Advice painting my Dozer

[04titanse]

I've got a 65' international 500 crawler dozer w/ 6-way blade. Its spent a lot of time outside and I really want to clean it up a little and get some paint on it. I don't want to do a restoration on it, just some prep and paint to get it looking decent and professional from a distance.

What do you guys recommend I do? I have an 80 gallon compressor and a cheap HPLV gun and lots of air hose. I also have a small 20# pressurized sand blaster. I figure it needs some sanding and sand blasting followed by primer and paint but I guess I don't know how little I can do w/o sacrificing too much in terms of the paint adhering.

I can't have this take weeks, I need to basically get it done within a long weekend (3-4 days). I don't want to take the tracks off, but i will take the seat, cage, hood and any other stuff that's relatively easy to get off.

 

[Freakingstang]

I've done this a couple times, and it is going to sound harsh, retarded or dumb to most people.

You can spend thousands, sandblasting, top notch paint, primer, prep and go to town...

Best advice...... I've done this with my tractor and numerous equipment trailers.

wire wheel the loose rust as best as you can, if you can spot sand blast it, that's even better.

then use a pressure washer with some good cleaner such as Castrol super clean. Let dry.

Use a Good epoxy primer... spray or brush, your call.

Now for the paint...

I know walmart sells Rustoleum Industrial Enamel in the gallon cans for 26-28 bucks a piece. They have White, Black and Equipment Grey. You can special Order equipment Yellow, or just buy it off the net somewhere. Buy regular Paint thinner. no mineral spirits or fancy diluted mixture. or you can buy the white and have them tint it for you...

Then go to an automotive store and buy a bit of hardener. This is the key to the longevity and strength of this concoction of paint.

Mix 1 part paint and 1 part thinner. I mix it about 1/2 gallon at a time if i'm doing a big project. Add just a oz or two of the hardener. Take your time Mixing it as the different parts will look like oil and water mixture. Mix, mix and mix then throw it in the gun and go to town. If you are doing a second coat, Go have a smoke and let it sit (10 min flash time for a tacky first coat). then hit it again. This is a trick I've learned from old timers. It works FANTASTIC and is Cheap, Durable and looks Great!.

 

[04titanse]

So do you hit ALL the rust, or just the loose stuff? Believe it or not there is almost no flaky stuff, other than some flaking paint. All the other rust is just surface rust.

Do you think hitting the large flat areas with a palm sander, wiring wheeling the rough stuff and then just using the sand blaster on the hard to get to stuff would work? Is it typical to do a 1:1 with paint and thinner?

 

[Freakingstang]

Do what you can to get rid of the rust. sand, wire wheel, etc. paint/primer doesn't like to stick to rust....

Rustoleum Industrial Enamel is meant to be brushed on, not sprayed... the 1:1 is what i had been told. And the hardner was never a set amount, just pour it for about a second or two... never once measured it, but was told "about that much".... Something about that hardener in it and it just works... I don't know how durable it would be on the blade where it pushes dirt, but the rest of the tractor will shine like a new truck! and stay that way for years.

 

[Freakingstang]

If it is all surface rust, a good wire wheel will get most of it easy.

Then spray it down with some POR-15 Metal ready.. It is a zinc phosphate coating that will etch the metal and give the primer or paint something to adhere to

 

[Freakingstang]

Here's my tractor I did this way a year ago. It sits outside. I buit the front end loader from scrap rusty steel.. wire brush, POR15 metal ready and then the Rustoleum industrial Enamel in the quart cans... I have not done the white yet, just the blue....

this is what the metal ready does.. it is thin andlike winshield washer fluid... spray it on and keep it wet for 15-20 minutes, then rinse it off with water.

after a year sitting outside and plenty of hard use...

 

[Freakingstang]

I even did my box blade last year... started with this...

after a ton of grading work...

 

[04titanse]

wow that looks very nice! Did you brush that on?

Also nice work on the loader!!! Looks like a factory piece once painted. I'd be very happy if my dozer looked that nice. Its very ugly right now, but runs like a top.

 

[MOE]

I've had good luck with SEM rust guard and hardner. you just spray it on, no primer. The sell it in an industrial yellow. One weekend and a case of beer and you will have a 50/50 paint job,(looks great from 50 feet or at 50miles an hour).

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I use van sickle brand paint to paint all my stuff. It comes in all of the tractor brand colors. I like using a fast dry dupont brand enamel reducer. It makes the paint tack off faster. It is about 2x as expensive as paint thinnner, but works alot better. Van sickle makes a hardener, which i use everytime i paint equipment.

I think your gonna have a hard time painting that in 3-4 days. If you do 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint your looking at 2 days there. Prep time is gonna be the killer. I would sand blast the rusted areas, and scuff the areas with good paint with scotch brite pads.

Here is just a few examples of equipment that i have painted.

 

[Guido Salvage]

When painting, surface preparation is the key. You need to start by powerwashing everything and getting all the dirt and debris off the machine. If there is flaking, hit those spots with a putty knife and sand off any surface rust. I would be careful with a sand blaster as you don't want any media to end up in unintended spots (engine, etc.). Clean all surfaces well prior to paining and use a good primer and paint.

I did this fire truck with a $28.00 can of Rustoleum from Home Depot and a paint roller....

This is how it started out:

The finished product: