Paint setups and suggestions

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IrocRam

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Apr 6, 2016
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Location
Phoenix, Az
Ram Year
1997
Engine
5.2
What I am looking for is ideas on paint booths or something of the equivalent. I don't plan on painting the ram I have now, but the next one I buy I imagine I will at some point. I also am going to repaint my 88 camaro after I do an LS swap in the next year or 2. I am going to potentially be repainting a friend's car soon, and maybe another one of my cars, so the need for some type of setup has become enough where I legitimately need to look into it. I painted the engine bay of my 87 Iroc around march earlier this year (then I sold it) and the fumes really were not bad from it. When me and a buddy painted my 88 a year ago outside on his driveway, it seemed much worse. Pretty much all painting jobs we do at his house because he lives outside of the city in an area where people live far apart and everybody has a bunch of land. I live in the city, where houses are pretty crammed together.

I am trying to figure out some type of setup that can be moved or broken down with not too much difficulty. I saw online last year in my area somebody selling a bunch of panels they made that were in their garage, and at the top of some of them were I think something called HEPA filters, and he said they worked great. He set them up in his garage. I want to avoid fumes as much as possible. I don't care if it is outside or inside. I am moving in about a month and a half, so I don't know yet what my housing situation will be exactly, but, I am hoping to find another house with an RV gate that I can fit at least one vehicle behind, and have a garage deep enough to park my camaro in. I am used to just going to my buddy's house and painting whatever I want and not worrying about the fumes. Being in the city though, i fear there will be complaints. I think I will probably be ok if I go slow, because when I did the engine bay of my iroc I didn't notice any fumes inside my house or even outside much.

Just curious to see what people are doing for their setup. It would be nice to have something with a roof over it. When we painted my 88, it turned out flawless. I didn't do as much body work as I did, but the paint laid down nice and so did the clear coat. And right when we were on the last coat of clear on the last panel, it started raining. So we had to rush to push it in the garage, and then we had to try and fix it. You can still kind of see water spots in it. I think it looks pretty good though.
 

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avantiguy

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Bay City, Mi
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The problem you will have with anything other than a quality booth is dust and bugs. Particularly bugs. When I painted the 54 Stude I used an inexpensive screened in canopy from the local big box store.

A few days before I started painting, I hung several fly strips in the enclosure and stayed out. You'll be surprised at the number of bugs you will collect over that time. Then waited for a calm day, moistened the pavement under the car and shot it.

Had a small number of dust particles but you can't sand spots out of the Blitz Black and the car looks darn good.

54K011.jpg

When I did the Avanti last year, I did it inside the pole barn. Before I painted. I put a screen over the large and small door, hung plastic sheet on the ceiling over the car and covered the floor with plastic sheet and fresh cardboard from large appliances. Again hung fly paper all over the place and stayed out for a week.

Put my 30" fan to blow out the large door and shot the Avanti, the windows in the barn are already screened.

Again a pretty nice paint job considering no booth.

100_1610_zps499faqlt.jpg

Remember to use the best mask and gun you can afford.
 
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IrocRam

IrocRam

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2016
Posts
144
Reaction score
21
Location
Phoenix, Az
Ram Year
1997
Engine
5.2
The problem you will have with anything other than a quality booth is dust and bugs. Particularly bugs. When I painted the 54 Stude I used an inexpensive screened in canopy from the local big box store.

A few days before I started painting, I hung several fly strips in the enclosure and stayed out. You'll be surprised at the number of bugs you will collect over that time. Then waited for a calm day, moistened the pavement under the car and shot it.

Had a small number of dust particles but you can't sand spots out of the Blitz Black and the car looks darn good.

54K011.jpg

When I did the Avanti last year, I did it inside the pole barn. Before I painted. I put a screen over the large and small door, hung plastic sheet on the ceiling over the car and covered the floor with plastic sheet and fresh cardboard from large appliances. Again hung fly paper all over the place and stayed out for a week.

Put my 30" fan to blow out the large door and shot the Avanti, the windows in the barn are already screened.

Again a pretty nice paint job considering no booth.

100_1610_zps499faqlt.jpg

Remember to use the best mask and gun you can afford.

I am kind of worried there will be too much fumes from painting in my garage, and they would find their way into my house. They did at my buddies house, but I don't know if the vents were open or why they found their way in. I am even more worried a neighbor freaks out and calls the cops. Even though this is Phoenix, there's a lot of people that are little b***** when it comes to this stuff.
I don't currently have a paint gun. I bought a harbor freight special that was on sale for $9.99 to paint the engine bay of my iroc. I couldn't believe how good it turned out. I only had one run but that was my fault, not the gun. I threw it away afterwards because I didn't trust it would last long or hold up long, but I honestly wouldn't mind having one again. However, to paint the outside and majority of the car, I would buy a good one from Eastwood or something. My buddy has a nice one which I can borrow until he leaves for OCS next winter.
 
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IrocRam

IrocRam

Senior Member
Joined
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Posts
144
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21
Location
Phoenix, Az
Ram Year
1997
Engine
5.2
Dude....bad ass IROC! I have an 86 z28 I've been working on for a couple years now.

I'm curious about this too as I'll be painting my IROC next year....possibly in my garage.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

I wish it was an Iroc, but it is just a base model 88 305 TBI with a 5 speed manual. I had a bunch of plans for it, and then abondoned them, and decided to sell it. I had it listed for as low as $3,000 with no bites. I can't believe nobody wanted it for $3,000 with what is into it. I was practically giving it away. I wasn't willing to go any lower, so I pulled it off the market, and am going to hold onto it probably to do an LS swap. When I do that, I am going to repaint it to the hyper blue metallic from a 2016 camaro, or another blue if I find one I like better between now and then. And I will be doing a chrome/blue theme under the hood. For now, it's going to just remain a reliable, fuel efficient car that looks pretty cool. Sidenote, if you aren't on thirdgen.org, you should join.

When I get around to painting my girlfriend's friend's civic in the next few months perhaps, I will post what I come up with. If I can't find this forum I will just post a new one. That way people can see. I might make a makeshift canopy setup, and do some plastic sheeting, and use fly traps like the other guy.
 
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