Painting woes

If I'm going to paint an entire tractor, I've got to get a lot better. With the prep, primer, and painting three times, I spent the better part of five days on this one hood.



I got the tent idea from Sugarmaker. The results were mixed. Less wind and fewer bugs, space was a problem. Light was ok, but not as good as outside.

I had a lot of trouble with my paint. I got a quart from the New Holland dealer. They said it was ready to spray. I never could get to lay down smooth, no matter how I tried to adjust my gun. It looked rough dumpy and textured. I took it up the road to a little body shop and asked for some advice. They said it looked like it needed some reducer. I said it was supposed to be ready to spray. They said it may still need reducer. IMO if it needs reducer, it's not ready to spray. Nevertheless, I sanded the hood down and painted it again with reducer in the paint. It was much better, but not good. Plus I got a big run in it the second time. So I sanded it down again and decided to put the spray gun away. The 3rd painting I used three cans of this.



The problem rattle cans on something this large is the spray fan is to small. It went down smooth and looked ok, but I had some light and dark streaks and some orange peal in places. You can't really see it in this photo but it's there.



A guy at work said I should wet sand it. I never done that before, but I watched a few youtube videos on it and gave it a try. I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results. The wet sanding blended the streaks very well. A lot of polish and two coats of wax and the old girl looks good enough for me.



It's still not what I would call a professional job, but I'm happy with it. It just took to long and more work than necessary. I'm not sure if it was the paint, my gun, the hot weather, or just me. I'm going to go back to the PPG paint on my next job. It was easier to work with, I think it's worth it.

get some plastic staple to your rafters, hang you parts from the rafters with safety wire, put a couple furnace filters in on end and a big box fan blowing out on the other end. wet the floor and use a cheep HVLP gun I got mine at Menards. set a large piece of card board next to one of your plastic walls and set your sprayer coverage using it. make sure you use the correct mask for the type your spraying. I've been using Valspar one gallon pain 1 quart reducer 1 pint hardener. you should get a flow meter. it a little funnel with a calibrated hole. takes 10 seconds for a full cup to drain out. always thin your paint to the same  consistency every time.

Edited by Dakota Dave - 04 Sep 2019 at 10:41am

From the photos it looks good. And if your happy with it even better. An ad for automotive paints say the key to a good finish is ninety five percent prep and five percent paint. As noted the reducer in many cases is temperature sensitive. As well as humidity. Also you did not say if you sanded between coats. I have either wet sanded the primer with 400 grit or dry with 320. The color coat will reveal the surface through the paint when dry so a smooth primer surface is important. As with any skill, practice practice practice.

Spray out a test panel is a good idea. You can compare colors side by side as well as check your spray pattern from the rattle can or gun. That way you get to make adjustments before actually painting your project