reasons or whatever, but cant imagine what your gonna come back with.......

in fact I look forward to your reply!
 
What do you guys mean by wet the floor? Just literally putting water on the floor? What would the reason for this be? If I do this I plan to have plastic on the floor anyway since my house is a rental and don't want over spray on the concrete either.

wet the concrete floor and you dont have to cover it, nothing will stick. bonus
 
Wetting the floor brings the humidity up in a paint area. The humidity causes iso-clumping. Basically the when the paint cures its a polymerization reaction. When there is excess humidity you get other reactions too that make like a crystal, and that's the iso clump. Happens in clear and urethane single stage top coats, and the better ones are more sensative to it, due to what it takes to make a long lasting uv stable clear.
It shows up as a tiny white specs that looks like dirt, lots of them. More than you could possibly shake out of the rafters. When you try and sand and buff they won't go away, and they really stick out on a black car.

Don't even blow the place out, give it a nice sweep, and let that settle for hours. Then spray. Remember guys 90% of the dirt that's shows up in a paint job comes from you, or the car itself.
 
First time I sprayed a car panel it was hot, I had the wrong reducer, and the floor was wet. Result, you could peel the paint off the car in big strips. It was setting up in the air before hitting the panel.

Second time through was great.

Light is key, I hung several leds right above the car. If it’s not super bright you can’t see your coverage.


I put up a plastic booth and used a fan with furnace filters to blow air in and keep positive pressure to avoid sucking in dust.
 
I painted mine outside under a easy up, put plastic sheeting against three of the four walls for light and went about it.
 
Its definitely not for everyone and remember we are talking garage at home paint jobs here.

If it wasnt for the title of this thread, Id have never mentioned this tactic.

If you are using so much water to where you are creating excess humidity that is still present and effecting things while you are actually spraying, too much water.


its been awhile since I did it this way now, again- going back to garage painting here- but with air flowing, I would gently pour out a 5, squeegee it out and not leave puddles anywhere. you dont want actual water in puddles all over the place

sorry if youve had those issues man, must have sucked to deal with for sure so could understand where your coming from
 
Wetting the floor down is fine depending on where you live. I prefer it, it keeps the dust and dirt down and brings the humidity up a little, which, when you're living in a place like Colorado that has 0% humidity, is a good thing.

If you're in Houston or something with 90% humidity, I'd probably skip wetting the floor down.

If you're building a plastic enclosed booth, (floor and all) then obviously no need to wet the floor down.

And yes, the comments about light are key. Add lots of lights, more lights and more lights.
 
He actually lives maybe an hr away from me :D

Didn't I buy my wheels from you? Got the OEM stockers from you if I remember correctly. : D

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^^Painted in my garage, never cut and buffed, didn't need it. ^_^
 
came back to beat this horse a bit more..........gave it some thought

to say wetting the floor is bad is just wrong.

heres why-

these products have a humidity threshold that should not be exceeded for best results.

what should have been said is something like " If you are near the humidity threshold of the product, be aware that wetting the floor could push you over."

have heard of humidity causing issues in the 15 years ive been at it but never directly blamed on a wet floor
 
So that everyone knows, I will not be wetting the floor. Not because of opinions on it being good or bad. It makes sense to me at least, but rather because of the house. It's a rental, and me being new to doing my own paint booth, I'm not willing to chance getting any spray on the floor and get b!tched at for it or worse. So no matter what, I am putting plastic under the car/booth. Still welcome all the info though.
 
This question will always have different answers depending on who is asked.
When I painted mine I built a booth out of PVC and plastic sheeting along with some 2x4s in places it needed extra strength.

Mine was a somewhat down draft cross flow designed sorts with 3 box fans on the top of one end that the support was hinged so I could fine tune the angle of the airflow. Through cheap furnace filters the outlet was an old screen door so I could control air flow through the booth. It was pressurized.
I used my 60 gallon compressor then I also had a 26gal tank that I used a short 25 ft air hose with 3 inline driers and high flow air fittings on it and my gun. I did wet the floor because I was painting in the winter my garage is heated so basically zero humidity 70 degrees.
It was my first ever paint job and I've gotten alot of compliments on it. But I did screw up a few times and had to re do some areas.

The best advice I have is vacuum everything with a good vacuum with a good filter. Kick the fans on in the booth about 30 mins to an hour before you want to spray. Go in and and blow off the panels that your gonna paint with light air I like to use my gun without paint in it then go out mix my paint then keep a tack rag inside the booth and wipe the panels 2 to 3 times. Doing it this way I never had any dirt in my paint.
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