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June 12, 2018
Temporary Paint Booth
Well,
it was time to paint the outer panels of the car. There are eight
of them--four wings, two doors, and the boot and bonnet lids.
I'll do these in three or four groups, mainly due to space
constraints.
In
my shade-tree restoration operation, I don't mind spraying primer out
doors in the open. Primer is pretty forgiving of the occasional
bug or other debris that gets stuck in the paint. Top coat paint,
on the other hand, is a little more finicky about trash falling on the
surface. I have sprayed small parts with color coat in the
garage, but for larger panels, the overspray gets on everything. What I needed was a spray booth.
For
my tub a couple of years ago, I built a temporary spray booth from PVC
pipe frame covered with plastic sheeting. When I was finished
with it, the pipe went to Habitat for Humanity.
The
PVC booth worked fine, but I needed something a little more flexible.
I needed something that would be easy to set up and tear down,
and that wouldn't take too much room to store between uses.
What
I landed on was a modular, panelized booth. The panels were just
1 x 2 wood frames covered with 5 mil plastic sheeting. I found it
was much cheaper to rip the 1 x 2s from standard construction lumber
rather than buying 1 x 2 strips. I think the quality was better,
too.
The panels were built on the garage floor. I set up enough of the frames to make sure the garage door would clear.
The
booth is ten feet wide. The length is determined by how many
6-foot wall and ceiling sections are used. I made four wall and
two ceiling sections, so I could make a 10 x 6 or a 10 x 12
booth. If I made another set of sections, I could do a 10 x 18.
Maybe even a 10 x 24 if I rearranged a few things in the garage.
Then reinforced the corners and covered the frames with plastic.
The
panels are very light. I can easily lift the 6 x 10 ceiling
panels over my head to slide into plce. Leaned up against a wall,
the collapsed booth only takes a 12 ft x 9 inch footptrint.
The
booth goes up really quickly. Now that I've done it a few times,
I can set it up or tear it down in around 30 minutes. I put a
door and a couple of furnace filters in one end, and an exhaust fan in
the other. Each joint between panels is secured with a couple of
drywall screws. Lighting was provided by the garage lights through the clear seiling.
I extended the exhaust out a ways so I could lower the garage door on top of it.
Even 10 x 12 is a little cramped inside with two rear wings and the boot lid hung vertically.
After this first trial run, I think I can easily setup the booth, paint a few panels, and tear down the booth all in one day.
Cost of the booth materials was only around $60, I think.
Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com
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