Painting Myself or Professionally

Depends on what you wanty for an end result. Personally, if its a work tractor, only a decent job is required. This is the first attempt that I made at tractor restoration and painting, turned out O.K. in my books..... ....

Hoot

As SouNdguy indicates, it's all in how much you want to spend in both time and money and how perfect and long lasting a result you want to achieve. Given what you say are your goals, I'd wire brush, sand, prime and paint. I'd recommend you also consider the possible use of a chemical stripper also, especially for the removable sheetmetal. Find a slow-dry enamel, perhaps from a dealer, that is intended for brush application and apply that way. Follow the label directions concerning priming, etc. That way you will have a minium of investment of both time and money while getting a better looking tractor that will last longer. Remove all the sheetmetal however and do individual pieces. You want to get to the hidden cracks and crevices where surface rust turns into rust-through over time. You can pay less attention to cast parts since they will last forever anyway; plus painting cast is more for cosmetic appearance than protection of the metal.

Rod

I agree with you on the sanding prep for a good job. It took me weeks of sanding on my 5000 to get something I could blow paint over.

Soundguy

As for dents.. i know how you feel. Imagine my surprise when i came home from work and found the wind blowing the tube frame around on the structure over my 5000.. luckilly only the headlamp bezel was dinged.. thank goodness.. it still made me sick though..

Soundguy

If you are just looking for some color to keep the rust at bay.. a wire brush, some primer and spray cans and perhaps a brush and quart of paint for the cast will keep the water off the bare metal.

If you own a pancake compressor ( great for airing tires )... you could get a cheap 15$ chineese paint gun, air reg ( 9$ ) and filter ( 4$ - disposable) and be able to do limited painting.

I painted my first 3 tractors like this.. an 80$ 4gallon/2hp pancake compressor.. an older 15gallon air tank for filling tires, a 14$ gun marked down to 9$.. a cheap air reg for 19$ that had a filter built in.. though you can get 9$ air regs made by CH.. and 4$ disposable filters from car quest... etc. Takes patience... but gets you painting.

For a working tractor.. degreaseing and washing, removing the loose material with a wire wheel.. then sanding down the rusty spots, and then scuffing the rest of the paint can be done during a weekend, unless the thing is way gone. Figure another day for masking, prime and paint...

be carefull with the chemicals... some of the materials are quite dangerous... and DO get a good respirator mask, and if you use hardner, read and understand all the warnings... there is a thread below concerning this..

Soundguy