Sanding Prep on a Tractor restore........

banjoman09

Well-known Member
Im sure there are many of you that have reconditioned one or more of your tractors; what works best for getting off that old- cracked paint that seems not to want to come off? I have wire-brushed alot of it and works fair but the old cracked green paint if still there and really shows under new paint. Thanks for any help.
 
On open areas you might just use a disc sander on a drill with coarse paper or a random orbital sander. Smaller areas you might use a knotted wire wheel on an angle grinder. The knotted wheel is pretty dangerous though. It's difficult to control and takes skin off faster than paint. Then places you just can't get to you might chemically strip it. Chemically stripping would be a last resort since the government has banned the effective chemical in paint strippers to the general public. You might also consider sandblasting but you have to be careful to cover any orifice where you don't want to get sand into.
 
Sandblasting works well on parts you can remove.
I would not want the sand in my engine/transmission/rear end.
Wire wheels work pretty good. Nyloc disks even better.
Dollar store oven cleaner and a pressure washer takes off
a lot of grease and old, loose paint. This is some of the paint it took
off one of mine. Be sure not to get it in your eyes or nose. Nasty stuff.

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On flat or curved parts I use a 4 inch fiber disc. It fits on my 4 inch right angle grinder. Do a search for fiber paint removal fiber discs. Or use paint stripper it works good also. Stan
 
For the sheet metal a small air powered angle grinder with 3 inch scrubbing disks works OK but takes some time. You can also get a couple rolls of 6 inch stick on sandpaper for a 6 inch orbital sander, one roll of 180 grit and another roll of 400 grit. I have found that sticking one of those sanding disks to my hand and hand sanding is almost better than using a DA on a tractor because of the angles and small areas. Use the 180 first, then the 400 grit. A couple years ago I stripped a Model T coupe down to bare metal using the angle grinder and hand sanding. If you use the higher priced disks and sandpaper you can get it done in a fairly short time.

Sandpaper does not work on castings so using some form of wire brush or sandblasting are the only dry ways to do it. I have used a paint stripper and 4000 psi power washer to strip castings but the bare casting needs to be treated real quick for flash rust and you might get water into places you do not want water to be. Doing it right is a time consuming job but hou will like the results in the end.
 
Hi , I would certainly agree with the cup wheel. I use a 3” wheel on a
4 1/2” angle grinder. Not much stands in it’s way and you can get into
most places. They are vicious and eye protection and something like
welding gauntlets must be worn.
DavidP,South Wales
 
What Bender said. Blast, then a coat of black epoxy primer. Then several coats of gray high build primer that you will block sand (220) to fill all the small marks in the tin. May have to prime and block three or four times.
 
Gene...im sure you are right; here's my dilemma ...I bought a $130.00 SB from HB and never have got the dang thing to work! It is a "sand Blaster" and I tried sand and that didnt work; after I read directions it said dont use sand! lol..so I tried charcoal and that didnt work so I guess I dont know how to use one? thanks.
 
(quoted from post at 18:30:56 09/28/20) Gene...im sure you are right; here's my dilemma ...I bought a $130.00 SB from HB and never have got the dang thing to work! It is a "sand Blaster" and I tried sand and that didnt work; after I read directions it said dont use sand! lol..so I tried charcoal and that didnt work so I guess I dont know how to use one? thanks.

You need "Silica Sand". We buy ours from a local lumber yard. It's very fine stuff so make sure you are wearing a respirator and a blasting hood when using as breathing it in is very harmful.
 
(quoted from post at 10:30:56 09/28/20) Gene...im sure you are right; here's my dilemma ...I bought a $130.00 SB from HB and never have got the dang thing to work! It is a "sand Blaster" and I tried sand and that didnt work; after I read directions it said dont use sand! lol..so I tried charcoal and that didnt work so I guess I dont know how to use one? thanks.


Banjoman, why would you think of using charcoal? how do you grind it and get it uniformly graded? Why experiment? Why not use tried and true?
 

If you do even a third of the stuff listed in this thread you will still have a far better paint job than it left the factory with. Block sanding.....on a TRACTOR?? Each to his own, I guess.
 
If you are using all purpose sand that the lumber companies sell some of it is too large to get through a sand blaster. If you sift it through screen wire it should work. I built a box out of 1/4's and covered one side with sand to sift it. If you put down plastic or a tarp you can re-use a lot of it by sifting it.
 
(quoted from post at 16:06:42 09/28/20) If you are using all purpose sand that the lumber companies sell some of it is too large to get through a sand blaster. If you sift it through screen wire it should work. I built a box out of 1/4's and covered one side with sand to sift it. If you put down plastic or a tarp you can re-use a lot of it by sifting it.


Stephen, google silicosis.
 
I would take it somewhere and get it sandblasted. Any sanding should be wet sanded with rubber gloves because of the old lead based paint and dust.
 
Do NOT use silica sand unless you have a NEW respirator for dust not paint. The filters are different. If you have a Menards close they have what they call black magic works better than sand, has less dust, and wont give you silicosis! I believe its only a buck more, well worth it.
 

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Atleast my wheels turned out good I think- they were full of concrete. Rear fender I think is hopeless- Im not a body man.
 

Whiskey bent means "black beauty" which is what probably 95% of all sandblasting is done with. glass beads, walnut shells and others are also used for small delicate jobs. You can use black beauty in good health.
 
(quoted from post at 11:33:24 09/29/20)
Whiskey bent means "black beauty" which is what probably 95% of all sandblasting is done with. glass beads, walnut shells and others are also used for small delicate jobs. You can use black beauty in good health.

I will have to look into that as well. Thanks
 

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