I am planning on painting my RT in the coming month and need to purchase a good quality respirator. I will be painting base/clear.
Can you recommend the specific respirator to buy?
As always, thanks in advance.
DPL
if it is 2 pac isocyanate hardened paint , you need a airfed mask , i'm sure there are a lot on the market.. but i have only used a SATA one for 18years i've been painting , but they ain't cheep
A regular mask won't work. And the stuff in base coat/clear coat will permanently mess you up. You need a air supply going to the mask that keeps positive pressure. You can get it from a regular compressed air system but you have to have a good filter to get the oil mist out of the air---which means expensive. Or you can use a little dedicated compressor that is oilless. I looked into this some and found a little rig on the internet that costs something in the $500 range as I recall. None of the little airless compressors at harbor freight or anywhere else you normally get these has enough volume. Something like this would be real easy to make. I sure wish Harbor Freight would get their Chinese suppliers to make a setup like this. They could sell a zillion of them to people like us. My idea was to locate the compressor in the house and run a 40 ft hose outside to the mask ensuring that I wouldn't be breathing any of the harmful stuff. You also want your mask to have tear-off visors that you can throw away as they get paint on them. Let us know how you solve this problem. Thanks.
Eastwood has a postive pressure one on their site. I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for it but the price is right at $420. Also, a couple times a year they have a 10% off sale if you can wait for it.
http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=17666&itemType=PRODUCT
You can get a professional multi-use respirator for spraying isocyanate finishes for about $50 from automotive paint supply stores. They use 2 types of disposable filters This type of respirator is the most common type used by professional painters. The air supply type mentioned earlier is resisted by most painters due to being a bit cumbersome and is overkill for painting one car. If you buy the aforementioned type be sure to read and adhere to the safety instructions it comes with. Also note that they come is different sizes.