OT - AC Orange...

If ya'll remember, my second project last winter was an old AC lawnmower for my future son-in-law.

I have always snubbed my nose at the crappy paint jobs I have seen on 'restored' AC tractors at auctions....

Never Again...

That Orange paint is super thin, you have to get it on thick enough for it to gloss, and not run at the same time, which means about 4-6 even coats... That's using VanSickle Paint.

The actual AC paint from the dealer was even worse, 3 different cans, all 3 were really bad with Orange Peel effect... which was worse than the ridiculous amounts of coats from the other paint.

I told him if we did another one, it would just be flat black... I will say the orange does pop now though after its done, but nothing wanted to go back together right, because of the number of coats... but its solid orange and not see through orange...

Will post some pics once we get the decals and the deck finished.
 
orange peel i usually more of an application / environment issue.. vs a paint quality issue.

Also, gloss doesn't need 1/4" of paint.. but a little hardner does wonders.

As for see- thru paint.. that's a coverage and coat issue. if you need 6 coats to not be see thru , i'd change paint, or check how you are reducing it.
 
Orange peel is usually caused by too high of
gun pressure or not enough thinner/reducer
in the paint.
I still have a soft spot for Persian Orange.
 
It was all Rattle Can Paint, and there is a major Difference in the viscosity in the paint, Black, Ford Gray, Ford Red and Ford blue were all nice thick colors that went on well, the orange was crap no matter what brand I chose, I must have tried 4 different tractor paints.

It was a small project, with not many parts getting painted all at one time, so I didn't buy bulk paint to use in the spray gun, in retrospect I probably would have saved money and done a quicker job by doing it that way.

It didn't matter what temp I used the AC paint in, and no difference in prep, from un prepped, to bare metal to primered, it never came out gloss, and it never came out without the orange peel, I even tried it on plastic with the same results....

My next project will be a 2N and that will be a spray gun job for sure.
 
what do you expect from a spray bomb?

you have no control of the paint and reducer mix.

thin coats.

and reguardless of what you may think you know.. prep, temperature and humidity have a DIRECT effect on the paint job.

You will learn this when you start painting for real.
 
I have seen that in walmart economy rattle cans and in some others. TSC kubota orange and caterpiller yellow both cover very well. Some of the other oranges and yellows are very thin and no pigment....


Painting it white first to cover all the dark spots will greatly help these types of very light paint colors.
 
didnt say it turned out bad, just that i dont like working in orange...

actractor_zpsidogqv1o.jpg
 

HARD to reprime the tractor every time you want to touch up a scratches. Then it does look 8 layers thick. But with 20 hours of sanding, yes, you can prime it, sand and feather it and then finally paint your scratches. Problem is that most scratches are not in the most convenient area to prime and sand, much less get paint on it.

But back to the topic, yes there a very very thin paints out there and then there are paints that cover very well.
 
But this isn't Persian Orange. The older tractors used Persian Orange,
which was kind of a more drab- or dull-looking pumpkin color. Many
AC show tractors are painted with the wrong color, kind of JC Case.
 
This is about 2 shades off from the AC Persian Orange, closer to the AC Persian Orange 2 that I got from the dealer, and its gloss.

It is what VanSickle calls AC Gloss Orange.

It was the best choice that we could both agree on.

I used Dark Gray Primer VanSickle as well. The White Primer didn't cover as well with the Orange, everything was sanded and prepped prior to prime, sanded again and then painted.

I guess one of the benefits of multiple coats to get the color to cover, is that it has turned out quite durable, it takes quite a bit to scratch through the color.
 

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