paulw53•3mo agoMost Upvoted

Spent $450 on a cheap paint booth filter system and it cost me a whole job

I mean, I was trying to save some cash on a filter upgrade for my small booth. The unit was about half the price of the good brand. First big job with it, a full respray on a black F-150, and I ended up with a fine dust haze in the clear. Had to block it all down and reshoot. The extra material and labor ate the $450 I saved and then some. It just didn't catch the fine stuff like it claimed. Anyone have a filter brand they actually trust that won't break the bank?

4 comments

4 Comments

west.casey3mo ago

My old man always said the cheap filter is the most expensive part you'll buy. I've seen that dust haze ruin more than one black job.

felix4141mo ago

My buddy runs a detail shop and he swears by the mid-grade filters from the parts store, never had a dust issue. I get the point about cheap ones falling apart, but the super expensive ones seem like overkill for most daily drivers. That mouse nest story from mark_ward is wild, but honestly any filter would have caught that, not just the pricey ones. Sometimes I wonder if we're just paying for the fancy box.

jessej233mo ago

That dust haze comment from @west.casey hits home, reminds me of the time I tried to save a few bucks on a cabin air filter and my whole car smelled like feet for a month.

mark_ward3mo ago

Read a story once about a mechanic who found a mouse nest built inside a cabin air filter. The guy had been driving for weeks with a weird smell and poor airflow, and the cheap filter just let everything right through. Makes you realize how much junk those things actually stop.