Painted Nuts and Bolts

[Wjt091]

When putting a piece back together do you paint the nuts and bolts first and then assemble. And if you do how do you protect the paint or do you just touch it up later. What is the best way to paint nuts and bolts. Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[CNKS]

You touch them up later. Bolts can be spray painted as a group or individually with a brush. Unless you are a purist, many can be replaced with cadmium plated ones (hardware store), as long as they do not detract from the tractor.

 

[ScottyHOMeY]

I paint hardware the same as I do other parts that are too small or too awkward to handle, or can't be done better by supporting them some other way. Basically I make myself a sort of a clothesline set up, two standards, with an extra 1x2 brace (to keep the uprights from falling together under the weight) at the top between them, so that it's 6-8 feet between the uprights. I can string any number of lengths of wire or clothesline (sometimes better than wire, things that are wet are less likely to slide together if you bump something) between them, and then hang the parts to be painted from them. Any cheap wire can be used to hang the small parts. I use a lot of wreath wire, it only takes a twist and a half around the threads of a bolt, for example, to hold it and then fashion a small hook on the other end to hang on the line. Stouter wire is needed for heavier parts like PTO shields, tank or seat supports . . .

 

[Wjt091]

Thanks for the ideas on the painting. I like your string idea better than what i was going to do. So paint then touchup it is. Thanks For the Help

 

[ScottyHOMeY]

I forgot about it earlier, but for smaller bolts, up to 1/2" or so, get you some corrugated cardboard, take your pen knife and slit some Xs in it, and poke the bolts into the Xs, leaving the heads sticking up above the cardboard enough so that they don't touch, and far enough apart that the don't interfere with you gettin' paint to the sides of any of them. Lay your bolt-studded cardboard on a table and paint away. You can get a lot of them done quickly that way. Nuts and washers still need to be hung up.

But, yes, paint and retouch is the way I'd go.

 

[Pitalplace]

Push a bolt through the bottom of the card board and then screw the nut on a couple of turns. Paint away. That's how I paint my nuts.

 

[Dick L]

Cardboard?

Why in the world dint ya say something about the cardboard trick before I drilled all the different sized holes in bunch a scrap two by fours. Some on both edges and more on the flats. Think of alla the work ya caused me.

 

[ScottyHOMeY]

Wait 'til ya get to be my age, and you'll be comin' up with ideas like that, too. All on your own! ;8^)