So, I teach high school automotive. We dabble in bodywork right now, but do not have a booth to paint in. Now, the school was built with a booth, but it was long decommissioned before I got there, and from the looks of it, it was a horrible design. Cement walls all around, and it looks as if the inlet and outlet for the air were both 20ft up on the ceiling. So the air just flowed across the ceiling?

Either way, we've looked at drop in booths, but I was asked to look into what it'd take to get that old booth usable? It has decent lighting, air plumbed to it, and a heater system. I figured it'd need a ramp or something to get the vehicle up off the ground so a pit could be installed for a downdraft setup. I really know little about these things. Any ideas? I could grab some pictures tomorrow maybe...

I would think if the basic elements are there and sound, you should look at restructuring the exhaust portion to at least facilitate a semi-down draft set up.

Pictures would go a long way

Doright wrote:Pictures would go a long way

Working on that... Called the building inspector today. He said that fire suppression will be the biggest hurdle.

Hmmm, if it was already "approved" as a paint spray booth then upgrading it should not be a problem.

We've got some lights out. Looks like there is a sprinkler system. No vents, but holes on the ceiling where they once were. I still think that if we want to do this right, we'll build a pit so we can have a downdraft setup.

What do you guys think?

looks useable, could you get a sheet metal shop , maybe your school has one to make some ducts to come down from the inlet and exhaust. great project, and GOOD for you wanting to teach your class this profession.
Jay D.

I'm sure it is possible. For me, I just don't know what we'd be trying to accomplish. Paint/body is not my forte. Though I've painted a few cars. I'm still growing and learning. So booth design isn't something I'm familiar with. Eager to learn. I reached out to a local HVAC guy to see if he knows anything about booth designs. Hopefully they can help. (I let his kid work on his car in my sop all year, so he owes me one... )

gijoe985 wrote:

Well that first pic looks like exhaust this other 3rd pic looks like maybe the entrance or intake filter area can you get better pictures of the filter areas? intake?
The explosion proof Temp control? is this actual temp control OR a Fan control?
Does it still work?
A big plus so is the fire suppression system in the ceiling.
The Roll up door is not so great gonna let a lot of air and dirt in especially if it goes to the out doors and not the rest of the shop.

Ideally you your intake filter area should be as big as the exhaust with matching surface area for intake and exhaust filters. Also Exhaust should have a large Plenum box to provide surface area to all exhaust filters equally, this also helps to allow air to flow through paint booth and differ from being a wind tunnel.
If that first picture is indeed the exhaust its possible some one tore out the plenum box and exhaust filter assembly, where the Box was designed to sit against the wall with filter area facing vehicle. If so a new one could be constructed fairly easily & inexpensively by a sheet metal shop and just extend the duct down into the box. The Box itself needs to be bigger than the filter area. My Paint booth box was 14'x12'x2' I cut it down to fit my building ceiling size to 9'x14'x2' using 10 20"x20" filters still works great providing flow through all the filters evenly. Your Both exhaust fan motor should be explosion proof mounted externally to the fan with a sealed belt drive. can you get photos of this?

On other hand this could be a POSITIVE Pressure Booth design very easily in which you wouldn't need the BOX as explained.
When air is turned on is fan blowing into the Booth area or is it drawing air out?
I should have asked this first to begin with! The Roll up door wouldn't matter any more with a Positive pressure booth!

I get carried away some times...

Is there a Paint booth Manometer mounted any where?
https://barzsprayboothsupplies.com/FAQ/ ... ter-Change

Additionally What kind of budget did they give you get to get this going?
A true down draft while nice is cubic dollars just getting what you have up and running isnt going to be cheap, Those lights while a few may still work should be explosion Proof I doubt they are still available if you should need a new Ballast which means new lights and if ducting has been ripped out and there isn't an explosion proof fan assembly any more those arnt cheap, this could get real ugly real fast just doing the repair work to bring it back to what it was let alone buying a new Booth or modifying what you already have.

Being this is for Kids in a high school you cant do a Half way job may be advantages to research and contact original contractor for more information about it.