Painting update for Ford 3910 tractor

Ok so starting new thread on this project since ive now picked out paint, primer etc. With everyones help we decided on PPG Delfleet essentials single stage polyurathene paint. For the primer we went with one of the epoxy's in the essential product line. If anyone is interested in which one just let me know and i'll update this post. I will follow the directions exactly and also per your recommendations have ordered a supplied air safety system.

For prep we plan to sandblast sheet metal and wheels. Then hand buff, clean epoxy and paint. For the chasis and roll bar we will clean with a wax and use degreaser. Then wire brush existing paint and reclean with same degreaser again. Next we plan to use epoxy primer and wait 1 hour before adding top coat. Im thinking we will do 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint.

Ok does this sound about right? Anything major im missing? By the way i will use the correct amount of reducer and harders as well.

As for the colors man this part was a pain in the !?$@". So what i found is that the current blue sold by New Holland is not exactly right. I purchased a small amount to spray and its a little darker and has a slight green hue to it. This is not the newer purply looking blue for NH either but the blue for something like 1964-1990. Actually says this on the can too. I knew it didnt seem right so compared to my like new 2810 and sure enough its a little different. Also on the 3910 i found that under hood areas (away from sun) to be same as 2810. So i wondered how this could be? What ive now comed to realize is that there have been several suppliers of paint over the years to ford/NH and also the composition of the paint has changed to. Anyway if anyone needs the correct blue PPG does have a number for it. I compared this in both the Omni and Delfleet lines and both are spot on. Again they are very slightly lighter blue and show less of the green hue i mentioned earlier. Now the light grey is a different story. I tried 2 different grey PPG numbers and they were definitly not white enough and were too grey. The funny thing is that the NH grey was pretty darn close so i just matched the Delfleet to the NH samples i sprayed. Anyways im very happy with the final paint colors so looking forward to getting started. Now what black satin paint to use on roll bar? Any ideas?

Surely someone at the Ford forum could help you with the color code. If not, if you could find some rattle can paint that is the correct color you could make a sample and they can computer match the paint. I know what you mean about the color. I painted a Case tractor and the color codes I was finding were for a obsolete alkyd line of paint. Eventually after a couple weeks of researching I found one guy in Canada that had the current code.

Believe it or not i have spent hours on the ford forums here and tractor by net. Just not alot of info. Anyway thats one reason im posting to hopefully help people out.

PPG"s Delfleet is good paint. Some of it is older paint lines that
cant meet the strict VOC"s anymore. Their Delta clear is the
old Concept 2001 clear just repackaged. I think you will like
the results.

(quoted from post at 16:42:03 10/05/12) PPG"s Delfleet is good paint. Some of it is older paint lines that
cant meet the strict VOC"s anymore. Their Delta clear is the
old Concept 2001 clear just repackaged. I think you will like
the results.

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Honestly i dont know much about it except i cant hardly find any complaints about it so must be ok. I hear its very durable with a oem level of gloss (not show level though) and as a bonus the colors came out great too. I will post pics once its complete in early November.

On sheet metal you should use a quality wax/grease remover, followed by a tack rag as a step just before you primer. Don't know what you mean by "hand buff". Going over the sheet metal with 220 will knock down the profile of sandblasting, then wipe down and paint. On sheet metal you might consider using a a couple of coats of filler/primer over the epoxy so you can sand to a smooth finish. Omni 182 or similar. It will cover any small imperfections in the metal that epoxy won't. Makes for a nice finish. I wouldn't wire wheel paint unless my plan was to remove it all or it was on cast. If you haven't power washed the tractor to remove any grease and dirt, I would do that first, then your prep work.

You probably don't hear much about it because it's mainly
used by shops that repair tractor trailers and such. Which in
itself shows that it is a very durable paint. Oddly enough it was
a bodyshop that belongs to a friend of mine that turned me on
to it. They used those products quite a bit with good success.

Try this site for the color and let us know.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?manuf=Ford&model=Tractor

Yes this is one of the places i found the correct blue color from PPG. Someone had also emailed me a old PPG listing showing that number as well. Their color code is 12809. They mention its for 1963-65. Not sure why its listed that way but its a perfect match to both of my tractors which one is a 88 and the other is a 89. On the other hand their grey numbers were either inactive now or the couple still active were way to grey. At least the numbers i found and got samples for anyways.

Here's Rod's link to PPG and Dupont's paint codes for most tractors. Hal
PS: I used NH acrylic enamel blue on my Wards tractor.

Untitled URL Link

(quoted from post at 07:21:07 10/06/12) Here's Rod's link to PPG and Dupont's paint codes for most tractors. Hal
PS: I used NH acrylic enamel blue on my Wards tractor.

Untitled URL Link

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Yep thats the other one someone emailed me. Didnt have much luck though with greys (didnt check dupont though) as some of them seem to be obsolete now. Maybe my paint store just couldnt locate all if them but not sure. If anyone is interested i can attached a pic of the lable showing the custom mix that was made up for me.

The only other paint i need is for the satin or matte black roll bars. Does Delfleet make a less shiney black in this or am i looking at another type paint?

"Now what black satin paint to use on roll bar? Any ideas?"

You could look at John Deere Blitz Black with hardener. If you don't like that there are some semi-gloss, black hot rod paints available in urethane. Look at the TPC Global website in the left menu column are "Hot Rod Flatz" paints.

Or, you could go to the Easwood Automotive website and look at the various chassis blacks. I use the 2K Ceramic Chassis Black. It is a 2K urethane that comes in satin or glossy. It has a ceramic additive to it and is fairly chip and scratch resistant.

You just need to really mix/shake the paint to incorporate the ceramic into the paint carrier prior to spraying and you need about a 1.7 tip to make it work without thinning excessively.

Well my friend finally has my 3910 painting project about complete. All he has left is the sheet metal. See attached picture of chassis. So on the sheet metal he mentioned something like hand buff out to high gloss. Do I want him to do that or will it make it too shiny? I really want to keep it close to OEM so am wondering if thats the way to go. I know this is common for show tractors just not sure for my project. The paint again is PPG Del Fleet Epoxy so not even sure if you are suppose to buff that stuff out or not. Please let me know your thoughts.


By way chassis looks very slick and nice. Shinny enough for me.

(quoted from post at 10:32:12 04/14/13) Well my friend finally has my 3910 painting project about complete. All he has left is the sheet metal. See attached picture of chassis. So on the sheet metal he mentioned something like hand buff out to high gloss. Do I want him to do that or will it make it too shiny? I really want to keep it close to OEM so am wondering if thats the way to go. I know this is common for show tractors just not sure for my project. The paint again is PPG Del Fleet Epoxy so not even sure if you are suppose to buff that stuff out or not. Please let me know your thoughts.


By way chassis looks very slick and nice. Shinny enough for me.

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I can't stand a vehicle that is too shiny. Almost as bad as a car that is too fast or a girl that is too pretty!!LOL.

Ok so looking at it that way rub it baby rub it. 😄