Farmall Paint

Restoring Farmall Letter Series tractors, can anyone share with me advice on type and brand of Paint. Looking to buy a gallon to use in paint gun

Dupont, PPG, Martin Senour, etc. Stay away from farm store or hardware store paint. You need more than just a gallon of paint. To do it right you need epoxy primer, followed by a sandable surfacer on the sheet metal to get a smooth finish. You also need to go to bare metal and remove all the rust, then use body filler after you have leveled the dents as best you can. The best paint is acrylic or poly urethane, but it requires hardener which contains isocyanates, which can make you sick. For hardener you need a supplied air system, a charcoal mask will not do. To avoid hardener you can use acrylic enamel. You can also use CaseIH 2150 which is an acrylic modified alkyd enamel. I have not used it but it has good reports. It contains some UV protection to resist fading. PPG/DuPont codes for 2150 are 71310/96766.

Used tractor supply paint (Valspar) both there lower and upper grades, pretty happy with it. I do not have show tractors, I use them so spending big money on paint is a waste for me.

Andrew

I couldn't get the cheap stuff to spray. Never tried the expensive stuff.

Here is my 450 painted with TSC restoration grade paint. I also have a M with this paint been standing strong for 4/5 years now.

Andrew

I used the paint from the dealer, Iron guard I believe it is called, but use their reducer and hardener also. Spray cans match the quarts and it was easy to spray, I used a cheap gun from harbor freight and am very happy with the results.

I followed CNKS's advice - except for the final coat.

I love the epoxy primer, it just FEELS better than any primer I've used before. More solid. I'll use that more often now that I've tried it. Expensive, but I'd say it's worth it.

The surfacer made all the difference in the world as well. it sands very easily and quickly and makes a huge difference on the sheet metal. Smooths out all sorts of little marks - I'd call it mandatory on sheet metal. Especially because it's relatively cheap.

Where I went astray from his advice was with the final and most important step - the paint.

Problem is I simply couldn't afford the good stuff.

I know I probably would have been happier with it - but the tractor I'm working on is a 4H project - so I've got kids painting - and it's all new to me as well.

I've sunk all sorts of money into the tractor already - and I know the common logic is "don't cheap out now" - but... business is slow!

I couldn't justify spending a ton of money on paint I didn't even know how to spray (first time with a sray gun).

I settled on the valspar restoration series paint at TSC. I cringed doing it - but, it just made much more sense for me. It's a little over 50 per gallon. Not cheap, but could be much worse.

As it turns out - I'm very happy with the results. And I'm very happy that it's "only" 50 bucks a gallon as I needed two.

I could have done it with one if I knew what I was doing - but between the kids and me messing up - (drop cloth dropped onto wet tank - runs in hood that we disasterously tried to wipe out - etc etc.) We had to paint a few things two or three times. Whole lot of spilled paint too.

Plus a lot wasted in cleanup.

With hindsight I would have gotten EVERYHING ready for paint all at once. Instead we did it part by part - probably lost at least 10-20% of the paint that way - being left in the gun & wiped out.

Keep that in mind if you go for $200+ paint!

Wish I could tell you how the paint holds up, but we're just finishing up the tractor now. But I'd trust what Andrew said about it.

When I can no longer afford PPG I will use CaseIH 2150 from the dealer. At least I know what it is. Should be the same or better than Valspars restoration series. Valspar makes 2150 also.

when i got my 2150 last year I found out that valspare made it as well.. etc..

I spray painted my 350 with Rustoleum IH Red in 1998. The only parts that suffered any real fade are the small areas I painted with rattle can. In 2012 it still looks very nice.

I sprayed mine without hardener and thats the one thing I would change - it took nearly two years for it to really get hard like it should.