painting

[jim buford]

I have some old tractors that need painting. I just want them to be protected but not show quality and don't won't to spend an arm and a leg, just basic priming and painting. What do you guys suggest. Thanks

 

[showcrop]

Any part of the tractor that you want the paint to stick to needs to be prepped. Prep costs very little money mostly just time. First remove all sheet metal and other major parts depending on how deep you wan to go. Remove all dirt, grease and oil by first scraping underneath, then dollar store oven cleaner followed by pressure washing, then on to rust removal. Rust removal can be done by sandblasting or with a cup type wire wheel. Rust needs to be killed with a phosphoric acid based rust converter, there are many brands. A quart is plenty, and follow instructions carefully. Prime with epoxy primer. top coat with paint that meeds your needs. Cheap equipment paint over a five hour prep, or low end automotive over a fifty hour prep. There are many more details.

 

[jim buford]

Thanks.

 

[504]

Cheep paint brushes and a 4 inch roller. Brush is for the places you can not roll. I have probably done twenty of them.

 

[joyjoy8]

You should try this suggestion Jim.

 

[jim buford]

Can you post some pics of some of your work? How does it hold up? Thanks

 

[SVcummins]

I did one 15 years ago with John Deere paint and a cheap harbor freight gun in a garage with one light bulb the night before the local tractor show sometimes it goes 2 years or more without a wash and it lives outside all year round . It?s not perfect but I knew I?d have to spend a lot of money on new sheet metal to ever have a really nice looking tractor . I put all the money into the mechanical end of the tractor I thought that was a lot more important than spending money on a fancy paint job paint don?t pull a plow or a drill or anything else . I was like you I just wanted it to look a little nicer

 

[Stephen Newell]

It mainly comes down to preparation how well the paint job will work. You have to make sure the tractor is very clean and grease free. With an old tractor that can be challenging. Sometimes you have to result to using oven cleaner to cut the grease. Then if the tractor has been painted before no telling what the previous painter has done. On my tractor I ran into places where someone had painted over clumps of dirt and grease and oddly enough the clods held the paint and held up to a power washer. I had to dig it off with a chisel.

Of course automotive paints will last longer but they are expensive. The biggest difference in paint is color. If you are painting a tractor with the color red in it you could really benefit from paying more for the paint. The color red is especially prone to fade with cheaper paint. It's a lot of work to paint a tractor and in five years you see your red tractor turn pink you will regret using cheap paint.

 

[RjMaan]

I think you should give a custom look to your tractor. Since no one want to paint his tractor again and again so I would suggest you to paint it in an awesome way in a single run.

 

[SVcummins]

I agree preparation is the most important thing on any paint job . That?s why not much gets painted around here I?m not the guy who will paint over dirt and grease . I can spend 2 weeks cleaning and prepping something then come back the next day and think I haven?t even started on this thing .

 

[Goose]

I agree.

When I had a full time shop and painted a lot of vehicles, I always said the actual act of applying the paint was a 30 minute climax to a week or two of prep time.

 

[87nassaublue]

If you just want to protect from rust and make it look a little better, just clean the tractor well with a de-greaser, scuff the shine off with scotchbrite and rattlecan it. If you want it to look like a restoration, prep work is critical and use a good paint product with a gravity feed gun.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 17:15:32 06/25/18) If you just want to protect from rust and make it look a little better, just clean the tractor well with a de-greaser, scuff the shine off with scotchbrite and rattlecan it. If you want it to look like a restoration, prep work is critical and use a good paint product with a gravity feed gun.

Nassau, How will painting over rust protect it from rust???