Hey everyone,

I just finished stripping my 88 camaro and now planning to start doing some body work.

Does anyone paint their own cars, or do you guys take them to a professional shop?

The more I've been thinking about it, the more I like the idea of building a paint booth inside my garage and just doing the whole thing there.

Besides the legal issues (and something tells me there are some in NY), do you guys see why this is a crazy idea and will never work?

I am also planning to use the booth while prepping the body so the blasting media does not cover every inch of my garage. For color, my car is going to be black which is supposed to be the easiest color to paint and repair so that gives me a little bit of confidence in DIY job.

Comments?

P.S. I saw a website where a guy painted a plane by himself. He used PVC piping and construction grade clear plastic to build the booth. Looked awesome and he did a job with the plane

 

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Besides the legal issues (and something tells me there are some in NY), do you guys see why this is a crazy idea and will never work?

Legality.... Coming from most of the guys on this forum who are running less then stock engines and gutted cats... I would not worry about it.


I am also planning to use the booth while prepping the body so the blasting media does not cover every inch of my garage.

Good call, I did not do this and now there is red paint and metal residue all over... Oh well. Just make sure you give it a real good cleaning before you paint.

For color, my car is going to be black which is supposed to be the easiest color to paint and repair so that gives me a little bit of confidence in DIY job.

Wrong! Black is the hardest to paint (not counting metallics and candies). Every imperfections shows. But, that is not stopping me and it should not stop you. But, white is the easiest if you arent up for the challenge

I saw a website where a guy painted a plane by himself. He used PVC piping and construction grade clear plastic to build the booth. Looked awesome and he did a job with the plane

May or may not be overkill. I just used painter's plastic and hung it from my garage. I did not bother making an actual booth. If you want to do that then go ahead. Like I said before, make sure you change out or clean the plastic really good between prep work and painting.

Also, remember to black out any windows that may or may not be in your garage. Because if sunlight shines on one part of the car it will make it dry faster and will have a different shade to it then the rest of the car.

Also, lock your garage. So your parents/wife/children dont come home and open up your garage from outside forgetting that you are in there painting.


Hopefully more people will chip in their 2 cents. Just remember that painting is not at all an easy task and don't feel discouraged, people are gonna call you crazy and make you second guess, but just keep on trucking.

 

Its a decent idea, especially for someone who loves to do diy work, though with black ANYTHING that gets on it during the paint process is gonna show, and you may end up spending more in materials and equipment than taking it somewhere for a decent paintjob, if i was doing it at home i'd definetly build a "booth" using the pvc idea for a frame and plastic sheeting for the walls, some box fans for ventilation and home a/c filters with maybe a layer of foam to protect the inlet air.

 

You can't use any old box fan or lights. You need stuff that is sealed electrically otherwise you run the risk of igniting the paint fumes while you are painting. Oh and don't forget you need a resprator and cartridges adequate for painting.

 

Black IS the easiest color to paint! Showing imperfections is all in the body work! Painting is an easy task if you take your time! If your confident in your body work, just relax and practice makes perfect! The reason black is one of the easiest is beacuse you can basicly panel paint, no blending involved which means that you can paint a piece at a time w/ matching problems! This really saves time!

 

Thanks guys, If before I was not too sure, now I am definitely doing it.

About the fans and electric stuff:

The guy with the plane put 8' regular lights around the perimeter of the entire booth, on the outside where there is no fumes (or at least shouldn't be) I figured I can do that and maybe seal the lights in their casing with something like plastiglass and silicone.

Not sure about the fan. If you put the fan (or two) on the intake side, not exhaust, then there should be no fumes going through the fan. And it will also create positive pressure in the booth so any small holes will seep the air out, not in. That's less contamination right there. And then like you said, I would have filters before the fan, between the fan and the booth and out the booth.

I read most of "Painters Handbook" It's got a picture of a camaro in the front facing forward, incase anyone seen it in a book store. The book said black was the easiest and white being second easiest. Dust and crap shows up really good on black, but the actual painting process is not where most of the pain of black car is. If anyone disagreed with my statement, you'll have to contact the author, I am just citing the source.

In either case, I am not doing black because it is easy. I am doing it because I love the color. So far every car I've had (accept for 11th highschool grade geo metro) was black. IMO black cars look amazing when cleaned and waxed.

Thanks again, this is all the encouragement I needed. When I got the paintbooth up, I'll make sure to post a few pictures

 

where in ny are you, i can came by and help you out, if you wait, i can even use my body shop to paint it for ya....

 

Thanks for the offer, Charged350, something tells me it wouldn't be that easy. Rochester is about 6 hour drive from NYC going NW. It's almost in the middle between buffalo and syracuse.

The car right now has no engine, drivetrain or suspension. At this point it is a just a body (most of it) on 6 jackstands. The plan is to do the underside first, then build up suspension. Roll it out, build the booth and roll it back in.

But hey if you are ever in the area, definitely stop by. I could use as much advice as possible. In fact it is probably good to know a real body guy when doing this kinda stuff. Maybe I'll bug you with few more questions one we get this thing started.

What do you think about my paintbooth setup idea?

 

I painted my car this past christmas using a booth I built in my garage. I used 1"x2" lumber for the frame and stapled painter's plastic to it. On one end I made a frame to hold a 20"X20" furnace filter and put a box fan outside set on low. At the other end I made a frame to hold another box fan also set on low and a plastic "tunnel" to direct the fumes out of the garage. In the booth I used 4 250 watt halogen lights at the 4 corners plus the overhead lights.

Remember to wet your floor before pulling the car in for painting.

 

Morley,

Where the fan/lights any special (i.e. spark proof), or did you just use regular items?

That's one thing I am not sure about. A light bulb can get pretty hot and you read all these explosion warnings. Just want to make sure my garage (or myself) doesn't become a statistic in one of those warnings.

You got any pictures. If you do, I would love to see any and all of them.

 

Regular 20" window box fans. The electric motors in the fans are brushless, no sparks. With the fans running there wasn't much if any vapor in the booth. For lights I used a regular sealed halogen (bulb behind a glass plate) so if the bulb blows it won't make an exposed spark. The lights aren't "explosive safe" but will work in a booth with a moving air supply. It isn't good to have a vapor build up in your booth for other reasions as well.

No pisc of the booth, sorry. It was just a wood frame work for the walls with diagional braces in the corners to help keep it rigid and the painter's plastic stapled to it and duct tape sealing the seams where the walls met. The walls were constructed as seperate panels and lifted into place and duct taped at the corners.

The next VERY important thig you need is a respirator. A standard filter respirator is no good, they don't make a filter that is OSHA rated for use with Isocyanates. You need a fresh air (forced air) respirator with a hood, gloves and a good disposable paint suit.

 

Go for it, painting my cars in the garage has become a common thing with me, and I didn't build a booth to do it in either.

And don't get freaked-out about getting dirt in the paint, that's what 2000 grit is for Just pick a good day to do it, with low humidity and low winds. And make sure you have a GOOD water trap, dryers, and filters, to spray with.

 

If you can get slightly positive pressure in your booth, that would be good...real booths are designed that way, so that any slight air leaks will blow air out and not in, keeping contamination down. I'd be very careful with fans and lighting, though..it doesn't take much of a spark to cause an explosion, esp if you're using a non-HVLP type gun (more overspray). I used to work for the world's largest paint booth manufacturer, and all of our booths had flourescent lighting built into the walls, sealed behind plexiglass. I'm going to build a home booth with similar lighting later this summer. I'm going to use fans that are rated explosion proof, since my booth will be used often. The more lights you can get, the better. I'm not sure that lighting will be adequate in the average garage through plastic sheeting, which typically is not perfectly clear. Halogen lights create a lot of heat, so be careful.

A few more words of advice though...don't prep your car in the booth! Don't sand in the booth, or do anything that will create dust. It WILL wind up in your paintjob later. For filtration, try to get real paintbooth filters (ask your local bodyshop who services their booths...they'll sell you small quantities of filter material). Furnace filters are near useless. A good paint booth filter will filter to 10 microns, smaller than visible to the naked eye. Also, get a paint suit of some type, cover your shoes (all this stuff is available as disposable items), and wear rubber gloves. Most contamination comes from the painter himself. Finally, wash the car well with dish soap and water, dry it thoroughly, and wipe it down a couple times with prep (I use maxoff, which are presaturated towels like baby wipes). tack it a couple times, and it'll be ready to paint.

 

Hey LT1guy, thanks for the detailed response.

In terms of lighting, I was thinking of using regular 4 foot fluorecent lights, but have then everywhere along the perimeter of the booth. Probably 2 rows. One row along the floor and the other one about 4 feet from the ground. But put them on the outside so there'll be no fumes. This would be in addition to the lighting my garage already has.

I looked at spark-free fans, and they are rather expensive, that's why I was exploring an option of usuing regular fan on the intake, so all the paint fumes would go the other way, not toward the fan. Wouldn't that work? Do you know of any places that sell spark-free fans for a relatively decent price?

And thanks for the filter advice, I might just do what you suggested. Plus, my nephew's friend just got a job in a body shop, so maybe he'll be able to help me out.

And I the two guns I have are HVLP, so I guess that would help a little.

-- Dennis

 

Ideally, you would want fans on both sides...not just to draw fresh air in, but to give the fumes and overspray a way to escape so you aren't working in a cloud. I haven't explored the cost too much yet, but a good source for fans, electric motors, etc that are explosion proof is Grainger. McMaster-Carr might be of help also. A booth service company might be able to supply used fans (from an old booth) at a decent cost. That's the route I'm going to take, since I know the guy who does service in the Atlanta area.