What was the original paint on a allis

What type of paint did they use when the painted WD's and WD-45's?

Did they prime it first?
Thanks

The type of paint would have been an alkyd enamel... dupont dulux is an alkyd enamel.

Austin, I have never seen any evidence of primer paint on any of my tractors from 1935 to 1960.

What paint was used for high temp items like the engine and manifold?

Is there an AC Orange Engine paint, or does everyone use chevy orange?

Austin,
Thanks for the write up. I think I saw it before but forgot about it. Since they could paint a tractor in 8 minutes (2 guys 4 minutes each) they must of had a very high solids paint or used lacquer because is drys very fast!
Pastor Mike

Often castings that need to hold oil were painted inside with an alkyd paint like GE Glyptal that would look like a primer.

Gerald J.

I think the primer on castings was to seal in any sand left over from the casting process.  It would migrate into the oil over time.

I have from new a WD and D17, neither had primer under the outside paint.

There is primer on the larger part of our 48 wc both on the cast and on sheet metal. There are also pieces that did not get primer(none on the airbreather).  The peices that do have primer it would be hard to notice if you didn't wire brush and sand by hand.  It is a thin layer of red primer (a lot like rust colour). If it were sandblasted or dunked you'd never see it. It is only noticable in the places where the original finish is well intact. It does not survive long unprotected by the top coat.  I make no assertion this is typical or standard (Kinda like saying the PO1 on my tractor is the real PO1)  But I can say this is the factory original paint.(what little there is)

Charlie175 wrote: This is the torque tube on my '63 D12. Typical of the color that I find

The wide front I just got for my D17D looks like that. When I stripped off some of the front parts when I overhauled my engine it looked like there was only the original orange. The used combine block was internally coated with Glyptal, but the original one if it was originally I could find no evidence. The glyptal survived the hot tank cleaning very well.

The '39 IB I just got has chipped/peeling paint like above. I thought it had been a yellow tractor, repainted orange. Will have to look closer....

Edited by GlenninPA - 22 Jun 2012 at 7:01am

It doesn't take a genius to distinguish between the inside and outside a machine. The red primer found on my 50 C was on the outside under the orange paint. Out of curiosity, I checked the 44 C and also found some red under the orange. I didn't say the entire machine was coated in red just that I found some.

That is primer...all of our D series tractors have them. You will be able to tell if it was the yellow industrial paint under it.

My 63 d17 has the same yellow primer as above on the cast parts. Under the heat shield on the left side of the transmission was never orange just yellow

a first coat or layer of paint, size, etc., given to any surface as a base, sealer, or the like.

Primer -- a first coat or layer of paint, size, etc./ given to any surface as a base, sealer, or the like.  Point is you all are right  Glyptal / yellow / red, and even PO is primer if more then one coat was applied the original question was if primer was used and clearly it was. Even found grey primer yesterday one the drive shaft cover between the transmission and torque tube.