Various Paint Booths I've Run Across in my Travels.

[@Dontworryaboutit12]

Looks to me like the full downdraft is the cleaner and best way to exhaust the air! That way nothing blows around and settles on already painted surfaces.

[@StoutCustom]

The full downdraft is my preferred booth. I’ve seen great paint jobs come out of every kind of booth but I think the full downdraft tilts better results in your favor.

[@anthonylane7719]

I used to trim out in a Leonard bldg that had a cross flow plenum mounted in one end. Worked surprisingly well. Another shop had two drive throughs into an indoor curing area. Bad thing was the rock quarry 100yds behind the shop.

[@StoutCustom]

Yeah location can be a killer for sure.

[@scootherring9314]

Great video and paint booth’s

[@thruitallauto2538]

Some of the most beautiful paint jobs I’ve seen in the 80s, were painted in a barn with box fans, acrylic enamel, come out of there couldn’t even see ya self, for the over spray, no masks, how did we live, man times have changed

[@StoutCustom]

Yeah I remember most of the painters in those days used a cigarette for a respirator, lol.

[@thruitallauto2538]

@@StoutCustom lol that’s right

[@gregreidtpl]

Fun vid!

[@StoutCustom]

Thanks for watching!

[@pintastic5876]

Very helpful thanks

[@StoutCustom]

You’re welcome. Thanks for watching!

[@413x398]

You probably won't see this but... Back in the 80's/90's the updraft booth seemed to be the hot ticket, but now it seems to have gone the way of the pteradactyl. This garage I have now could have a fan installed somewhere above the car in the ceiling, pulling the air into the crawlspace above and out through some grating on the back side. Is this a bad idea, and if so, why? Thank you for any input.

[@StoutCustom]

Any airflow is better than none but I think it’s really just the evolution of painting that has the downdrafts dominating booth performance. Products have changed as well as spray equipment. We were painting lacquer back in the late 80’s and you could paint out in the shop since everything got buffed to perfection. Now the gloss is there without buffing so with little to no trash in the paint you can get the finished product faster with less labor. That’s where a good booth is key. The folks working in a garage at home will not see as much benefit as a production shop of course. Overall I believe it’s easier to direct overspray out if you are not fighting gravity. Over time there will be a good amount of overspray collecting on the fan or grates above the spray area with an up draft. Eventually the particles will be too heavy to be pulled out by the fan and will find their way to the freshly painted vehicle. In a downdraft or semi down the particles will most likely stay on the ground. With any booth there needs to be fresh air entering the area so even using an updraft you will need a door or window opened to allow fresh air in. Ideally there would be a filter at the point of entry for the air. If you are venting overspray into an attic area there still needs to be ducting so the fumes go outside and not back into the garage or into the house if it’s attached. You could have a fan in an eve of the roof pulling air in and directing it through some filters above the vehicle and into the garage from the ceiling. This would be a positive pressure booth. The overspray would be pushed out a slightly open garage door or somewhere but preferably through filters to help catch the overspray. So anyway I think I’m rambling. Short answer is yes you could do that. Maybe not ideal but it would help. Lots to consider really. Thanks for the question and thanks for watching!

[@413x398]

Thanks for your long and detailed reply. The attic is sealed off from the rest of the garage, which is separated from the house. Another plus to an updraft is that I can turn the fans on in triple degree heat (Arizona) and it would keep the attic cooler when I am wrenching. The main door is 16 ft, so I can lower it onto a framework of filters that pull air off of concrete that I can wash down beforehand. I can let the air out of the rear man door, of course, creating a cross-flow instead of updraft, but I am thinking too much overspray will remain in the garage itself. This is a retirement hobby, but most of the project vehicles I have currently are valued in restored shape in the mid to high 5 figures, so I'm trying to science things out ahead of time. Thanks once again. @@StoutCustom

[@StoutCustom]

@@413x398 it sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it and should work well. One other suggestion I would add is to place the uptake fan at the far end of the vehicle and not directly above. Set up would be something like the front of the vehicle close to the garage doors where the air comes in and the uptake fan just past the rear of the vehicle. Reason being is that you could start painting at the front and work your way back. That way the overspray gets painted over as you go and is incorporated into a high gloss finish instead of settling on the nice gloss finish you just laid on if you were to paint back to front. Hope that made sense. That’s how most folks paint in a cross draft. I believe you have it under control so good luck on your projects and enjoy your retirement.

[@413x398]

Excellent advice about fan placement. I was going to put the uptake fan centered above the car, but your idea makes more sense. That would also place the fan closer to the attic outlet. Thanks for the advice and well wishes. @@StoutCustom

[@jcraig89]

Man those first two booths look very familiar, it almost feels like I have painted hundreds of cars in there lol

[@StoutCustom]

Lol

[@SOLDOZER]

Are comercial booths regulated by the EPA and such, require fire suppression systems, etc?

[@StoutCustom]

Yes. There are EPA regulations, OSHA regulations, insurance requirements, along with local municipal requirements. Accudraft has a good overview of EPA regulations on their website and you can Google OSHA’s requirements as well. Your local fire Marshall can usually point you in the proper direction for local codes. Years ago I purchased a booth and had it installed in a commercial building. It was a UL listed booth that met all the EPA and OSHA requirements. Once it was set up and ready to operate the fire Marshall did a walkthrough and informed me that since it was in a building larger than 12,000 sq ft, the entire building had to have a fire sprinkler system installed and the 120’ partition wall between me and the adjoining space had to have a 2hr fire rating. If I had known that in the beginning I probably would have chosen a different location. Luckily my landlord took care of it.

[@damienmikkelsen6056]

NICE!!!! Perfect timing I’m designing a cheap hopefully very efficient cross draft booth for my one car garage. In the first cross draft you showed with the filters on the floors what material is the wall above it? I was thinking of doing level 5 finish on the drywall and high gloss bright white, thoughts?

[@StoutCustom]

All of these booths were steel walls and steel roof. I’ve seen drywall booths and they seem fine as well.

[@scootherring9314]

Slackers on maintenance lol

[@StoutCustom]

Lol. We’ll get to it after the next paint job…or the next…or the next…

[@NDB390]

What lights do they run now? LED ?

[@StoutCustom]

It still varies a lot. Some have changed over to LED and some have not.

[@gregreidtpl]

@@StoutCustom LED is good but an array of Kelvin temps preferred. Some whites are the same freq as the white light at 6k! Switching to 3k helps mitigate.

[@mickiematthews1881]

You did not mention which booth type you prefer or your favorite booth

[@StoutCustom]

A full downdraft with fully grated floors seems to be the easiest to get cleaner paint jobs. Grated floors are rough on knees though and floor jacks don’t like them. I’m liking the full downdraft, center grates, and carpet we are trying out right now as well.

[@bradburkhead9989]

@@StoutCustom whats the point of carpet?

[@StoutCustom]

@@bradburkhead9989 carpet helps keep the dirt from blowing around in the booth. There are products specifically made for this like Pig mat or like90 booth mat but carpet does the same thing.

[@samg5543]

9:28 why can't we just put a trash can in the booth?

[@StoutCustom]

Haha right!?! I was there doing a demo and the guy got mad because I let the air hose fall to the floor after disconnecting from the gun. I mean normally I would be on my toes about keeping things off the floor but if this is how they keep the booth, I wouldn’t think it was an issue, lol