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Automotive Paint Booths with Heated Air Makeup

Updated July 2026

An automotive paint booth is a code-compliant, ventilated spray booth engineered for refinishing cars, trucks, and collision work, usually with a heated bake cycle for fast, high-quality cures. AEI Paint Booths builds complete automotive paint booth systems — crossdraft, semi-downdraft, side downdraft, and pit downdraft — with heated air makeup, mix rooms, and energy-efficient variable airflow, all built to meet NFPA 33 and OSHA. Since 2003 we have supplied nut-and-bolt automotive booths to collision shops, dealers, and OEMs across North America.

Automotive Paint Booth Airflow:

The optimum airflow pattern through an automotive paint booth depends in large part on what you are painting. We will consider the parts your are painting, the facility layout, desired throughput, and several others factors to recommend the best airflow for your application.

Crossdraft Automotive Paint Booths: Air enters the booth through the filtered front doors. The clean filtered air flows through the work area and is pulled through the filtered exhaust chamber at the rear of the booth by an exhaust fan.

Pressurized Crossdraft Automotive Paint Booths: The air makeup unit pushes air into the booth through the filtered intake columns in the front corners of the booth. The clean filtered air flows through the work area and is pulled through the filtered exhaust columns in the rear corners of the booth by an exhaust fan.

Semi Downdraft Automotive Paint Booths: The air makeup unit pushes air into the booth through the filtered intake plenum on top of the booth above the front doors. The clean filtered air flows through the work area and is pulled through the filtered exhaust chamber at the rear of the booth by an exhaust fan.

Side Downdraft Automotive Paint Booths: The air makeup unit pushes air into the booth through the filtered intake plenum on top of the booth. The clean filtered air flows through the work area and is pulled through the filtered exhaust chambers at floor level in the side walls of the booth by exhaust fans.

Pit Downdraft Automotive Paint Booths: The air makeup unit pushes air into the booth through the filtered intake plenum on top of the booth. The clean filtered air flows through the work area and is pulled through the filtered exhaust pit in the floor of the booth by exhaust fans.

Automotive Paint Booths Standard Features

Paint Booth Construction:

Panels: Our paint booth panels are fabricated from 18-gauge prime quality G-90 galvanized steel. Panels are fastened together with nuts and bolts for maximum rigidity and ease of assembly. Holes are precision CNC punched on 6” centers. Pre-punched holes assure true panel alignment.

Structural Support: Our paint booth beams and columns are fabricated from formed 10 Gauge Galvanized Steel or W6x9 Steel Beams. Support is placed on maximum 10' centers for added rigidity. Support columns anchor to a concrete floor with special concrete bolts selected for your facility concrete.

Product/Personnel Doors:

Product Doors: Options for coil type roll up doors or standard swing type doors. These doors are provided with a closed cell foam rubber weather stripping seal about the perimeter and a neoprene rubber sweep seal at the threshold. The mounting hardware provided includes a panic type safety latch and four 9'' door pulls.

Personnel Access Doors with Window: Personnel access doors are provided as a double wall 18-gauge galvanized steel unit sized at 36'' x 84” and are provided pre-hung in a heavy gauge steel frame ready for mounting to the spray booth. Mounting hardware includes a panic type safety latch and two 6'' door pulls.

Exhaust System:

Exhaust Fans: A tube axial type duct fan specifically designed and constructed for use in paint spray booths and similar applications is provided for exhaust. A precision balanced, fabricated, aluminum non-sparking fan blade moves the air through the fan. Bearings are mounted in rubber isolators for smooth operation. The motor, drive, and bearings are isolated from the exhaust air stream. The bearings are sized with a minimum average life, per AFBMA, in excess of 200,000 hours when operating at the maximum RPM of the fan size.

Filtration:

Intake Filtration: Intake air filters: Rated by UL as Class 2 and are EPA registered as environmentally safe. Filters are self-supporting in an internal frame - 20'' x 20'' x 1''.

Exhaust Filters: Filtration has six layers of expanded paper to create an alternating labyrinth upstream of a heavy polyester backing. This combination yields higher efficiency while still providing ample holding capacity in a wide variety of applications. Filters are lab tested with over a 99.8% particulate removal efficiency. FilterLoc track is mounted to the exhaust chamber providing a tighter seal to help eliminate overspray bypass. The roll media is secured in the FilterLoc track using the provided FilterLoc Tool. The new technology provides savings by allowing the utilization of roll media reducing overall cost and decreases overall filter change out time.

LED Lighting:

LED Illumination: • Fixtures are Maintenance-Free rated for Class I Division II Groups A, B, C, D; Class II Division II Groups F and G. Fixtures are ETL listed and approved for their intended use and placement. Lighting is provided by innovative LED technologies consisting of multiple high efficiency flux boards paired with high efficiency drivers. Fixtures are designed to accept either 120VAC or 277VAC power. Driver and boards carry a 5-year limited warranty.

Air Makeup Units - Standard Equipment:

Variable Airflow Control System
Automatic Booth Pressure Balancing
Spray Mode / Flash Mode / Cure Mode
Deluxe Digital Control Panel
V-Bank Pre Filter w/ Cleanable Filters
110° F Temperature Rise
100% Fuel Efficiency.
Exhaust Variable Frequency Drive
Intake Variable Frequency Drive
Automatic Discharge Damper
ETL Label

Flame Failure Light
Gas Pressure: 7 Inches to 5 Pounds
Natural Gas or Propane
ANSI w/ 2 Solenoid Gas Valves
Variable Airflow Gas Controls
Intake Screen
G-90 Galvanized Casing
100% Replacement Air
Electric Current: 208-230-460/60/3
Motor - ODP - High Efficiency EPACT
401M - Maxitrol Control System

Variable Air Volume Control System:

The variable air volume control systems give you precise control over the air flow when you are painting, flashing, and curing. This allows you to adjust for solvent base or water base paints, different sized pieces of work, and different outside air conditions like -10° F and 5% humidity or +95° F and 85% humidity.

We offer the ability to flash and cure at 100% airflow and high temperatures. We can provide 100% airflow and a 110° F temperature rise over the outside air temperature. 20° F outside our system can provide 100% airflow at 130° F. This system allows you to control how much air is used by the air make-up unit allowing you to control operational costs as well. System includes Variable Frequency Drives for both intake and exhaust volume control. Includes Programmable Digital Control Panel.

Automatic Booth Pressure Balance:

The Automatic Balancing System speeds up or slows down the exhaust fan to keep the pressure balanced in the booth and the airflow at a proper speed. Set the pressure desired in the booth and the system will automatically adjust the speed of the exhaust fan to maintain the desired preset pressure. This system also speeds up the exhaust fan as the exhaust filters load up with overspray allowing longer times between filter changes.