Monday, April 13, 2009

Tricks of the trade - Dust control on the floor.

When painting a car it is critical to keep your environment clean, this includes the floor. Spraying paint at 50 PSI will stir dust that is on the floor of your shop. Some use water to control this dust, wetting the floor will help. Unfortunately water evaporates and guess what? Dust will start stirring again. Dust control products such as: 3M Dust Down and other popular products work great but are very expensive considering how much you will use to saturate the entire work space.
We found a simple formula for adding elements to the water to help its effectiveness after the evaporation period. We recommend using it when wetting your floor. We sell the formula itself and allow you to mix it yourself for less then $2.00 a gallon.
Spray the floor down liberally for excellent dust control. With a dust control product down, it will help keep the dust where it belongs, on the floor and not in your paint.
There are many ways to control dust in a body shop. My personal preference is to remove it entirely. The only way to do this is to vacuum accumulated dust instead of the popular air blower blowing it everywhere. For dust control we vacuum periodically during the repair process, pressure wash the vehicle before its masked and then treat the floor with our home brewed dust control product. It works great and is extremely cost effective.
Some think the key to a clean paint job is a tack cloth and water on the floor. "We say if its on the car it will be in the paint". So cleaning the car is your number one priority and we don't mean just the surface to be painted, we mean "EVERYWHERE". Clean the Door jambs, Under the Trunk and around the inner fenders. Clean, Clean and then when you think your finished, clean some more. Clean the car periodically through out the repair process. 1 hour cleaning saves 2 hours polishing.

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2 comments:

  1. I also use a vacuum to remove dust. What is the point in using an air blower? You're just stirring the dust all over the place and expose yourself to inhaling it.

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  2. I agree. If you never use a vacuum, it never leaves the building and always ends up in the paint.

    ReplyDelete

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