It’s not that hard or takes long to make. I used mostly stuff I had on hand. I had to buy the filter and one conduit. The bike frame is stuck on a shorter piece of conduit through the head tube. Gravity keeps it in place. The conduit that holds the frame is stuck into a cast iron yard umbrella stand. It’s a pretty big booth but you can walk all around the frame when spraying without having to worry about touching the frame. I think with Velcro instead of staples that you could make one that collapses down for storage once the poles are pulled out of the wood blocks. Then again, staples are super easy and heavy plastic sheeting, like for a crawl space dirt floor, is pretty cheap for a box big enough for a paint booth lifetime supply. Flat rocks hold the clear plastic to the floor plastic tarp. A water spray down was used after the primer coats and allowed to dry until the next day. That got rid of the primer dust. It withstood two rain storms so far. One just needed the rain puddle removed from the roof and the other a little more repair. It’s outside for the light and on the south side of our garage as all our strong winds are from the north.
So far it’s amazingly smooth, with three 2k primer coats and one base coat. Each coat was wet sanded with 800 grit between coats. This is a real ambitious project as the next step will be with a slight blush pearl powder added to the paint. Then clear. All two part automotive paint. The paint was purchased on line as a complete kit for doing a motorcycle. It contained everything, base coat, hardener, thinner, filters, mixing cups, stir sticks. its thrifty as you aren’t purchasing the usual large amounts.Nice, that sure beats my urban paint booth of two trash cans in the alley, a piece of superstrut, and some homemade part hooks.
Ohhh! 2 trash cans! See, in my set up I am one trash can...... my urban paint booth of two trash cans in the alley, a piece of superstrut, ...
Then there's the Super DeeLux, uses 2 ladders.
Can't see details clearly in this pic. Umbrella base for the steerer, supported in the rear with wire? Is there anything on that pole supporting the front? Anything else I'm missing?
There is no support. The weight of the back of the frame keeps the whole frame in place. Its kinda wedged in there naturally. The scrap conduit that the frame head tube through is 3/4 inch. The ten foot conduit for the four wall corners are 3/4 inch. I used string and old junk scrap steel rods for tent poles. The important thing is to make the booth big enough so you can walk all around it and high enough that you can get under and on top of the frame. The other important things are to put it where there is a lot of light and to have good ventilation. A shop vacuum wasn’t enough. A leaf blower would also probably work. Good ventilation will suck the sides in a little but there will be no paint spray mist in the tent. I somehow said the conduit poles were 8 feet long. That’s wrong and I knew it but somehow put it down wrong. The poles are 10 feet high.
I have done a similar non booth a lot. My problem was that the force of the spray made the parts move and spin. I got an an uneven coat with a lot of spray where I didn’t want it. The way my frame is attached to the conduit pole through the head tube eliminates movement when sprayed. I think for a good job the parts have to be solidly fixed, but also so you can get at all surfaces. That could take some thinking for fenders and chain guards. I used a LVLP top feed gun because they have a small paint pattern so you can get into tight places with minimum over spray and atomized spray mist in the booth is minimized, but your finish will be rough without strong ventilation. This type of gun is useless for autos or furniture. It’s much better than an air brush, a little bigger pattern and you can hold more paint in the gun than with an airbrush. I also used an oil and water filter at the compressor tank outlet. That turned out to be the right thing to do as a ton of water was removed from the compressed air.Nice, that sure beats my urban paint booth of two trash cans in the alley, a piece of superstrut, and some homemade part hooks.
