Painting

I have been toying with the idea of painting my RV myself with one color, white, and use decal for lines. Does anyone know how to turn a portable car garage (made out of tubes and canvas) into a paint booth.

Thanks

BobC

I've been thinking about taking this approach with a project I'm working on. Effectively, it'll give me a similar set-up to the garage where I painted my RV-6. Being married means the attached garage is no longer an appropriate location for spray painting... ;-)

My first step would be to use plastic or Tyvek to wrap the entire structure so bugs and random junk don't get in there.

Then I would cut a door sized opening in one end and build a frame where I would mount filters for incoming air.

Then I would cut smaller doors along the bottom of the other end and mount box fans there (3 worked fine for me, but more would be better).

I'd also put a big enough door on one end for personal ingress and egress and for the assemblies you're painting.

Mount fluorescent fixtures to provide adequate light, and clean all of the interior surfaces very well (the ceiling, wall, and floor), and you're ready to go.

Obviously, you'll need compressed air and <probably> a fresh air respirator, depending on the paint you'e using.

One thing to consider is that you need 4-5 feet of clearance around your project so you, the hoses, etc. don't bump into or drag something through the wet paint.

IMO, the big challenge with this arrangement will be lighting.

Someone will jump in soon enough about the necessity of explosion proof fans and lights. No need for that discussion again, it is all available via the search function.

Bob, What Kyle said.

Here are a few pics of what I did. REALLY consider an outside fresh air source. I used a HVLP for the paint and a HobbyAir with hood.

The frame is exactly what you are thinking. A portable car garage only I used long pvc at the top to make it wider. I used pvc cut into clips to hold the plastic.

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY LIGHTS. Trust me. Use as many lights as you can.









Consider a pulley system to raise and lower the back of the fuse if you can.

Paint booth.

I plan to paint my project in a homemade booth in my garage when the time comes. In the meantime I have been priming outdoors. I shot the interior of my 7A in my shop with lots of plastic sheeting and a couple of box fans to move the overspray out the door. I am no expert but I have painted parts of airplanes and cars over the years, mostly outdoors. Outdoors can work pretty well, surprisingly.

You need: lots of light, lots of room behind you, and lots of clean airflow out of the booth. Dust control is important. I have found that plastic on the floor doesn't work too well because it collects dust and your feet and the hoses kicks it up. I used my bare concrete floor dampened with a water. That works pretty well but you have to have airflow through the booth to keep the humidity down. Usually the painting session is done before the floor dries out and dust becomes a problem again. Overspray will dry onto the concrete in spite of the dampness, contrary to what one might think. Car paint sticks ferociously; it won't all come off.

I never have had enough light except when I painted outside. I hold the gun in my right hand and an incandescent reflector lamp in my left. I haven't done this yet, but I plan to construct a bank of vertical fluorescent tubes on a portable stand. I suspect that moving the lights around while painting will be impractical so I will make two or three stands. $ starting to add up. The light will be behind so one needs lots of room for maneuvering.

Airflow. I have used two stacked box fans to evacuate my shop and it was marginal. Painting indoors can cause near IFR conditions. A wall of 4 cheap box fans on one end evacuating the booth and a wall of furnace filters on the other to provide a source of low speed clean air might work; that's what I plan to try. Another thought was to find a broken gas furnace and salvage the blower, but box fans and duct tape might prove easier.

Don't forget personal airflow. A source of clean, pressurized air via a full face mask is mandatory when using chemically catalyzed paints, even outdoors. My mask has my eyeglasses prescription built in. $ but worth every penny.

Oh, don't forget you need a small table inside the booth to mix and pour the paint while holding the gun. Got to have this.

Painting is hard work. Exhausting, I have found. I have learned to quit early and come back tomorrow. There are just too many ways to screw it up.

I recently used the Stewart Systems process on another project, I simply put up plastic around the shop, taped paper underlayment to the floor, raised my garage door and inserted a flat panel luan door, and put my barrel fan in the remaining opening. It worked great and I didn't have to worry as much about nasty chemicals.

Jerry Folkerts

You can do it

Here is a link to how I did mine.

http://mnwing.org/page37/page37.html

Hi Bob,

I wrapped my carport in plastic to create a paint booth, not that hard and it took about 1/2 a day to setup.

http://mykitlog.com/users/display_log.php?user=eddieseve&project=535&category=0&log=144091&row=47

Cheers,
Eddie

fans & filters

to reiterate, in case the old discussion doesn't, you need lots of airflow, but in volume, not speed!
I doubled the output of a box fan by pulling off the grille, making a thin plastic duct that fit within an inch or so of the fan blades, and then just a cardboard backer that filled the corners, stopping a LOT of reversion that was occurring there. You know its pulling a lot more air when it takes 3 minutes to get up to speed!
Just like you home furnace, it flows much better if you have MORE inlet filtered air, than the area of your exhaust fans; the room will clear much more quickly also. Often the wall or door makes a good frame for filters.

happy spraying!

Thanks, Guys,
All this has just fortified my resolve to save up a little longer to have mine painted by a professional shop when the time comes.

Welll...

I must say that learning to paint was extremely valuable to me. I really didn't waste any paint and I found that a good repirator was all that was really needed.. All that "drop dead if you smell the paint" turned out to be a bit of a myth.

I spoke to a couple of professional painters who sprayed cars on the side with a simple (but well fitting) regulator and worked just as well. I'm sure I'll get some violent reaction to that statement but Cst La Vie

Since the airplane I have painted a few cars one of them was my own.. I didn't clearcoat the airplane but I did on my little commuter car.. just wonderful to stand back and admire your own handiwork.

Frank

I have painted several airplanes in makeshift paint booths as pictured above in my career. From RV's to small jets. Couple of tips. First, if you have a tail wheel, place a small saw horse under it. It's nice to have bottom of the airplane sort of level with the floor. This puts everything at a good height. Second, I paint with a pressure fed paint gun. Paints the same at any angle. If you can't get one then something like the 3M PPS system or Devilbiss DeKups for a gravity fed gun will work well for painting the bottom.

Thank you everyone for the inputs. I will use a portable garage which you can purchase for <$200.00 with a HVLP paint gun for <$300.00 and a fresh air respirator. After painting the plane I will sell everything on EBay which should reduce my cost somewhat.

More controversy.. Perhaps

My painting told me he would loan me the "best spray gun he had".

I am now looking up on the shelf at several top names.. Devibliss etc. THIS GUY PAINTS A lot.

as I look down he throws.. yes THROWS.. this spray gun at me from across the shop.. Thinking this is some $500 piece of hardware I almost kill myself to catch it.

On the side was printed "Central Pneumatic HVLP".. You guessed it it was from none other than Harbor Freight!

You can buy the mini touch up and the full 20oz guns for about $60 for both of them!

These guns are superb.. I bought them and get fantastic results!

Another couple of tips.. Buy a decent oil free air compressor.. Mine was from SEARs.. yeah its noisy but the trick is NO OIL... Also if your airhoses have been used on an oil lubed compressor buy new ones... You'll be amazed how oil gets into your paint and will ruin it with fisheyes.. And extra $50 for new rubber hoses (from HF!) and you'll have a great set up.

The only problem with an HVLP is it won't spray more than about 20 degrees above the horizontal.. If you can lift the tail you can get away with it however.

Frank

Painting coach

My painting coach I was talking about that threw the gun at me

What about temperature limits when painting?

I am planning to use one of my 1000 sq foot greenhouses as a paint booth once the greenhouse season winds down. I planned to line it with poly to preserve the existing poly covering. It has large vent fans already installed so all thats required is filtered inlets.
It is very bright in the house and about the same light level as painting out doors. The air temperature can rise quite quickly in the greenhouses in the middle of the summer, easily hitting 100 F by 9 am.
Whats the temperature to quit shooting paint at? There's the human factor limit when sweat becomes more than you can handle, but when does the paint job suffer? Does dry time get too fast and finish suffers?

Cam Andres
RV9A with Aerosport IO360 - Final fitting stage
CH701 - flying since 2000
www.tailcreek.com/tcaviate

frankh said:

My painting told me he would loan me the "best spray gun he had".

I am now looking up on the shelf at several top names.. Devibliss etc. THIS GUY PAINTS A lot.

as I look down he throws.. yes THROWS.. this spray gun at me from across the shop.. Thinking this is some $500 piece of hardware I almost kill myself to catch it.

On the side was printed "Central Pneumatic HVLP".. You guessed it it was from none other than Harbor Freight!

You can buy the mini touch up and the full 20oz guns for about $60 for both of them!

These guns are superb.. I bought them and get fantastic results!

Another couple of tips.. Buy a decent oil free air compressor.. Mine was from SEARs.. yeah its noisy but the trick is NO OIL... Also if your airhoses have been used on an oil lubed compressor buy new ones... You'll be amazed how oil gets into your paint and will ruin it with fisheyes.. And extra $50 for new rubber hoses (from HF!) and you'll have a great set up.

The only problem with an HVLP is it won't spray more than about 20 degrees above the horizontal.. If you can lift the tail you can get away with it however.

Frank

Click to expand...

I also used the cheap guns, they work for a while but I will buying a new one to finish the fuse paint when I get there.

If you get the cheap guns make sure you can change out the fluid tips. I have the DeVilbiss FLG4 guns with the following tips for the brand of paint I am using:

color - 1.3
high build primer 1.5
epoxy primer 1.8

I was trying to spray the high build primer with a 1.8 tip and wasn't getting good results. I read back through the paint spec sheets and saw where I needed to use the 1.5 tip. I was spraying yesterday with the high build and the 1.5 tip and it made a heck of a difference. Read the specs and then read them again.

Paint Booth

Your idea is similar to what I did, only I built the whole thing from 1 1/4" PVC.
Be sure to get a garage wide and long enough to maneuver around your airplane. A full description of mine with photos is on a post under the Tips forum dated 5-18-13. Good luck.

Frank,
AA retired

Thanks Frank, it is a very nice paint shop. My garage doors are standard height so I cannot build the booth inside and be able to operate the door. At this point since the covenant will not let me put a temporary structure outside I might not be able to paint my RV.

Bob