[Had a few Tri 5's]

I finally went ahead and bought an inflatable booth. So far I like it. A few things I will mention throughout the pictures. I unboxed it and rolled it out. At the rear left is the two air input tubes. The gray one inflates the booth, blue one is for the fresh air into the booth. Didn't find that in the directions.

On each side there is a zipper on the 2nd from the front pillar. Find these and close them or it will only inflate about 1/3 of the way leaving you wondering.

It only takes about 2 minutes to inflate the first time. On the right side there is a large clear panel that was not closed with velcro. Once it inflates you can't do it, and if it is deflated it is also tough. I let it air down and when it was almost down, I was able to hold the material straight and get it together. This is the emergency exit should a tragedy occur.

At the front there is a large zipper door with a smaller walk through door. I had my car on a rotisserie and it has two small stabilization wheels on the center tie bar. These would not roll over that zipper. I had to use the low profile floor jack to raise the wheel and slide the zipper under the wheel. The larger wheels went ok if you got a run at it.

I bought the optional exhaust port fan and tube. It works real well at evacuating the mist. The housing attaches with velcro to the booth side and has its own replaceable filter. The fan is "explosion proof" as well so it was more than the average exhaust fan.

That's most of the high points.....here's a few more pictures of it going up and with the car in it.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Will the overspray stick?

With the extra exhaust fan I notice no floating mist within seconds of stopping the spray. It gets rid of it real quick. I laid a piece of sheet metal on the end of the rotisserie and found just a tiny bit of residue.

One other thing, the temps in the booth rise about 5 degrees from Ambient so plan accordingly.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

The real test is coming up. Getting ready to spray the clear. It tends to fog a lot more than the metallic base. Of course nothing goes exactly as planned. I was spraying the base. I use the 3M PPS2 system which s basically disposable cups. The cup liner I grabbed had a small imperfection on the side that let one little drip out onto the top. Had to wait,sand it out and respray.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

There is a little more mist hanging with the clear. It still evacuates within a minute of spraying. Probably not as quick as a real booth, but much better than spraying in the shop without it. Thing I like about it is the lack of debris in the paint. So far it is clean.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Gorillaspro inflatable paint booths. They are sold by Amazon, Ebay and some others. Overall I am very pleased. I just untaped everything and there was no dust settled anywhere. Of course I taped it well. I got the 26X15X10 tall. I would have liked the wider one but I had a smaller space to blow it up inside the shop. After all the times spraying in a garage or shop and seeing all the debris, then with this virtually none, it made me happy.

Definitely get the additional exhaust port and fan. It would not be super usable without it. I have 2 more to do so the investment is worth it. After that I have a friend that is going to buy it and I can borrow it if I need it again so it will work out.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Really interesting. When you say you taped it well, what exactly do you mean? Are you talking about masking the car itself or do you have to tape inside the booth to keep stuff from getting in?

I just mean I taped/papered the car really well so there were no boo-boo's. I already had the sides and back painted so I protected them well. The booth is all ready to go.

I am pretty sure I will never get it back into its storage bag. I am going to hook the vacuum to the air inlet and suck it down as far as it'll go......then maybe.

The only fear I had really, a power failure or the air tube coming off the blower. I used a hose clamp on the connection to be sure. The tube has a tie ribbon it you tie around the blower..,.kinda not real secure. Once the blower is off, you have about 30 seconds before it collapses.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

I got the 15WX26LX10H, which is outside dimensions. It actually is 11.5W X 24.5L X 8.5H inside dimensions. They have all different sizes. 42L X 21W X 18H is the largest. Huge.

So far the only issue is deflating it. It's like deflating an air mattress on Steroids. I have it folded up into a 3X3 square so far.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Tried that, It just sucks the area close to the vac then the vac tries to suck in the material since it is so floppy.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Speaking of deflation? I’d be worried with my luck that I’d loose power mid spray and have a nasty mess to contend with……my neighbor has one and he lined the floor with thick paper to keep clean. He’s a home painter and bought it for his chevelle project then he can paint home shutters and trim on site for customers.
looks like there’s ample room for you for sure. I like it 🤩

My place has a back up generator. I set it to come on instantly when a power failure comes during the painting time. It takes about 5-8 seconds to make the transfer (not really instant) but it is quick enough. I inflated it and cut the breaker. It just started to drop when the back up switched. Still kind of scary.

While it was still up, I took a wet mop to the floor. I found no residue, and I was spraying dark metallic. The filter was black however. It still looks real clean. Only thing I found was some black residue around some of the seams which is where you can feel some air escaping. Again, I believe the extra exhaust fan is a must.

The whole thing breathes when up. That's why the continual blower. Otherwise I guess you would just blow it up and put in a plug.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Speaking of deflation? I’d be worried with my luck that I’d loose power mid spray and have a nasty mess to contend with……my neighbor has one and he lined the floor with thick paper to keep clean. He’s a home painter and bought it for his chevelle project then he can paint home shutters and trim on site for customers.
looks like there’s ample room for you for sure. I like it 🤩

My place has a back up generator. I set it to come on instantly when a power failure comes during the painting time. It takes about 5-8 seconds to make the transfer (not really instant) but it is quick enough. I inflated it and cut the breaker. It just started to drop when the back up switched. Still kind of scary.

While it was still up, I took a wet mop to the floor. I found no residue, and I was spraying dark metallic. The filter was black however. It still looks real clean. Only thing I found was some black residue around some of the seams which is where you can feel some air escaping. Again, I believe the extra exhaust fan is a must.

The whole thing breathes when up. That's why the continual blower. Otherwise I guess you would just blow it up and put in a plug.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

I've read in a few places that some guys are making anchors/ties to the tops of these if they set them up inside so that, in the event of a power failure, the top doesn't come down on the car. Obviously, you can't do that outside unless you have some nice trees I guess.

That's a good idea. When I roll it out again I will look to see if there are any anchor loops on the top.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

What is the lighting situation in this system.

I have a lot of light, 12, 6 bulb LED 4 footers in the shop so it is pretty bright. The uprights and top are white, the front is clear and the sides have 2 large clear windows. The ambient light is almost as bright as not being it the booth. I still used 2 stand lights and one floor light when I was painting so I had no trouble seeing where the clear was going. I put one right outside the large window so it was not in the way inside. Along the top and about 1/2 way down each pillar there are sewn in metal hooks you could hang lights on as well. I thought about stringing those cheap 4 ft led lights you can daisy chain together along there.

You can see well enough probably for the basecoat without additional lighting, but why. Just throw a few extra in there.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Could i ask how much it was $

All different depending on the size and accessories. Mine was $27.50 + tax.

 

[Had a few Tri 5's]

Not with the fans running, doesn't it overpressure the inside to make the filters effective?

Yes, but the fans make at least 5 degrees on their own while running. Maybe put your ice chest next to the fan intake....