Painting an old tractor

Sugarbowl

Have a tractor here that needs a little makeover. She is in very good condition only for a small bit of fading in the red colour and rust around the top of the bonnet. Thinking of painting up the bonnet again ourselves. Has anyone any advice on what is best to do? Should we do any prep work to it first? I see different anti-rust coatings to use on the tractor before painting. Are they any good? Is the paint and brush or the spray can the better option? Any advice appreciated.

finbarrk

I painted our Massey 265 last year. I sent the bonnet to a spray paint man, who sandblasted and sprayed it perfectly. I used a grinder on the rest of the tractor and cab to remove rust, corrosion, etc., and painted it myself with a brush. I used Lowe rust primer paint first. It turned out ok for me anyway. I bought new MF stickers, and fitted a new exhaust pipe also.

Sugarbowl

Cheers Finbarr, sounds like you did a handy job on it. Did you pay much to get it sandblasted and sprayed?

TheBoyConor

No offence but spray painting is a very tricky skill to master if you want to get any sort of decent finish and it takes a long time to practice to get good at it.
If you have to ask questions about whether you should use a brush or spray then you are not competent to do it and will likely end up with a messy hatchet job.

best bet is to bring it to someone who does this sort of work. It will be expensive, but at least you will have a good job made of it.

A bad paint job could also decrease the value of your tractor if it is a classic. The reasons being that firstly it's no longer original, then a crappy paint job is more difficult to fix up and do properly. Also, a potential buyer might see the hatchet paint job and thing, well they've butchered this, what other things on this machine have they had a go at and either butchered it or covered up.

zetecescort

If the tractor will continue to work and not for show then work away youself imo. Maybe get the bonnet and other panels done professionally as that is what catches lads eye first. Engine, gearbox etc paint yourself.

You obviously want to do a decent job but people need to remember they are tractors not Rolls Royces. Many not exactly finished to a high standard leaving the factory

TheBoyConor

By all means paint the engine and gearbox and axle castings yourself but remember, that unless it is whistle clean, you are wasting your time. You will have to remove a lot of panels, the wheels and possibly jack up the cab a bit and get a high pressure hot or steam power washer in to all the nooks and crannies to get rid of the caked in dirt and grime. Some of it sets very hard over the years.

I have seen people paint over dirt and crap. No point in doing that.

Kevhog1988

sand blast it and paint it. Theres a fella beside me does it if you want his number. North Kildare