Painting my first car in my garage and need some tips...

I covered everything but the floor of the garage in plastic to contain the overspray. Should I also go over the floor with the plastic as well?

What are you guys doing for ventilation? I tried just doing nothing, and after spraying a test piece, I could barely see in my garage! Problem is, I've got a door and a window that opens, but the window is maybe 10 feet away from the door on the same side of the wall. Not exactly the best setup for venting air through the building.

Any other hints or tips from those who've done it?

I plan on doing the same thing soon.

I've been told to wet the garage floor to capture any dust that lands on it, no need to cover it in plastic unless you don't want to get paint on it. Don't know how well this works as I have not tried it.

There was a really cool artical in hot rod,a bout painting a car with enamel paint, and sponge applicators.

I think they did a falcon or something, and it turned out great.

That is my plan for my fargo, as it is under $100 too.

As for actually painting a car with a spray gun at home, I think keeping it clean is a must, but the make or break will be how good you are with the gun.
You have to be quite confident that the earlier coats are tacky, when you throw on the thick final coat to shine it up. If not, it run's all over.

For lack of a better term, you need to have big kahuna's to get it done well.

Wet the floor for sure, keeps the dust down. Also, ground your car. You'd be surprised how much stuff will stay off if the car is well grounded to a good earth ground. If you can put a box fan or something in the window to pull the paint cloud out that will help, as well as keeping the garage door cracked about an inch or 2. Furnace filters make for a cheap and easy filtering set up so your paint stays inside and not all over the neighbor's car.

Ground the car? I've never heard of doing that. What would you do, clip one wire onto the car and the other end into? The dirt outside the garage??

Clean, Clean, Clean.
Wash down the ceiling and walls.
Wet the floor.
I used 2 box fans at the garage door.
Cut some plywood and place in between the fans to help get a good pull. Use a furnace filter in the window for the draw.
Paint will bounce off of plastic.
Using paper is better.
Then practice. Get your stokes even, going past the area to be painted. This way you will not double up on the paint getting near the ends

From what I have heard this is a way to do it. Put on box fan in the window blowing out and have to box fans in under the big garage door blowing in. Make sure the 2 fans have plastic around them to cover the open space under the door. If you have more air flow coming in then going out, that makes sure that the dust and dirt from and cracks, spaces etc. do not get sucked onto your paint. Hopefully I explained it the right way. I myself have not done this but have read about it so take what I say and use your own judgment if it makes sense to you. Ooh, make sure you have filters attached to the fans.

Also, the type of gun and air pressure is important. Gravity guns typically keep the paint/reducer on the car as opposed to in the air.

How tight is your budget? have you looked at doing the body work and having a professional spray the car in a nice down draft booth and have the paint baked? I'll be spraying primer one panel at a time to prep the car. After working in the body shop industry I know that over spray get everywhere. Is this garage attached to your house? I'm trading off the costs of building something I'll maybe use once for someone else to take the risk of messing up lotsa $$$$$ in paint and your garage. Hotwheels Jr did this with really nice results.

I had a buddy that painted cars in his garage all the time. He laid plastic on the walls and floors. Make sure you clean the heck out of the place. Use a good vacuum if you have one. He had a ceiling fan he'd turn on and he ran a high powered fan at the garage door. He'd shut the door all the way to the fan then hang sheets on the exposed part. If you have windows open them if you have screens. let us know how it goes.

I used plastic, wet floor.

For ventilation, you will need at least two box fans, possibly 4.

I framed an opening in my plastic walls for the furnace filters. I had twice the intake as I did the exhaust. In other words, two fans, four filters on the incoming side. The fans are configured to suck out the paint fumes, I would never blow anyting into your paint booth.

Also, I put filters on the exit fans to try & keep the "cloud" from simply blowing out into the driveway. That way the only thing escaping was the smell. Clear reeks, the regular paint barely has an odor.

Make sure you have several layers of plastic at one end that function as a door so you can enter and leave. Try & disturb the plastic as little as possible. Paint will not adhere real well to the plastic and will drop off onto your beautiful new paint job if you rattle the plastic too much.

Even with a wet floor, you will end up with a discolored floor. So, if you don't want your floor to match your car, put down paper or something similar.

To ground the car, I'd take a chain and attach it to the body of the car and let the other end lay on the ground.

I'm getting ready to spray mine with primer this weekend. I've built a tent around the car with PVC pipe and plastic sheeting. I'll have two cheapo box fans on the floor for exhaust and two air intakes on the opposite side up high. All openings will be covered with a furnace filter.

I also scored 8 2x4 flourescent lamps from craigslist for $50. I'm going to mount these around the sides to make sure I get good lighting because the lighting in the garage isn't that great.

I'll be wearing a good full face respirator and tyvek bunny suit.

here's an interesting link about painting and Electrostatic

What type of gun are you using Syphon feed or HVLP ? I hope you have at least a 60 gal 220V compressor.
Just from the sounds of it your shooting with too much pressure.

Well, be glad you don't live in California. If they caught you, they would fine you around $10,000, confiscate all your spray equiptment and make you eat lunch with Al Gore.

Are you using an HVLP gun or a traditional gun? HVLP's put a little ess material in the air. Follow the set-up directions in the preceeding posts. Make sure you have plenty of clean DRY air)If you are using a solid color without any metalic, you can always wet sand out your mistakes.

Measure your paint carefully while mixing, make sure you have the correct temprature reducer, you can warm your material to the recommended tempreture(set it out in the sun, set it in some warm water, etc) and it makes a big difference. Don't watch the spray fan as much as you watch how the paint is landing on the car surface. Keep the angle of the spray gun consistent, don't change the angel as you go from one end of your reach to the other. Think of your spray pattern before you actually spray and practice it a half dozen times in all your gear BEFORE you put on any paint. Blow the car off with air at least a dozen times prior to painting it. Use a tack cloth.

Good luck. I sprayed a car in my driveway once. The minute I finished spraying, a small dust devil cam down my street, made a 90 degree turn towards me and went right over my car, the vacumn inside the mini-tornado was broken by the car and every thing it had picked up while spinning through the nieghborhood dropped right on top of my fresh paint. It was simply unbelievable but true. It was a plum Crazy 1970 'Cuda, the fastest car I had ever owned at that point. I buried the factory Ralley speedo in it once. What is that about 160 plus mph? All that dust in the paint probably assisted with the areodynamics by breaking up the laminar flow of the air over the car....lol. It wasn't until I got a motorcycle that I finally broke that personal land speed record.

make sure you have a water filter/dryer between the compressor and the gun.

There are many reasons to be happy to not live in The Peoples Repbulic of CA

Motto on New Hampshire license plates - Live Free or Die

Okay, thanks guys. I'm just using a regular syphon feed gun. Yes I've got a filter/dryer hooked up to the gun. I also tried just holding down the trigger on the gun for a while, and the gauge I've got hooked up to the gun shows my air compressor is doing a good job of keeping up. Seems like the main thing I'm missing from my setup is the ventilation. I'll play with this some more today and see how it goes.

I've painted many cars in my garage. Make sure your garage is clean clean clean. Your better off using a HVLP gun, much less waste and since you already have a venting issue it will help big time. Also get a proper mask, unless you want kids with extra arms and eyes. Venting is the key also, and start on the bottom of the car first, and do the roof last , if you can tack down the roof before you paint it or you'll get alot of dirt/fallout on the roof. Also be careful of the overspray and your venting, make sure anything within 20ft of where your venting is ok to be covered in overspray, move your cars out of the driveway. It also really helps to do a dry run, plan your technique on the car without paint, adjust your technique if you find you leave a area too long, and your hose management. Have all your supplies ready to go, so you can mix paint fast, especially if your using single stage, you don't want to miss the "flash" window....you'll have fun, and you'll be "hi" from all the fumes even with a good respirator. Hope your neighbors don't complain like they did on me....

I've done complete cars twice (in garage). Here are a few of the most important points:

You will never get it completely 'paint booth clean' so plan on cutting and buffing the paint. This is not a bad thing, as it has the advantages of: Removing dust nib's, correcting runs/sags if any, and correcting orange peal. My first car I lived with the dust nibs (didn't cut/buff) but in hindsight I should have. My second job is truly show quality. Go into the project with the understanding that you will cutt & buff the car and your results will be better.
Lay down enough paint (either the single stage or the clear if BC) to allow for this!

Do NOT put plastic on the floor!!!! Guess what happens when all that sticky overspray lands on plastic and you try to walk on it! Use heavy paper, and tape it down well.

You will need ventilation, you want to move most of the airborn paint out of the area otherwise it lands on the car between coats.

You need personal protection--you know that. Carbon respirator canistors (even though not OSHA rated for isocyanates) are fine for these tasks since we don't do this often (a pro would be wise to use fresh air hoods)