Longest paint job ever

[Deon]

I've painted cars and trucks for 13 years, painted a forklift once and helped paint a few school busses and fire trucks. But painting a backhoe is more time consuming than any I have ever done. So far I have scraped of a lot of grease, pressure washed the whole machine, sandblasted all 4 wheels (rear ones with tires removed and chloride disposed of), the frame, fuel tank, battery box, step plates, hoe boom, loader boom and bucket, all 5 hood parts, and a few other covers etc. I had a sand beach in my garage. Used about 7 bags of silica sand. Now I still have other sanding and cleaning to do and mask off all that is not to be painted. The cab I refurbished and painted 2 years ago so I won't be doing any more with that.
I'm coating everything with 2 coats of epoxy prime, first coat white and second one in grey. That way I can see that I am covering everything twice.
Finish coat will be with Polyur 8000 (Polyval brand) high quality polyurethane paint and new decals. Can't wait to get it all done. Don't worry, I'll be posting photos of the finished job. I'll take photos with my camera instead of my iPhone.

 

[norite]

Nice pics, you are doing a thorough job prepping. I see you sandblast inside your garage, how do you keep the sand out of everything?

I painted my 1974 310 years ago. It was a lot of work. Back then I only had a small gravity feed sandblaster and no pressure washer to clean it with. It was a lot of work but it looked like a new one when it was done. I used John Deere paint back then, you had to cut it with a special reducer or you couldn't get it through a spray gun. (xylene IIRC) I still have some yellow overspray on some of my stuff.

I like your idea of the two colours of epoxy primer, never heard of your topcoat paint but I have been out of autobody and paint for years. I'm going to have to start painting some of my equipment including my 310E so I am really interested in what you are doing.

Looking forward to seeing the "after" pics.

 

[OldandWorn]

Yes sir, the quality of a paint job is in the prepping. I painted my metal lathe and mill years ago with Glasurit urethane and it has held up very well.

Nice job Deon and I also can't wait to see the results.

 

[Deon]

Norite,
I didn't keep the sand off of anything. I'm just cleaning the whole garage after. It needed it anyway.
I cleaned off one counter yesterday so I'll have a place to mix up my primer and paint. I've got about
14 parts and pieces off the machine. I think I'll paint them first and then store them in
my other garage while I paint the tractor. I really don't have the space to do it all at once.

 

[Deon]

Little progress happening. I covered up the tractor and painted a bunch of parts. Tomorrow I'm off to the tire shop with my rear rims primed in epoxy primer to get the tires mounted. I'll paint the rear wheels while I'm painting the tractor. Now I need to remove the newly painted parts from the garage to continue the job.

 

[johnny_waz]

Wow, what a project Deon! Looking good so far. If you don't mind me asking, are you keeping a running tab of all your supplies minus man hours? If so, what are you into it for so far?

Thanks, John

 

[Deon]

John,
I haven't got the invoices in front of me but I remember buying
4 gallons of epoxy primer and 2 gallons of polyurathane paint plus
catalist and thinner. I went for high quality material and I've spent
about $600 so far for paint supplies. I'm in Canada so prices are
probably more expensive than in the US. Also based on the paint I've
used so far, I think I'm going to need move paint than I've got.

 

[johnny_waz]

Not bad so far. If you'd of told me to guess I would of said $800. Quality paint is NOT cheap!

Isn't that how it always goes, you never quite have enough, or you end up with way to much leftover. Its never JUST right. Hahaha...

 

[Deon]

Johnny Waz IS right, the paint is more than I though. Actually I picked up another gallon of yellow today as I figure 2 gallons and catalyst is not enough. My total for paint and primer is going to be close to 1 grand. Oh well, it will be it's first and final face lift. The paint is mixed 2:1 so now I will have purchased 3 gallons of paint and 1.5 gallons of catalyst for a total of 4.5 gallons plus the 4 gallons of epoxy primer and it's hardener and thinner. Looks like a lot of paint but there is lots of surface by the time you cover all sides of the booms, cylinders, frame, axles and all. And the fact is that a thin coat of paint just doesn't cut it on a backhoe. There are too many sharp edges and rough surfaces. You need thickness to get good protection.
This machine doesn't get a lot of use but sits around a lot. That's when they rust the most so if I want to keep it I must protect it.

 

[OldandWorn]

Do the paint companies have color codes for Deere, CAT, and such? Just wondering how or if you matched original the color.

 

[Deon]

OldandWorn,
Some can by model and year and some can by matching to a
chunk of paint from your machine. In my case they had a paint
chip that looked exactly the same color as mine.

 

[bowen]

I've painted cars and trucks for 13 years, painted a forklift once and helped paint a few school busses and fire trucks. But painting a backhoe is more time consuming than any I have ever done.

Old tractors are also lots of work. Cars should be easy compared to all the crap on these machines.
To really clean and do a restoration all the parts have to be taken off and painted individually.
On my Case hoe I used the Case paint which is pretty good paint. It is a Xylene based enamel which is mean to smell but way better than just industrial enamel. Wear a mask when spraying it...

The epoxy based paint you are using should look better and the shine last longer, but that stuff is powerful expensive.

The hardest part is the cleaning and surface preparation, including the all important PRIMER.
I am using some Xylene based primer from PPG (QAP111) which reads to be a good product.
I just wonder how many years it will last coating bare metal and some small amount of rust that you cannot totally remove.

 

[Deon]

Some more progress. I know it doesn't look much different but I put a ton of work on it since the last photos.
Lots and lots of cleaning, sanding and finally the masking. If all goes as planed I'll have it primed by tomorrow night and painted by Friday night.
I didn't mask off all of the hoses as some show sun cracking and need to be replaced. I'll probably replace them sooner if they have paint on them
as I know I don't like to look at painted hoses. As for the stabilizer legs and feet, I'm only washing them down before painting. I'll have them buried
in the dirt soon enough and all the paint will be scuffed up and scraped off.

 

[Dickjr.]

Sweet , when can you do mine?

 

[Deon]

It's yellow.
3 coats of Acrylic Polyurethane Enamel. Like painting 5 cars. A car takes 15 to 20 minutes per coat. This guy takes almost 2 hrs per coat. So many corners
and knocks and crannies, hoses etc.
Hue, I'm exhausted and my neck hurts from painting the loader cause all parts are above my heat and on a step ladder. You can see I painted some
of the hoses. They are ready to expire. They will be replaced soon. I'll post more photos when all the masking is off and decals and new hoses are on.
May be a while. Hope you enjoy looking at all my hard labor.
Something not related. The jack stand under the frame has about 1/6" of space between it and the tractor frame. It's been like that for 3 weeks. The stabilizer
cylinder has not slipped at all in all that time. I'm impressed.

 

[Lee-online]

Thats a lot of work you did there. Its going to look great when you get it all back together.

 

[OldandWorn]

Deon, I think your mask has a leak. Just kidding....must be a spell check thing.

Fantastic job there!!!!!!!!

 

[Deon]

Deon, I think your mask has a leak. Just kidding....must be a spell check thing.

Fantastic job there!!!!!!!!

Oldandworn. What did I spell wrong?

(masking tape, masking paper
adhesive tape used to cover the part of a surface that should not be painted)
Text above has been copied from a dictionary. But I know my speeling
is ofter wrong.

Thanks for the praise.

 

[bowen]

I would have said to paint the hoses with no masking.
Your efforts wil be really rewarding after you get it all back together.

Hopefully before a big snowstorm.

 

[OldandWorn]

Oldandworn. What did I spell wrong?

(masking tape, masking paper
adhesive tape used to cover the part of a surface that should not be painted)
Text above has been copied from a dictionary. But I know my speeling
is ofter wrong.

Thanks for the praise.

Nothing is speeled wrong but I think spell check may have changed some of your words around and it made me laugh. I'm still wondering who Hue is? And whats up with 1/6", Canadian thing?

Again, wow wow wow on the amount of work and quality. :notworthy