im in a shop that is almost 40x40 ft. i have a vent up top a typical door to enter and a big rollup door i will have to open and crack another big rollup on the other side to give me my light during daylight hours.

im in bay area california but it reaches freezing and below overnight.

months ago i decided to buy a chinese knockoff spray paint booth. i was actually surprised i could get one for under $1300 to the door that almost takes up half the shop space.

i really want to finish up the mechanicals this month and take winter to finish the projects painting. i will probably have to stop during rainy storms but just won't work those days.

this booth uses 2 fans, one to keep it up and the other exchanges the air.

does it seem doable that i put a torpedo heater on low for the day so i don't run out of propane and shoot it directly into fan from about 6 feet away?

i have a thermo gun, do i test this when its cold and run it for a half an hour and see what happens? im not sure if the fan going nuts will cool the air or if it can keep up, don't see a way to heat whole area?


also since i have never done this if i start an hour after the sun comes up and do my base and clear in one sitting, the heater may last for 8 hours, then i guess i could leave the booth up without heat after but how long will i need to leave the booth up before i can roll the car out, take booth down then leave car sit to dry where it will get cold again overnight?

Keep in mind you need a lot of ventilation while you're spraying.
I use my garage.
I heat everything up, turn off the heat, turn on the exhaust fans and spray.
Once everything gets a coat, I turn off the fans and turn the heat back on
and wait for it to dry.
I repeat for every coat.

You really should keep the painted parts above 60 deg. for a couple of days to cure
before putting out in the weather. Longer is better.
A heat lamp makes it a lot quicker.

this is a positive pressure booth that pushes from the fans in the rear and sweeps out to front where the filters are. so with the big roll up doors and roof vent i figured i would have a good exchange going on for the booth incoming air and the propane heater for sure, and the fan for the booth exchanges its air how often i don't know but during my test it seemed to clear stuff out with the filter area open. when you start to close off the filter area with zippers the walls of the booth will bow out right away.

so inside the shop on concrete floor the temps definately will drop below 60 all night long. i could open the shop up about an hour after sun comes out on clear sky days and get it exposed outside, not sure what the temps will get to though.

wow im gonna have to look into how much it would cost to run the booth fan for so long if i have to keep the car heated for days if i have to keep it warm i could keep it in the booth and turn the air exchange fan on and off in intervals with heat i guess? ugh.

I would like to see a Picture of this Paint booth just for curiosity sake.

You have to keep paint Temps up as described above for curing especially Epoxy others are quick to flash off but will out gas for days depending on number of coats and temperature.

Heating in winter is always expensive no matter how you do it. I choose to knock out body work during winter months save the painting for summer or only paint on Nice days myself.

I don't do overalls, most of my collision repair is one or two panels at
the most so I put a heat lamp on it.
the lamp will do one average size panel.
About 3 hrs under the lamp once finished and it's good to go.
A lot better than heating the entire room.

I also use an Infratech 9000 Infrared heater as well, it gets the job done when needed when cold.

Being your in California you should be aware of water based auto paint sold in California.
Water based paints have a completely different drying and curing requirements to that of regular automotive Chemical based paints.

If it is water based products your dealing with not only are their heat requirements to look at but also a great deal of air movement is required as well.