 Ken, everybody seems to handle the prep & painting a little differently. ~The first thing I would suggest is to do it the way you feel comfortable with.. ~One word of caution: I would suggest you NOT sand blast anything with the engine or transmission still attached to it.. I do personally sand blast the main case & trans case but NEVER without completely disassembling it first... There is just no way you will be able so seal that tractor up enough to keep the sand from entering the engine & transmission.. You can keep most of it out with good taping & seal plugs but there will still be some that enters. That is deadly on bearings, & internal parts. ~On most of my restorations I completely disassemble to the bare cases, then blast, then clean multiple times with compressed air, hot water, & solvent. ~If you don't want to disassemble the engine & trans I would strongly suggest you use a rotary wire brush on a hand grinder & use an air powered de-scalar on the nooks & crannies [works quite good]. ~Now on your painting question... If you are painting over a completely sand blasted casting or metal I would recommend you treat the metal with a some sort of a Phosphoric acid metal prep to kill the rust [even sand blasting doesn't remove all the rust it just gets the rust you can see & not the rust in the metal pores], then seal the casting or metal with a good sealer or better yet an Epoxy based primer/sealer like DP 40 or DP 80.. Then spray on your color coat(s).. ~If you are painting over a base that has some remaining paint you must seal it or you risk the top coat lifting or sinking in unevenly. ~If you are using the Deere paint.. that is synthetic enamel & if you use a hardener it must be for synthetic enamel.. If regular acrylic enamel hardener is used is just expensive reducer & won't chemically link with the paint. ~Now on safety....That hardener you are planning on using contains Isocyanates & that stuff is about the worst thing you can ever imagine if you get it in your lungs or even on your skin.. Do some reading on "Isocyanates " before working with them... Even using a paint respirator is iffy & won't completely protect you [it's better than nothing though].. Personally I use a remotely supplied fresh air supply & full face air mask & long sleeve shirts & rubber gloves.. & even then I have become very sensitized to iso's over the years & now get slightly sick after painting even using ALL the protection I can.. I can't stress enough the dangers of painting using Isocyanates in the paint.. Just talk to any of the auto painters out there & you will get about the same information.. ~Now on how to paint & assemble.. That's a good question & will vary with just about every person that replies.. Personally I have tried about all ways & have settled on doing the main assembly [without the frame attached, see picture], then painting all the sub parts & assembling those to the main case & trans as the parts become done & dried.. That will leave some touch-up on the bolts but does leave a well painted assembly that looks real good when done.. It is just so difficult to paint up under & around all those added things to begin with & painting over a dried previous coat of paint without roughing it up first is asking for lifting paint in the future.. [email protected]
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