Advice on painting equipment, technique

[DBCSteve]

Just got a new-to-me L3400 and would like to paint my Gannon scraper to match -- it needs painting anyway. Also will paint my JD 450C dozer in the next year. My painting experience is only with rattle cans. Anyone have some straightforward advice on painting equipment and application for painting tractors and equipment? Some great examples of end results on this web site, but I'd like to hear how you did it! Thanks.

 

[KeithG]

No equipment recommendations??? I would be really interested in knowing what people use also. Thanks.

 

[adventure bob]

If you have an air source look at either Summit or Jegs. They have amateur kits that will do well for painting farm equipment. I assume your not going to spend $500 for an Iwata or something like that and that your not going for a show finish. I'm thinking the consumer level for under $100 is where you think you could be? You'll need somewhere to spray as well or you'll just have textured paint. Everything will stick to it: bugs, dust, hair...
I tend to hang plastic around the stall and wet the floor to keep dust down since I don't have a booth. works Ok, but still end up with some texture. If you shoot single stage you can fine sand some of the texture out as you go, depending on how good you want the paint to look. On the implements the texture isn't that big of a deal, but Id want to paint a tractor to a decent finish. If you don't know, painting is only about 20% of making it look good, prep is the other 80%.

 

[rjcorazza]

I used a air compressor type sprayer and enamel paint thinned slightly with mineral spirits. Painted snowblower, rear blade, and tiller with satisfactory results. I don't have an indoor area to spray in, so I just did it outside.
I had never used an air sprayer before, but was pleasantly surprised how easy it was, including cleanup. As "adventure Bob" states, 80% prep. I used a wire brush on an angle grinder, wiped the implement down, and rattle canned primer on the bare metal.

 

[adventure bob]

RJ, why didn't you prime form the gun?
DBC you may also look at a dessicant dryer can, depending on where you live. Keeps the ambient moisture out of the paint and gun.

HF sells them pretty cheap. You can get them at Summit/Jegs as well. Little nicer but a little more $$

 

[rkidd]

I too about a year and a half ago bought a new B2650 and a used FDR1672. It needed painted and I wanted to paint it Kubota orange to match my new tractor. I had never painted before. So I got online and checked sights on how to paint. I bought a new HVLP gun from Auto Zone for around $70.00. I found what type of thinner to use and bought the hardener and matching paint from my Kubota dealer. I also bought the paint mixing cup and found the right ratio to use on the cup to simplify how to mix the paint, thinner and hardener. I took the deck completely apart and took it down to bare metal with a 4 1/2" grinder with a flap disk. I bought a little hand held sand blaster from Tractor Supply for like $30.00 to get in the corners you couldnt get with the grinder. I then primed it with rattle cans due to the fact that the new paint gun has a 1.4 mm tip which is too small to apply primer. Then I sprayed 4 nice coats of paint. It came out very good with no runs for my first paint job. I then put on the new Land Pride decals to make it look like brand new.

View attachment 25347

View attachment 25348

View attachment 25349

View attachment 25350

View attachment 25351

 

[Tooljunkie]

I have achieved acceptable results with 3"rollers. A wet saand between coats and a super fine sand on finish coat. Thinning it slightly really helped.

 

[redfernclan]

I worked at a saw mill for 10 years as a diesel mechanic and in that time we rebuilt half a dozen loaders. Engines, transmissions, cylinders, weld up and fish plate the frame in weak spots and then paint them when we were done. Used a steam cleaner, not just a pressure washer on the whole thing and then, believe it or not, wiped it down with rags soaked in brake kleen. Sprayed them with factory color paint thinned with about 1/3 reducer with fish eye remover added. They turned out pretty good. The final touch, which can be spendy, was buying the factory decal kits. Made the whole thing really "pop"

 

[sdk1968]

is a paint list..... listed here on the site somewhere for touch ups & stuff?

didnt see it in the stickies.