Bruce
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Another painter that I know showed me this a few years back… And it works well! Especially in booths that have supplemental air movement systems for drying waterborne basecoat (blower towers, turbines, ceiling fans, etc.). It keeps the light particulates/dust trapped inside of the carpet, instead of being inadvertantly blown off of a smooth finished floor by the fans/blowers,/painter, etc. When we moved into our new facility here in San Diego last year, the first thing that I did to the new Jun-Air booth was carpet the floor. I used 24″x24″ dark grey carpet tiles from Home Depot. They have a peel n’ stick backing, so no messy adhesive needed. They are commercial grade indoor/outdoor “Looped Berber”. They come 24 tiles to a case, are anti-static treated, flame-retardant, and easy to install (29×14.5ft booth took me 2.5hrs. by myself). The cost was about $2.00/sq.ft, (about $200.00). Vaccum once a day, replace tiles as needed, and get cleaner jobs!
Ryan is the only other guy (besides my friend who turnes me onto this) that I have ever heard using this tactic… As you can tell by the posts Ryan has put up, the booth carpet works! :cheers
True downdrafts are the way to to go if it fits your circumstances… Semi-downdraft booths with full ceiling intake, and the exhaust on the floor along the side-walls of the booths also work VERY well (just a bit more turbulence from a full downdraft). The semi-downdraft (modified downdraft) booths with the exhaust in the front (or front and rear) are no better than a cross-draft IMHO… Keep in mind though, if you are looking at a true downdraft, and are going to have a pit dug, I highly advise thst you have at least a three column filter pit. It will cost more for the wider pit/grated floor, and you will have a little higher maintenance/filter cost, but when you have a full ceiling intake, you don’t want to choke down the exhaust (creating significant turbulence/dirtier jobs) by only having a single or double row pit. Having a full exhaust floor is the ideal way to get all the benefits of a true downdraft booth, but if that is too much cost/maintenance for you, at least do a three row/register floor pit (just a bit wider than your standard passenger car). Good luck! :cheers
Accudraft builds one of the nicest booths available today. I have sprayed in a “Titan”, and in the “Italia” model, and they were both fantastic. Very smooth air flow (very clean work/low turbulence), easy to maintain, and extremely reliable. Garmat is very well known, but their booths are notoriously turbulent, and no matter how meticulous the painter is, it just seems that you get a bit more dirt in all of the Garmat booths I have been in. My father bought their “top of the line” booth a few years back for his new shop, and was severely disappointed with the performance and reliability after spending almost 90K on the whole package. A lesser known booth manufacturer that builds great booths at a significant discount to the “big name” companies, is Americure. Americure is based out of Arizona, and in Phoenix, you will see quite a few shops with their booths. They are EXTREMELY nice for the money, and they offer some custom options that you wont see anywhere else. GOOD LUCK!
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with DeVilbiss De-Wipes (or Maxx-Off wipes), but I have been using them for almost 10 years now and LOVE them! They are pre-saturated (isopropyl alcohol/de-ionized water) wiping clothes. I will wipe a car down with M600 (or any other systems solvent cleaner) first, then follow that step by wiping everything again with the De-Wipes. The De-Wipes are a one step product, and you do not have to follow it with a dry towel to wipe off as you do with wax and grease removers. Nice little security step to ensure that you get ANY leftover residue off your panels, plus, they can squeeze into all the little nooks and crannies you might otherwise have difficulty cleaning properly. Very quick to use, ANTI-STATIC, great for waterborne top-coating, COMPLETELY removes all the smudges/fingerprints from whites/white pearls :rock , and fantastic as a final primary cleaner for raw plastic parts… I honestly don’t know how I ever functioned without them back in the day! :wak :cheers
OH… I must have one of those! Then I can wear my Darth Vader suit to work and not look so out of place!
I used Sherwin for years, and always had success with Ultra 7000. I’ve sprayed enough AWX to know that I didn’t care for it. Color match, complete dehydration of the base, and coverage are all problem areas. That being said, AWX has been a real problem for S/W. You are not the only one being told that, “nobody else is having these issues” by your reps. They are telling people that in every market that is complaining, and there are a TON of complaints. I have been privy to some “inside” info on what’s been happening with all of this, and its not pretty. They are losing a lot of accounts, and are in damage control mode right now. There are much better/more user-friendly systems out there that are just as cost effective, if not even more cost effective than AWX. When coverage is lacking, and you have to tint 50-70% of your colors, that low price-tag on the can of paint means NOTHING.
I like Jayson’s suggestion! If PPG and Sikkens show-up at the same time though, the Sherwin people will probably just pack-up their stuff and leave because they are well aware that they can’t compete… LOL
I use a Sata 3000 RP (digital) with a 1.3 tip at 29psi. As Ryan said, fast and close. I tried a few other guns with Superior (Sata 4000 RP, Iwata LPH400, Iwata Supernova, Devilbiss Tekna), but I personally like the 3000 RP the best. I dial the fluid in about one full turn, and leave the fan wide-open. I get beautiful results this way, and just the right amount of peel (not TOO flat). Oh… And I like the two-pack version of Superior a little better than the 3-pack (seems to spray and lay-out nicer, especially the slow version). But they are both VERY nice clears. Hope this helps!
It is a very nice booth Ryan… Its easy to maintain, spacious, well-lit, and VERY ADJUSTABLE. The “adjustable” part comes in handy because these booths run a bit too fast (air flow speed) at the manufacturer’s recommended settings. We had to slow it down a bit, even after the installers FINALLY got the the air flow balanced (we had quite a few issues with the installers). Everything is operated off a touch-screen control panel, and you can make almost every critical adjustment necessary right there with a touch of a button (once you actually figure out how it all works! :compsmash )
The booth has great, quick heating capabilities, and will get as hot as you could EVER need! (I actually got it hot enough inside to buckle the floor grates upward while testing it! 👿 ). And with all the quad nozzles set-up properly, you never have to mess around with re-directing them. On average, it takes about 4 minutes to flash off a wet-coat of Autowave reduced at 40%.
We are still having the installers tinker around with the balance a little at a time though, only because I am still not happy with the amount of turbulance in certain areas of the booth. I take every possible precaution to ensure a very clean paint job (Buffing sucks! 😉 ), and I am still getting a bit more dirt in jobs than I am used to seeing. The booth has a static-neutralization cycle, I have 3M dirt-trap fabric on the walls, and the entire floor has industrial-grade carpet-tile. My other complaint… The controls software doesnt let you turn the quads off in the BAKE cycle. While this is designed to heat the booth faster, somtimes it can cause issues. We paint almost everything apart, so sometimes the parts that are off of the car will be fairly close to the quad towers in the corners due to space limitations. Immediately blowing air across these parts after clearcoating can sometimes cause some light solvent-popping, especially when using straight Slow Superior. We have been in contact with Jun-Air in Europe and they are working on a solution to the issue… :cheers
Thanks Ryan… Yeah, Jun-Air booth w/quads.
Thanks guys… There was way more damage than just the dent you can see in the video, but like I said, QUICK AND FREE. Considering the condition of the car (completely de-laminated), and the quick buzz, seal, and shoot…. The finished product actually came out pretty nice. Must be all the high-end Sikkens products I slopped on it! :rock
Thanks for the compliments on the shop also… It was a looooonnngggg and frustrating process getting that paint shop put together! :chair
But, the end result is pretty sweet! :cheersI used Cromax for awhile… Color match is not their strong point. Using the camera AND Vindicator (VIN #) together definitely helps get you to at least a decent starting point. If the wet-bed is brought to, or very near, the end of the blend panel, you WILL have issues on light colored metallics.
The Dupont reps don’t like to tell people this (because they’re not supposed to), but if you stop using the wet-bed, you will find Cromax is easier to use. I was told this by someone with Dupont, and it made things much easier for me. Most of the other shops in my region that are spraying Cromax DO NOT use the wet-bed/blender anymore after word got around that it was more trouble than it’s worth. Try it out on something and see what you think… :cheers
:welc I don’t know what “experience level” you are at, but if you are THE PAINTER at a legitimate body shop, why are you only making $12.00 an hour??? I’m not trying to rock the boat you are in, but I pay my helper’s more than that most of the time. :cheers
I am in San Diego… We get $58.00 for body/paint. $38.00 for paint materials. %80.00 for frame. And %115.00 for mechanical. Mechanical might be a lot higher, but when an operation/s pays ten hours in mechanical, it is my understanding that you spend much more of that ten hours to complete the job than we do. Most experienced body/paint technicians can finish a 10 hour job in 2.5 to 3 hours, or less with good help :whistle: . Also, body/paint technicians get a bigger percentage of the labor rate the mechanics do (usually anywhere from 33-40%). I don’t personally know ANY mechanics in my company (or any other company) that make 33-40% of the $115.00 per hour that the shop charges.
The industry standard that most paint suppliers and jobbers like to throw out there is 5 to 6 percent of your shops TOTAL gross monthly sales. This number only applies to LIQUIDS. So, if you shop does $100,000 per month in sales, your liquid material bill should be no more than $5000.00-$6000.00. This is also calculated WITHOUT taking any discounts that you may be getting on your materials into consideration. It should be based off refinisher cost (list cost) only.
Dry goods such as sandpaper, tape, paper, etc. usually figure to be around 15-25% of your total liquids bill. So, for every $1000.00 you spend on liquids, you are usually spending another $150.00 to $250.00 on dry goods (at list price, no discounts applied).
These are general formulas that have been around awhile. Of course, it matters what you are using, spraying, etc. It also matters what kind of work you are doing (do you get paid for all of your refinish operations, or are you taking it in the shorts from DRP’s) I keep my liquids cost at around 4.5 to 5.0 percent of our total gross sales. If I were to take our liquid discount into consideration, our ACTUAL liquids cost, on average, is about 3.5% of our gross sales. Painters that are very aware of materials cost, and very efficient with their materials (very little waste, or re-do’s) can keep your costs in this range without a problem. I personally think that getting up near 6 percent on your materials is a problem, and there are some issues that might need to be addressed in the paint shop. :cheers
Jayson… I am surprised that they recommend that up there. I had heard about this somewhere before, and ran it by the Akzo guys at the training center here in CA. They cringed when they heard this, and highly advised against ever trying this. To each their own i guess…