DIY Paint Shop

[Papadog84]

Soooo this is my second attempt because my first thread was corrupted as I submitted it. I am new to this forum. A little background about myself is that i am an active duty soldier of over 12 years. I have a passion for 60's camaro's but nothing more than a rudimentary understanding of restoring cars. I have, however been generally smart with my money and am in a position to try an idea I have had since I first thought about restoring a car.The idea came about when I was doing my usual intense planning of future endeavors and I ran into the problem of where to repaint the car. Most of the bodywork can be done in a garage with sufficent skill and tools but painting requires a special environment.

That brings me to my idea. I would like to open a completely DIY auto paint shop. I know that there are shops on the west coast that allow people to rent their booth for a day but nothing really in the south east. I am thinking 3 full size bays with 1 motorcycle size bay and one or two powder coating bays. The customer would be able to rent the booth, spray gun etc and purchase or bring their own paint, respirator, and paint robes etc... I believe the primary market will be the skilled journeyman painter looking to paint cars for profit and I would probably charge them per project and let them have the booth for a few days, but it would be fully open to the public on an appointment/availability per half day schedule.

So what is the community interest for something like this? Is this a pipe dream? I have sufficient business acumen but I don't know what I don't know about painting. What are the enviormental concerns? What are the other concerns that would make this unfeasible or on the other hand, am I on to something. Is this something that the auto community could support? Prices of course would be reasonable and I am open to suggestions. Obviously they would have to be balanced with keeping the doors open, lol. But goal one is a high quality, readily available DIY auto painting solution.

[bs46488]

Very interesting idea.

I would say a major factor for me would be the price point. I would imagine you are going to have a lot of overhead costs (rent, insurance, permits, tools, maintenance, supplies, staff, EPA fees, etc) so the price would have to be high enough to cover all of that....however, on the flip side if you set the price too high I'd just pay a shop to do the job.

I'm in California, so things are different here. But my neighbor owns his own body shop. Due to costs of owning/operating a booth, he subs out all his major paint work. So I would imagine that has a large impact on his bottom line for profitability.

[BMR Sales]

Things I would look into are Insurance & Environmental Codes. A High Quality Paint Booth with Ventilation & Lighting is not Cheap. You need a High Quality Compressor with Good Water Separators. Spray Guns are not disposable, unless you rent them out to chuckleheads that don't clean them out.

PowderCoat you can get done inexpensively, so to get into that, I don't see the return. In our shop we have separate Spray Guns for each color. How big of an Oven are you going to have - ours is as big as the spray booth.

If you do it, I would rent out the Booths on a Daily Basis - it doesn't matter if it is a Hobbiest or a Journeyman. You don't want to get your Booth tied up for days on end & I would not let people keep any vehicle there overnight.

[Papadog84]

Things I would look into are Insurance & Environmental Codes. A High Quality Paint Booth with Ventilation & Lighting is not Cheap. You need a High Quality Compressor with Good Water Separators. Spray Guns are not disposable, unless you rent them out to chuckleheads that don't clean them out.

PowderCoat you can get done inexpensively, so to get into that, I don't see the return. In our shop we have separate Spray Guns for each color. How big of an Oven are you going to have - ours is as big as the spray booth.

If you do it, I would rent out the Booths on a Daily Basis - it doesn't matter if it is a Hobbiest or a Journeyman. You don't want to get your Booth tied up for days on end & I would not let people keep any vehicle there overnight.


I agree about the overnight thing but I thought the paint had to cure before it can be driven.

[Papadog84]

Very interesting idea.

I would say a major factor for me would be the price point. I would imagine you are going to have a lot of overhead costs (rent, insurance, permits, tools, maintenance, supplies, staff, EPA fees, etc) so the price would have to be high enough to cover all of that....however, on the flip side if you set the price too high I'd just pay a shop to do the job.

I'm in California, so things are different here. But my neighbor owns his own body shop. Due to costs of owning/operating a booth, he subs out all his major paint work. So I would imagine that has a large impact on his bottom line for profitability.

I'm thinking 150 to 250 for 6 hours of booth time

[Jetfixr320]

I would have loved to have rented a booth. But, I couldn't have cleaned and prepped (tape, papered) in 6 hours.

I think there use to be a place in Indianapolis, but it's closed now. Or so I was told and I couldn't find it when I looked.

[TheJDMan]

I would recommend you do some research and see exactly what permits are needed and what they will cost. You may be surprised at how expensive they are depending on were you are located.

[minendrews68]

Don't take the negative responses personal, these guys are only looking out for your well being by pointing out some very good problems that would be devastating if you were to get into this halfway and find out you overlooked some very expensive problems. I like your ideas, but if you do this watch your belongings, 'cause no one is going to look out for you equipment like you will. Good luck.

[jasonsnova]

well I hate to be be debby downer but I think your start up costs will out weigh your profit. I own a body shop I know....
a cheap booth will cost 8-15k most are in the 20-40k range for a good booth then is your booth going to be heated? heat lamps? cost to wire it , then of coarse you have the other stuff like a dry chem fire suppression sytem in the booth(those are required in most areas) other things you will need is a good compressor (absolute minimum of 5hp/80gallon) air drier system, oil separator, other thing is most places will require you to have a fire rates paint room/mix room that is its own separate room.
then you have all the usual stuff building cost/rent, spray equipment( my average spray gun is $600, and you will want/need at least 3, 1 for base coats,1 for clear,one for primers) other things to think of gun cleaners, and waste...you will have paint waste , we have a solvent recycler which is another 5k. also insurance companys will most likely have a field day with your premiums being that you will have non employees working in your shop. Belive me sounds like a nice plan, it would be nice to just collect rent /use fee but I know it wont make ends meet.....sorry.

[minendrews68]

Remember what I said above

[Jetfixr320]

There are several used Booths on CL withen a few hours of Indiana. If I had a "Big" shop I would be all over one.

Since there is a DIY auto shop in town. And I know there are other such places around the Country. I'm wondering what differences if any would there be for Insurance and environmental fee's would there be besides having a repair/overhaul to paint/body? Both will have hazardous waste and have potential fire hazards and paying customers using the place?

I think if I were to try it. I would either make it, bring and take your own guns and waste. Or have extra fee's for the shop to handle it.
If they wanted to rent guns they wouldn't be a $400+ dollar gun either.

Just my .02 and not my thread.