Source: 2018 Q4 Beartracks, Rod Smith
I’m in the process of painting the Bearhawk frame, tailfeathers, landing gear etc. My original plan was to wait for a calm day and paint them outside, that worked fine when I rebuilt a Maule M5 many years ago. The weather for doing that ended about 6 weeks before I was ready. On the Maule project I had used 2x4s and Visqueen to build a spray booth in my garage at a prior home for fabric work and painting. Seemed like there should be an easier way to do it. I went online and found inflatable spray booths 26x13x10 high for about $1300. Besides being way too much money, it was too high for my garage, and I don’t have heat in my hangar. Searching the internet I found a write up on modifying a wedding/event tent as a spray booth. I found a 20×10 tent on EBAY for $60. Purchased that, and set it up in my garage over a silver tarp to protect the floor and help reflect light. Had to cut 6” off the poles so it would fit under the garage door opener. That also made it easier to seal the side walls to the floor. Knew I needed lots of duct tape for sealing the seams but instead found 3” tarp tape on Amazon. Required two rolls at $22 each and much easier to use. For ventilation I bought four 20” box fans from Walmart at $18 each and 20×20 furnace filters. Two fans blow into the booth and two exhaust from it. The fans blowing in prevent dust coming in through any inadequately sealed areas. I learned that at the Stewart Systems workshop at Oshkosh. Not overwhelming but adequate air flow. For lighting I borrowed three 8-foot fluorescent fixtures from the other half of the garage. Searching on amazon I found 4-foot fluorescent style LED fixtures, pack of 6 for $125. The lighting is great, amazing how bright the LEDs are compared to the fluorescents. Took a couple days to set everything up and took a lot of extension cords. Now that it is setup will use it for all the fabric work and finish painting. Total cost:$300.