wow! where do you live that you have regulations regarding filtration?
A while ago, I worked at a bodyshop in Peters Township, which is in the south hills of Pittsburgh, PA. Peters is the big money area of Pittsburgh. Chuck Noll, Mario Lemieux, Bill Cowher, Rooney Family, and lots of other big names lived in that part of the city. We were inspected several times by the EPA/DER and by local supervisors. The only thing they ever nailed us on was not having lids on our trash containers, and for some of us still having conventional non-HVLP paint guns
. As far as the booth emissions, they were unfiltered and blown directly out the back of the shop. I also worked in a shop in Washington, PA, in the middle of a city street, and same thing, paint fumes and overspray, right out onto the roof!
If you are interested in getting some cheaper PPG prices, and Matrix clears, I can help. Just let me know what you want and I'll get you a price on it. You seem to have it rough, paying that much for clearcoat. PPG DC-3000 which is their most expensive clear is mixed 4:1 no reducer(not needed at all) it's $155 a package, meaning the quart of hardener and gallon of clear total cost is $155. That's 5 quarts of sprayable material @ $31 per quart. For most jobs that I am not in a hurry to get out of the shop, I'll use Matrix MS-20 clearcoat. When PPG discontinued their 2020 clearcoat, in favor of the lower VOC 2021, Matrix picked up the formula, and calls it MS-20. It's identical to the 2020 clearcoat I used to spray, even smells the same!
It's $124 a package, but it is mixed 2:1:0.5 with the .5 being optional. being 2:1 you need 2 quarts of hardener to a gallon of clear, so your sprayable paint is 6 quarts @ $20 a quart. MS-20 can be bought in quarts w/ pints of hardener (MH-005.)
Now, as far as basecoat goes, well, PPG can get pricey, but they do offer half pints @ $20 per half pint, depending on the color selected. DBU is classic and is mixed 1:1.5 so a half pint of DBU makes 1.5 pints sprayable. Basecoat reducer can be bought by the quart as well, rather than shelling out for the whole gallon. Now... If you want PPG, but don't want to pay as much for the basecoat, then go with Omni MBC basecoat. A gallon of Omni is around $60, verses $210 a gallon for DBU or $250 a gallon for DBC. they don't usually mix halfpints of MBC because it is reduced 1:1 straight, but a pint of most colors will run you from $9-14. and as far as the quality of omni...
check this out...
www.cobweb.net/~mvp/000_00941.jpg
I did that 67 Mustang about 11 months ago. he had a total of $320 in paint, including a gallon of 2K build primer, gallon of basecoat(MBC), gallon of base reducer(MR186), gallon of clear(MS-20), 2 quarts hardener(MH-005), and a gallon of clear reducer(MR0870). The car is daily driven in Pennsylvania snow and salt, and still looks like the day I shot it.
Of course, I am just letting you know what I am paying, and offering you my discounts if you are interested. Although, I took a look at some of your pictures and I think you are doing an outstanding job with the way you are painting now! I hope you are wearing a good respirator
good luck on the SR!
John