Spray Booth's vs. Painting outside

[xpfevx]

I want to do a little touch up on my car and I having that done professionally is very expensive.. so I wanted to get a spray gun and do it myself. does painting in a spray booth really make that big of a difference? I've been looking for comparison photos but cant find any

[Dane]

You can get good results in your garage if you do the proper prep work and keep the dust down.

[Robj80]

If you paint it yourself spray your surrounding area with water before you start painting. It will keep the dust down significantly. My girlfriends uncle paints in his garage. It's very dusty in there and he just hoses the floor and it works great.

No matter what you do it will not be as good as bringing it to a professional who has all the right equipment and in the right environment.

[xpfevx]

got any photo's of DIY paint jobs?

[Indatg20]

i would not recommend painting it outside at least in a garage.. Just try to get the surrounding area where you are going to be working clean.. just a question how big is the touch up you are trying to do? And do you have any experience in this? cause if you don't i hope you have experience buffing

[1ders]

buy some plastic sheeting and make a spray booth in your garage no dust perfectly clean environment

[Dane]

^Watch an episode or two of Dexter if you need points on how to make a perfect paint booth out of plastic sheeting.

[p10der]

the booth is the least of your worries you need a nice gun the right pressure supplied to the gun the right paint.

[OG20]

Being that I've mostly painted outside for like 7 years and recently have access to a paint booth I guess I'm well qualified to chime in on this. VS's there's absolutely no competition spray booth hands down. It's like comparising regular clubing to VIP/private booth/bottle service, It's just a way better experience, hard to go back and like most luxuries can break the bank. Since you write "I have done that professionally" I'm guessing you've only used booths. It's not just the booth that's nice but everything with come it like a prep room, air filter system so you don't have to huff you last brain cell away and is greener plus the lighting is excellent. With some overly bright outdoors and dark indoors sometimes you can't see you overlaps and just use the force. When you're at home most likely your compressor will have to play catchup or is on the borderline of minimum cfm for a decent spray gun. Many people have a huge standing tank compressor but it still puts out barely 9cfm when a good full size gun will be in the low double digits. It will have the air reserve but not enough cfm to properly atomize the paint. Yes a lower psi gun will increase the cfm but those guns ie: Sata RP, Iwata LPH400, etc. will set you back at least 5 bills gun alone not including cup and regulator. I have a smaller Cambell Hausfeld compressor but then I lucked out when my pops picked up used Devillbliss 14cfm compressor and now I have weekend access to a real paint booth with a dedicated compressors room. So compresssor + spray gun + moisture pot + adhesion promoters, primer, base, clear will definitly cost more than a couple trips to a professional shop. But if you continue to do parts it will pay back plus the satifaction of doing it yourself. Many paint "Pro's" quality can vary depending on who they are painting for. If its a show car they might go all out for shop recognition and if it's some kid bringing in some kit they may just spray it without properly prepping and you'll find runs and orangepeel. What's nice about doing it yourself is the attention to detail like you can add extra coats of clear to areas that will get hit more like the lip.

You can get good results outdoors it's just a nervewrecking worrying about all the crap in the air getting in the wet paint waiting for it to flash. There's nothing more annoying than prepping something to paint for hrs just to have a bug or leaf land in your clear coat. Theres small dust you can't see that shows up in the clear but that can be cut n buffed out later after it cures. What I suggest is something in between. I dugg though an old laptop and found some pictures of when I resprayed my TE parts like 5 years ago. I picked up a small detail gun for a bike frame and restoring some Impul wheels and figured I'd do my dinged up kit and save some money. Before this I used color matched aerosols or wack syphon sprayers. What I did is kinda odd but had good results is I used one of those Easy-up 10ftx10ft canopies with 4 sided bug screens. This allowed decent lighting, air circulation, regulated the breeze so no gust of wind can mess up my spray pattern and most importantly kept all the pesty bugs and most dust off. I layed some paint tarps on the ground and lightly sprayed them with a water bottle and just camped out in there till the last coat of clear flashed. I doubt I've ever posted these pics enjoy..
Not paint related just showing off my funky painting rig.

Glazing putty and adhesion promoter

SEM Flexible primer

DLO Basecoat Dupont Chromabase IIRC

Clear coats 2k Clear

Tripods converted to hold small parts

Color quality comparison to OEM

And here's the giant booth I use now! It's big enough to paint a double decker bus.


I need to redo my bumpers again QNO definitely dings quicker than DLO plus slamming it to the ground doesn't help either. My car will pretty much be stock again pretty soon until I paint everything, change wheels again etc. Since I have access to the booth I'm planning graduating into a professional gun. Whats funny is this shop only uses crappy Husky and Harbor Freight guns because they just spray marine stuff that doesn't need to be perfect. They just dispose them like gloves. After doing my homework I plan to buy a 1.4 Iwata LPH400 LVX for base and swapping the cap with LV4 which is arguably one of the best for clear. The psi is crazy low like 12-16 which is great so I can use it at home as well. Not as fast as a Satajet but not as air hungry and I like taking my time. I'm excited to do my first car. Hope this helps.

[p10der]

Word.

[G20-Budo]

Wow, great post OG20.. I'm getting ready to paint my TE bumper, side skirts, wing and perhaps hood. Sounds like I've got MORE homework todo. A co-workers has a paint gun, but I don't know what kind?

I've got a 3 car garage, so I could make a small paint booth to do my painting. I also have some decent florescent lighting in my garage, so I'm thinking the light, dust, etc should be ok (I planned to drape plastic between two bays). I'll find out what kind of gun and probably hit you up via PM to get your inputs.

Thanks to the guy that started the thread, and to you OG20 for providing so much good info!

[Aloha20t]

OG20 knows his stuff!! its cool how after learning all my shit in class i see a post on Gnet regarding to them. lol. keep in mind..USE A RESPIRATOR! you dont wanna kill your lungs brah. sata and iwata guns can produce imaculate finishes but it all depends on the painter. do you have any painting experience? ohhh also when painting in your garage becareful no one around your neighborhood is exposed to all the fumes your putting out. you can get a heavy fine and even get arrested if you live in a crowded neighborhood and someone calls/makes a complaint. hosing down the ground helps prevent dust from floating around too. what part exatcly are you touching up?