My shop is in a remote area where I don't have to worry about codes, ordinances, or neighbors. But I would need to do a lot of rearranging and probably would need to move some of my collection to another space if I go ahead with this paint booth. I've only ever painted one car myself, and done the body work on a couple. Lack of a dedicated space to do it, lack of skill and experience, and lack of time have made it much more expeditious to just hire someone to do it. But as I get closer to retirement, I think that I will soon have time for that sort of thing. If my body's not completely shot by then.
as others posted what is your time worth.
if i had to do this i would pass on the booth. if you really want a booth, with low or no regulations i would just buy or build a mobile prep station and make some curtain wall and make a booth that way. when you don't need it just slide the curtains against the wall and tuck the mobile prep station in the corner.
to me my time is worth way more than burning several days if not weeks. along with abuse to my body tackling a job like moving a spray booth. i have done this in the past when i was young and dumb. it's a major pain. the biggest problem is most older booths will have square nuts and straight edge screw driver slot carriage head bolts on the other end holding everything together. they will probably be covered with paint also complicating things also.
before spending time dismantling and rebuilding ask yourself why do you need a booth?
i have painted hundreds of cars with no booth at all most with excellent results other than getting some light die back from poor airflow. if you use a proper materials designed for air dry situations die back can be held to a minimum. if you do decent prep to the painting area problems can be minimized. painting in a cross flow non baking booth really won't improve the die back problem much. it still will be a air dry situation. paint will flash off a little faster but everything else will be about the same.
good luck
