Farmall Cub

Don McCombs wrote:More information on the spot putty, please.

It is thick primer , maybe Rob will post on it . It is right good stuff if it is not used to fill in DEEP spots
Boss

Have had good results w/Valspar from F & Fleet! Use a WM self etching primer. Not a trailer queen! Dusty B

Mike

Two things to remember, you get what you pay for and you can't rush bodywork.

Majic paint, for better or for worse, is available today in unlimited supply, in the proper color, at a cost effective price point, and suits my individual needs. I'm sure not everyone will have experienced the success I have enjoyed with this economical coating.

I am amazed how well the spray can finished result does look when a reasonable to slightly excessive amount of time has been spent on the foundation. It doesn't matter if the old formulations performed better, you can't buy them anymore and my cupboard is bare.

I'm sure EPA mandates requiring the removal of heavy metals from paints that have plagued the professional industry for years has also trickled down to the do-it-yourself manufacturers resulting in new products not being as user friendly as the old paints that people enjoyed many a successful, quicker drying paint job from over the years. Did older paints make up for a multitude of sins? Maybe a topic for later discussion.

Unless you have access to professional refinishing facilities, you can't expect a professional job and have to live with the possibility of top coat imperfections. You are no different than a professional painter, you will personally see paint flaws overlooked by customers and others because you know they are there, such as thinning along sharp edges.

My chief complaint with the Majic brand is drying time. You need to support a dust free environment for as long as possible for best results and water drops or foreign objects will guarantee a complete sand down.

Thankfully, you are painting a cub and not the hood on a '68 Caddy. While I take pride in doing the best job I can, it is what it is, a tractor. If you demand a showroom automotive quality finish, it will only be had at professional automotive refinishing prices.

One quart of quality automotive paint from PPG or Martin Senour will cost around a hundred dollars, add another fifty for reducer to thin it and hardener to flash it. This will only yield a little less than a half gallon of sprayable coating when mixed at the recommended ratios. Thirty or forty bucks of Majic will do the entire cub and leave some left for touch up too.

One disadvantage of the spay can finish is scratch repair of painted tin at a later date. Very difficult if not impossible to touch up a small area with seamless results. Luckily with a limited amount of large unseamed surface areas on the cub, not a big problem to re paint the damaged panel.

You don't need a professional facility to undertake the task of surface preparation. Someone posted earlier if you can feel it, you will see it. Along those lines, if you can see a flaw in primer, paint won't fix that either. This information is for real.

Another comment was made about refinishing 90% prep,
10% painting. Maybe even go a little higher on the prep percentage and a little less on the painting technique.
If you have a deadline, plan on a horrible outcome trying to meet it most cases.

All my body and paint jobs are at leisure for my kids, scouts, and friends benefit of learning bodywork and painting with emphasis placed on surface prep. We take one step at a time, if it doesn't pass the test, its redone to my satisfaction. No time deadline, just learning. Of course I have let them fail by proceeding to the next step without the previous step completed properly so they may observe the result of "saving time" for themselves.

Non catalyst fillers, primer and paints all have variable drying times that change daily with weather conditions. You can't rush drying time so the time estimated to refinish a tractor is hard to establish outside the paint booth environment.

My best advice is to spend the time necessary to make your tin baby butt smooth, your cast and pressed metal parts free from grease, dirt, rust and flaking paint before priming and then finally sanding the tin before paint. Beyond the tin, you make the decision on blasting or wire brush work as necessary. As you mentioned, doing one piece at a time affords the luxury professionals don't have, breaking the monotony of surface prep. Obtain a scrap fender and waste one can getting your technique down observing how the paint flows and how it bonds. I've seen plenty of tractors at the fair that had the tin done professionally, the rest done in the barn. Not a bad way to go, again a decision every individual can make.

We'll break the tractor into sections refinnishing one at a time. Plastic sheeting is cheap protection to seal off what has been done to keep it fresh looking, dust and overspray free so it appears to all have been painted at the same time.

Choosing between a barn finish and a professional job has never been a decision I've had to make. While I choose to maintain good looking equipment, I also use it. I personally wouldn't spend money for a high dollar paint job on a working farm tractor, snow plow or lawn mower. A dedicated unit for tractor rides or parades would have to be evaluated differently.

Remember, by the time you add up the costs of paint, sealers, primers, HM fees, shop materials and the labor expense of an automotive quality paint job, you may have exceeded the value of your tractor.

Another tip. Buy all your paint before fair time. Maybe its a regional thing but around here, every color is available except IH red before and during fair time.

Here is an example of the depth and shine of spray paint when the surface is prepped properly.

I fabbed two extinguisher holders from pretzel cans. They were smooth to start with so they only needed scuffed before paint. I have no clue what type of paint was originally used on the cans from the pretzel factory.

The extinguisher is painted aluminum from the factory. Naturally its hard to see in the picture but the finish on the extinguisher and the spray painted holder are identical. The transmission fill plugs reflection in the paint is visible in the picture.

i've used some magic paint too, it came out nice. don't spill any gas on it because it disappears like majic too.

For the original question:

For small pits you can use a primer surfacer or just a surfacer and sand, larger pits use spot putty, even larger pits use bondo. Or don't worry about the small stuff and just paint, depends on what level you want to end up with. Rattle can paint is thin and you may need 5-6 coats to really cover, a few coats may look like it covered but not.

if you want something a little more durable try some polyester glazing putty. its like a very smooth body filler, great for filling pits and minor body imperfections. it dries fast and is comparable in price to the old type putty's, and it adheres well to bare metal.

I agree, Rob, I usually use USC "Icing". The old "lacquer putty" is ok for very small imperfections but Icing will work great on much larger problem areas. It's basically a low viscosity form of body filler. A body man friend turned me on to this stuff several years ago and it's fantastic stuff.

I am reading this a day after chipping out the 'tube putty' out of the pits in my Mott mower (designed with 3 perfect water troughs) ... No good for larger areas, in fact it trapped stuff from mowing and water. Possibly worse than leaving it alone?

As for paint, despite the reformulations that every paint has gone through CaseIH IronGuard is still good stuff. You can handle it within a hour or so and it has good shine.