Painting-Pulling Tractor-Napa Store

forty40

Member
The last tractor we painted here at home was 15 years ago, a John Deere 4010. I knew the guys at the local Parts store and they fixed me up with the lacquer primer and alkyd enamel w/hardener for the topcoat. Now I'm in the process of building a John Deere A puller and when its complete would like to put on a nice coat of paint.

What I've found is the area body shops now mix their own paint and the local NAPA store guys know little about paint. The guys at the body shop down the road do good work, but all they paint is base coat clear coat which seems kind of expensive for a puller which is going to get nicked up a from weights clanking on the sides of the brackets, tarp over the hood when it rains, hood being on and off for engine work, etc.

The NAPA store will sell me the paint, if I knew what part numbers to ask for.
Are there commonly used alkyd enamels for this type of application and what would the part numbers be?
Everything will be blasted and sanded or wire brushed and sanded.

I kind of wanted to roll this thing out of the shop on a nice calm sunny day, put a tarp down and paint. Its not a show tractor, but ones I've seen painted with the Tractor Supply paint look pitiful in a couple of years. Our Massey turned pink and a blue Ford sitting down the road has faded to a milky blue.

We fabricate, build race cars, engines and that type of thing, but we're not auto body painters. Chassis are powder coated and bodies are built from Risco painted .040 aluminum.

Best off to just stick with the body shop?
 
I use paint from the local NAPA store. They recommend single stage urethane. I have used the paint on one of my tractors. What I like about the single stage urethane is that the finish straight from the gun is just great. The finish is what a tractor should look like. Yes, the base/clear coat is a deep shine which is great for cars but too deep and shiny for tractors. I take my 1950 Ferguson TO-20 to tractor shows and get a lot of compliments. I'm not an experience painter without any training. I paint outside and use a fresh air supply because of the hardener in the paint. I have two other tractors waiting to be painted and I will be using the NAPA single stage urethane.
 
If you insist on alkyd enamel get it already mixed from your JD dealer. I use base clear and the belief that it is more shiny than single stage is a myth. Single stage done correctly cannot be distinguished from base clear. To me the main advantage is more clear that reduces fading. Also it can be sanded and buffed with little danger of breaking to the base.
 
I've been using the commercial coating pre mixed
acrylic enamel(POR) from NAPA. It runs around $80 a
gallon and does a beautiful job of laying on the
metal. It takes it's own hardner and thinner which
is less costly also. I've also used the paint from
the dealer(IH and John Deere) which also gives you
a good finish but I like NAPA's the best. Just my
opinion. Larry
 
A farmer in Ohio paints tractors on the side. He only uses Martin Senour paint from his Napa store. Here are a few pictures of tractors he has painted. Hal
a153464.jpg

a153465.jpg

a153466.jpg
 
Ive heard martin senour from napa is good but Ive never used it. DuPont is very expensive. For the price and color john deere primer/paint from the dealer has done well for me and you are happy with the color match, no suprises of color. I have heard wet sanding/buffing makes it look real good also.
 
I use NAPA paints, either acrylic enamel or urethane. I really think the urethane holds up better than the enamel, but it does not seem to be as forgiving on application.
 

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