Heat Lamp Questions

danp76

danp76

Oldtimer
Hi guys, as the cold weather approaches, I'm thinking of buying a heat lamp. What would you guys recommend? I don't want to spend thousands, just something that I can put on a panel or two, or side of vehicle to speed up dry times. I'm think it would provide great assistance to drying epoxy in the cold weather. Rather then running my heat all night in the shop, I was thinking a heat lamp on the panel for 30mins or so, and then I can put the heat on low in the shop. Thanks guys! Dan.
 
i have 2 cure-tek med wave 1500 watt lamps. they are ok but i have found cure lamps to be spotty. it will heat the panel where you aim it but thats it. if the panel curves away it will get cold so you gotta put it 30-60 min in one spot, move over a foot for another 30-60 min and so on and so on. i cant see it for a big part or side of a car. with one lamp it would take me 3 hours just to do a motorcycle tank. top then the edge and both sides. its kinda a waste. would be probably easier and cheaper to run your heat. only thing i really use it for is doing touchups and blends where i have a small spot or area i need to really cure out.
 
my 40x60x12 shop is heated by a 150k btu torpedo . it takes maybe 20 min to warm it up. i have a smaller one i use in the booth . i can heat the booth to around 80 degrees pretty quick. 10 mins or so and the metal is ready . in all my years i have never owned a heat lamp .
 
Maybe I shouldn't bother with one, it's just that when I spray the epoxy, and leaving the heat on all night gets pricey. I'm running propane heaters, one is 140k btu, the other is 250k btu.
 
They are great for everything but the epoxy. Like Jim said, the heat is directional. Good for curing a couple panels but frustrating otherwise. I have 2 short wave and 2 med. I think the med may do a better job.
 
My garage is just a one car but I have a friend who does heat and air that gave me an electric heater that they took out of a house that they were upgrading the heat and air. Its a 120 amp unit with two stage heat that was rated for a 2500 sq ft house. I hacked the bottom off that held the a coil and hung it horizontal in the rafters. I can go from 30 outside to about 70 inside in less than an hour when I kick it on. Works a charm. Spent about 120 on insulation and wire and breakers for the furnace and it seems to do the trick.
 
Infrared lamps like the Infratech sru-1615 are great for getting spots to cure, spots of primer or spots of body filler, but for whole panels you have to have heat all around. Infrared lamps are particularly handy for collision repair, where there are many opportunities to cure spot prime and fill areas. I also use mine to put extra cure on the faces of bumper covers that need to be flipped to be assembled, this helps prevent the microfiber towels from leaving marks.
 
I couldn't work without one.
Anytime I have a problem when spraying (most of the times)
like a piece of dirt or bug in the paint, I can quickly cure the spot with
my lamp, sand it, and continue spraying. I'm also to impatient with
body filler, why wait. I can warm a complete door with the one I use.
Just warming it up a little really makes a difference.
 
An advantage a lamp does have, and this may be more for collision shops than restoration, is they can be used to pre-heat a spot/section/panel prior to using body filler or 2K. So if you're a small one man shop and your only task this am is to prime a door, there's no need to run the shop heater for an hour to bring the metal temperature up to a desirable temperature. Simply pre-heat the spot/panel for a few minutes while you're mix your primer, remove the lamp, prime then run the lamp say 5 more minutes and call it a morning.

Used 1615s and S1500s should be a dime a dozen if you can find them.

 
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