Temporary paint booth ideas?

[gtae07]

I've resigned myself to painting my airplane at home since nobody seems interested in my business. Therefore I need to figure out a place to do it (open air is probably out due to bugs and stuff from trees, if nothing else).

Anyone have suggestions on making up a temporary paint booth? One option I'm looking at is a "temporary garage" (basically a pop-up canopy with sides) and ventilating it somehow, or getting one of those inflatable paint booths. It may need to go up/down a couple times since I don't think I'd be able to knock it all out in one shot due to weather/work/family--probably have to do wings one day, tail surfaces another, fuselage over two days, etc or something like that.

 

[karoc]

Not on that scale but I built one out of 2x2’s and plastic sheeting. Moved it around covering area that going paint. Out of curiosity what kind paint are you going to use?

 

[zmotorsports]

The last few smaller jobs I've done I have been able to back outside of my shop and complete without too awful much trash in the paint. I miss having the ability to use the small shop at my parent's farm where I used to do all my paint & body work but that ship has sailed.

I have been contemplating building another street rod/hot rod and trying to decide what to do for paint as I refuse to hire anyone else to do it. I stumbled across these portable blow up paint booths that look intriguing and figured when the time comes I may try one.

Here is a link to the ones I've been looking at.

VEVOR Inflatable Paint Booth | VEVOR US

Get free shipping on qualified Inflatable Paint Booth in the Automotive Department at lowest price and fastest delivery in 2 days.

www.vevor.com

 

[Bondo]

I've resigned myself to painting my airplane at home since nobody seems interested in my business. Therefore I need to figure out a place to do it (open air is probably out due to bugs and stuff from trees, if nothing else).

Anyone have suggestions on making up a temporary paint booth? One option I'm looking at is a "temporary garage" (basically a pop-up canopy with sides) and ventilating it somehow, or getting one of those inflatable paint booths. It may need to go up/down a couple times since I don't think I'd be able to knock it all out in one shot due to weather/work/family--probably have to do wings one day, tail surfaces another, fuselage over two days, etc or something like that.

Ayuh,..... Paint it outdoors, then wet sand, 'n polish for the final finish,......

Fly it to an airport, 'n rent hanger space,..... could partition off a paint booth with poly hung from the rafters,....

 

[tester19]

For years I have built and used a temporary paint booth made from 1-1/4" PVC fittings. They are a tight fit so I do not glue the joints but use 2" wide clear tape to hold things together. Since there is now a large industry making PVC furniture any type or style of fitting you need is available. This way I can take it all apart down to straight pipes so storage in the rafters of my shop takes little room.

My next idea was to keep the booth intact and just raise the entire thing off the floor and into the air when not needed BUT I only have 15.5' of height. One thing I did different is I made the man door a flap of plastic sheeting with Velcro strips. Now no hinges and the door is just part of the wall.

Here is one of many places that show plans and fittings.

PVC Paint Booth

Lots of ways to do this and I use cheap box fans attached to the side of the booth to make it a positive pressure booth. That way everything is pushed OUT of the booth rather than sucked INTO the booth. I tape cheap furnace filters to the fans although I did price and find a roll of filter material made for paint booths. Cheaper and you cut it to size. Downside is I had to buy a pretty big roll of filter material so I need to store it between jobs. Again it's very light so easy to put it up in the rafters out of the way.



The only problem I see is yours will be a VERY large booth and I don't have any experience beyond making booths for cars and trucks??
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[gtae07]

I forgot to note... the airplane is still being built and it is in pieces right now (i.e. the wings are not attached, etc). A standard automotive booth would work fine size-wise. I want to go ahead and do the painting at home before I take it to the airport for final assembly and testing.

That's why I was saying I would do the wings one day, fuselage another day or two, etc

 

[cvairwerks]

Probably the easiest, would be one of the inflatable booths out there. Set up, paint, once part are dry, deflate til the next day. I'm currently watching for a small bench type booth to paint small parts.

 

[zmotorsports]

I forgot to note... the airplane is still being built and it is in pieces right now (i.e. the wings are not attached, etc). A standard automotive booth would work fine size-wise. I want to go ahead and do the painting at home before I take it to the airport for final assembly and testing.

That's why I was saying I would do the wings one day, fuselage another day or two, etc

Not sure why, but that is what I was assuming as it was or at least could be broken down. In our old neighborhood I had a neighbor who built a small~ish airplane in his garage and then used tarps and PVC to makeshift a booth in his backyard in which he painted it. It actually turned out quite nice as I helped show him how to cut & buff the paint afterwards.

 

[Drill Sergeant Arc]

I did a plastic sheeting booth once in the 80’s and had a box fan to exhaust but lighting became poor as the booth filled with vapor. Lighting is crucial to get good results. I’ve seen cars done outside and wet sanded that looked better.

 

[DGersic]

I saw a guy sent up an old camping tent in his garage to use as a small paint booth. Don’t think one big enough for your plane will be cheap, but you never know what might turn up on Craigslist or Marketplace.

 

[DGersic]

For years I have built and used a temporary paint booth made from 1-1/4" PVC fittings. They are a tight fit so I do not glue the joints but use 2" wide clear tape to hold things together. Since there is now a large industry making PVC furniture any type or style of fitting you need is available. This way I can take it all apart down to straight pipes so storage in the rafters of my shop takes little room.

My next idea was to keep the booth intact and just raise the entire thing off the floor and into the air when not needed BUT I only have 15.5' of height. One thing I did different is I made the man door a flap of plastic sheeting with Velcro strips. Now no hinges and the door is just part of the wall.

Here is one of many places that show plans and fittings.

PVC Paint Booth

Lots of ways to do this and I use cheap box fans attached to the side of the booth to make it a positive pressure booth. That way everything is pushed OUT of the booth rather than sucked INTO the booth. I tape cheap furnace filters to the fans although I did price and find a roll of filter material made for paint booths. Cheaper and you cut it to size. Downside is I had to buy a pretty big roll of filter material so I need to store it between jobs. Again it's very light so easy to put it up in the rafters out of the way.



The only problem I see is yours will be a VERY large booth and I don't have any experience beyond making booths for cars and trucks??
.
.
.

Nice. You could have used a zip wall door for this, too.

 

[nadogail]

I built a small Paint Booth for furniture from the cardboard boxes I collected from a local bicycle shop, EMT Conduit and Painters Plastic.

 

[ArcReactorKC]

This is what I had to do a few years ago. I think I paid $200 for the "wedding tent"



I ended up with gorilla tape on the seams and a furnace filter/box fan set up

 

[niget2002]

I love my inflatable booth!

Mine is a lot smaller that what you'd need as I only paint motorcycle parts, but it's awesome. Spring for the elephant truck exhaust and hook up a large fan to **** the fumes out. Mine is small enough I can set it up inside my shop. I also rigged up a PVC skeleton so I can let all the air out when I'm done and let the parts sit inside the booth to dry.

 

[gahrajmahal]

12 ft. x 20 ft. Truck/SUV Portable Garage

Amazing deals on this 12Ft X 20Ft Truck/Suv Portable Garage at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

I used this to paint our MGB

 

[TriumphFan]

I used plastic sheets taped to my carport when I painted the CJ5. It was a military theme so was not too concerned about dust. Came out pretty well.

 

[rattle_snake]

I would skip the effort to build/buy/setup/clean/ventilate and instead spend it on the paint job itself, outside. Pick the right day/time/shade and be patient.

 

[NDJ]

What kind of paint do you use on that ? how toxic ? how long to dry ?

 

[gtae07]

I would skip the effort to build/buy/setup/clean/ventilate and instead spend it on the paint job itself, outside. Pick the right day/time/shade and be patient.

Unfortunately that's probably not an option; I need something to keep bugs and **** off and contain theoverspray. There are trees close by and bugs are ubiquitous here, and there's no such thing as a day without wind.

What kind of paint do you use on that ? how toxic ? how long to dry ?

Standard automotive urethane, with all the precautions.

 

[PCMusicGuy]

The temporary garage tent with some extra sealing and lots of light fixtures is what my coworker has used to paint his Pitts. It worked out pretty well.

 

[billspit]

I build a frame out of used PVC well casing I got from the company I worked for. I used 4 mil poly sheeting I got from an asbestos abatement company I had worked with years earlier. I put filters in one end and a box fan in the other end. It wasn't great, but it did the job. It did have a problem with static.

 

[PoorUB]

I section off a portion of my garage. I have cable run across the garage and hang a plastic "curtain". I keep all the suff I don't want painted on the other side. There is a window I can open to keep fresh air in that area. I have a couple furnace fans I set under the overhead door that I open 6-8 inches, and blow air outside. I block off the rest of the opening with cardboard.

Depending on the season I may get a bug or two, but it is much better than painting outside.

 

[cliffcharb]

We built a simple 2x4 framed up structure with plastic sheathing. 36" fan & a couple filters.
Painted a couple cars in it. Took it down but still have the framed walls stashed away.

 

[gummycarbs]

Here's a small booth I built several years ago to paint a motorcycle. It was mostly made from 2x2. I built each wall on the ground, then propped it up, screwed them together, wrapped the whole thing in polyethylene and then used 1x2 strips to clamp the polyethylene in place (staples ripped out too easily). By far the biggest problem was the roof. There was a light rain shower one night and the next morning the roof was badly bowed in and full of water. I would advise either one of those portable carports or corrugated fiberglass for roof duty.

I started with one exit fan, but later added a second one. The fan was protected with a filter. I found that the cheap fiber filters worked well enough and were very cheap.
For the intake, I used more lightweight filters. I wasn't concerned with dust as much as I was with pollen, small leaves, dandelion puffballs, and dog fur.


Initially, I just taped the filter in place. Later, I added uprights along with the second filter and fan:


This worked great for a base/clearcoat project. A few years later, I painted my Land Cruiser in the driveway with no protection aside from wetting down the concrete. That worked surprisingly well, but I wouldn't even attempt it if I was using clearcoat.

 

[tjansson]

I built this out of 2x4s, 1x4s for cross bracing, and a roll of plastic sheet. I made it so the width of the booth was a little under the width of the sheet so the "roof" was one piece. 2 box fans and 2 big furnace filters. Self adhesive zipper for the door. Use screws and it's easy to take down and repurpose the lumber.

 

[like2wheel]

For years I have built and used a temporary paint booth made from 1-1/4" PVC fittings. They are a tight fit so I do not glue the joints but use 2" wide clear tape to hold things together. Since there is now a large industry making PVC furniture any type or style of fitting you need is available. This way I can take it all apart down to straight pipes so storage in the rafters of my shop takes little room.

My next idea was to keep the booth intact and just raise the entire thing off the floor and into the air when not needed BUT I only have 15.5' of height. One thing I did different is I made the man door a flap of plastic sheeting with Velcro strips. Now no hinges and the door is just part of the wall.

Here is one of many places that show plans and fittings.

PVC Paint Booth

Lots of ways to do this and I use cheap box fans attached to the side of the booth to make it a positive pressure booth. That way everything is pushed OUT of the booth rather than sucked INTO the booth. I tape cheap furnace filters to the fans although I did price and find a roll of filter material made for paint booths. Cheaper and you cut it to size. Downside is I had to buy a pretty big roll of filter material so I need to store it between jobs. Again it's very light so easy to put it up in the rafters out of the way.



The only problem I see is yours will be a VERY large booth and I don't have any experience beyond making booths for cars and trucks??
.
.
.

A lot of good info here, I'll just add to also have fans for exhausting the overspray too. Just not as many as on the intake. The goal is clean air movement with a slight positive pressure. Keeps the air clear & the overspray from dropping back down on the project.

Whatever you do, don't search this fourm for sberry's posts on this topic

 

[TriumphFan]

I like these ideas. I bet you could find a used stand-alone 10x20 shelter and add the sides using clear plastic. When you are done, just trash it.

 

[thammel]

In 1985 I painted my TR6 in the driveway. Not however I used acrylic lacquer paint. It dries extremely quickly.

 

[walrus]

I plan on a Harbor Freight tent, mill felt on the ground, not sure about ventilation yet. I do have a live air mask so I don't have to worry about breathing. I'm probably going to spray single stage enamel.

 

[58Yeoman]

Back in the early 2000's, I visited a car wash in one of the mid western states, maybe MO or KS, I don't remember. The end stall was made into a paint booth, and the owner charged X amount of dollars for so long a time. The owner hauled off the papers, etc.

 

[gtae07]

mill felt on the ground

Good point, I'll need something to put down over the grass that hopefully won't kill it too quickly but that won't result in the overspray easily flaking off and making more debris.

 

[larry4406]

mill felt on the ground

? WTF is mill felt?

 

[walrus]

? WTF is mill felt?

Its what pulp(for paper) is drained on. About 1/4 inch thick, made of some kind of plastic and porous but you can't see thru it. I live in what used to be a paper mill town. They used to change out the belt of mill felt and would end up for sale. I have a bunch of it. Works great for keep weeds out of the garden.

Components For Every Challenge: Wholesale paper mill used press felt - Alibaba.com

Find the right paper machinery parts at Alibaba.com. Restore your paper mill used press felt to full working order with blades, springs, rollers, and other essential components.

www.alibaba.com

 

[hans109h]

The idea of temporary is something to consider. When I had the need I ended up just doing some standard wall framing using 2x3 lumber with studs 24" on center. With this concept I could make the walls and length I wanted, at at the end of the day I could just unscrew them all and be left with a pile of lumber I could use for something else. I see others mentioning 2x2 construction, but I never find quality 2x2's and they would probably go right into the burn pile when complete. My scrap 2x3's went from being my paint booth to being my gantry crane. Who knows what will be next. The cost difference between 2x2 and 2x3 wasn't much. As for PVC, I think you'll be much less likely to find a way to repurpose a pile of it, plus it doesn't store well (fittings too), compared to lumber, but to each their own.

Frame it up, wrap it, box fans.

Hans