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I'd already begun ordering supplies for my own booth when this idea hit me. Paints booths seem to be a fairly regular topic of conversation around here and other forums. Everything from the best commercially available to getting pointed in the right direction for a homemade one. I've decided to build the booth I've always wanted. It's a 25" W x 25" H x 16" D downdraft booth from 24-gauge sheetmetal with multi-stage carbon filteration for odor/fume removal. I've got my fan in from Grainger and I hope to get to the metal supply house within the week to pick up my stock. I've got access to and permission to use our sheetmetal equipment and Bridgeports at work. If anybody is interested, I'd be willing to knock out a few copies. I'm not looking to set up a factory but wouldn't mind a second stream of income. The only downdrafts on the market with carbon filtration that I can find are the Artographs starting at $570 and working up to almost $900 but I'm working to see if I can get them done around the price of a good cross-draft/updraft Pace booth. Downdraft booths are the standard in the 1:1 community and carbon filtration reduces the need for external ventilation. I'm planning on getting a website up, my personal/demo booth done and final pricing by the Heartland Nats in June.

What are you considering a good price? Most of the cost of building your own booth is going to be getting a good, safe fan. If you want to save some money there you can go with a down-draft booth which by design requires a much smaller squirrel cage. I just ordered one from Grainger last week for about $100 for a 273 CFM model (1TDR3) which is plenty for the down-draft booth I'm building. Considering you'll have to drop anywhere from just under $200 to up to a $1000 dollars for a high end one for any paint booth from a company it's a relative bargain.

Dayton squirrel cage blower also known as a shaded-pole or PSC blower. I've ordered a couple through Grainger now, one for the old booth that I'm now selling and a bigger one last week for my new booth. I've got some information with the specs for figuring out which blower is right that was put together by Klaus Raddatz. Klaus is a guru when it comes to homemade booths just shoot me a line and I'll get it to you.

I agree here, I'm on my second. The first one got dropped hard in a move and never worked right again. The trays were fine so I've got 8 on the new one. 4 have the centers cut out so I can put bodies and assemblies in and 4 are as delivered for holding individual parts.

I got this in from Grainger through work. It's a Dayton blower (1TDR3 in Graingers catalog) for the new paint booth I'm building. I'm finally going to take advantage of the fact that I work in a machine shop and build the booth I've always wanted. I've had one made of 3/4" MDF since 2004 because that's what I had to work with at the time. The new one will be all metal and I'm going with a multi-stage carbon filtration set up that will eliminate the need for venting outside. If all goes well, I'm debating the idea of putting out my own line of booths that are more in reach for modelers. As it stands now you can't get into a downdraft, carbon filter booth for less than $800-900 unless you build your own.

My wife and I have a standing policy to at least run it by the other if we're going to spend more than a $100. Less than that usually doesn't get questioned. It's worked well for us for the last 10 years.

The first time I remember seeing the term "pro-touring" in print was back when I was in high school in 1993-97. That's about the time that high performance radials in the 17-18" range started becoming attainable, performance EFI manifolds and road racing suspension mods started hitting the aftermarket, and a decent inventory of OEM EFI'd motors and overdrive trannied combos started hitting the wrecking yards. All the major mags had issues upon issues devoted to articles that didn't involve just going fast in a straight line back in the mid-90s. I do agree that the actual roots of pro-touring go back to the Trans-Am cars, followed by the cafe racers, they fell out of favor when pro-street was in vogue and then they came back into style in the 90s.

That's looking sinister, keep it coming.

That's some great stuff there. I love seeing those old C2/C3 Vettes being run hard.

Absolutely gorgeous work, I wish I had a 1/10th of this guys talent for not only detail but perspective. Thanks for the link.

Thanks all, the '60 Chevy is just one of those cars that I love but can't put a finger on why. There's no single element that stands out to me, it just looks right.

I just saw this one in the new MCM, don't know how I missed it being announced. Anybody picked one up and if so your thoughts?

Man, I've never built a big rig before and this kit's got me salivating at the possiblities. Great choice of subject and the mockup is looking awesome. I can see it now done up in Chaos Motorsports livery. BTW, is there a modern race-car hauler in 1/25th or would it be a complete scratch build?

Other than picking up a couple of the '02 Camaros for kitbashing the LSx motor/T-56 tranny from my wallet is safe.

That's awesome work. I've got Xara, which is another vector art program that works similar to Illustator, but have never done anything like this with it.

Here's another home-built one. It's of a down-draft design with a Dayton squirrel cage blower below the expanded metal stage. It takes a standard 14x25 furnace filter which slides between the expanded metal and the head space above the fan. I've attached a file given to me by Klaus Raddatz who was a regular over on the Hobby Heaven (now Spotlight Hobbies) board. It contains pretty much everything that you need to build a booth to industry specifications. For about $100 (back in 2004), most of which was the cost of the blower, I've got a commercial grade set-up that's given me years of trouble-free service. We've got a big ole sheetmetal brake at work, so I plan to eventually go that route on my next one.

I've used Treble since the board change and just realized it's the only skin without a direct link to Messenger. I thought that it was done away with when the board was updated until I got an PM. Still can't access Messenger unless you have an unread message then you'll get a link to your inbox. I guess I'll have to change skins to IBS Red.

Thanks Marc

They have a few things that I'm interested in but I'm always a little leary ordering from overseas. I've heard great things about HLJ and HW Japan but these guys name doesn't come up very often. TIA

I just put up about a dozen kits over there and now I'm headed to the garage to finally tackle my buckets o' parts.

Try typing "find Chuck Norris" into Google and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button. If you're familiar with his lore you'll understand.

Once I get a chance to break these down into more manageable lots, they'll be headed there. Parts lots don't really have a category so would they be better off in PE, decals, etc. or the anything else area?

Very clean build. I would never thought to use red over green.

Steel wool is actually some useful stuff and very flammable. I saw on one of those survival shows that you can use steel wool and a 9-volt battery to light a fire. Just rub the posts of the battery across a fluffed up pad of steel wool and it sparks to life. It'll burn hot and long enough to dry out whatever kindling you can find. I carry some now in the truck just in case.