I've seen a lot of folks on here who take pride in their equipment, even cleaning and repainting sections of a machine after major repairs are done. And there are undoubtedly experts among us who have painted their machines back to factory trim many times. Would you be willing to share any advice? I'm especially interested in what your paint of choice is (and why). Also helpful would be to explain your painting equipment, shop setup, and any tricks you have to combat cold and wet weather. Surely someone has had to paint a wet machine in a pinch! Unfortunately it's winter and my 'shop' is a 20x20 unheated garage. So painting the whole machine is probably out of the question until around May. At the moment, I've got a gallon of acrylic enamel, enamel hardener, laquer thinner, a HVLP gun and 12cfm compressor. Without waiting until warmer weather, I'm hoping to find a way to paint a new (aftermarket) boom cylinder I just got in before I Install it on the machine. I was thinking of warming it up with by wrapping with electric blankets, moving it outside to spray quickly (perhaps on platform with wheels), then move it back inside and surround it with heatlamps. If you've got pictures of in-progress painting, gone-wrong stories, or even just advice, it's most welcome!
I painted my John Deere 310 years ago (1980's), used the JD paint. It was good durable paint but hard to thin out to spray, IIRC I had to use lacquer thinner to cut it. Wish I would have covered up the shop a little better with plastic. I still have overspray on some of my stuff to this day, impossible to clean off. Not sure if the paint is still the same today. You need a place to paint that you can get the machine into, and enough heat to get rid of any humidity so the paint dries properly and won't run. You need fairly good lighting to see what you are doing, a spray booth is the ideal. If painting in a shop you must have no source of ignition as the fumes from the paint/thinner are very flammable. Watch out for paint hardeners, some of them contained cyanide and can make you sick. Not sure if cyanides are still used but you should check into it. You need a really good respirator with filter cartridges designed and approved for the paint you are using. As well you need an exhaust fan to see what you are doing and to keep the overspray under control. A pair of paper coveralls with a hood will help keep you clean. I have an HVLP conversion spray gun I use to finish wood projects, not sure if it will spray the thicker tractor paint. When I sprayed my 310 I used a Devilbiss MBC510 production gun at 40-50 psi. Maybe you could trade having a paint shop shoot your backhoe in return for snow removal or something, using a proper spray booth would be the best bet. You need to clean the machine really clean, get all the rust, oil, grease etc. off that you possibly can. If you can remove all the hyd hoses so much the better, if you paint them the paint will crack and chip off eventually from the flexing. Mask everything you don't want paint on because of overspray. Nothing looks worse than paint on the tires. Hopefully someone who has done this recently and is up to date with the paints and hardeners available today will post and give you some more up to date info.
Wow, after reading your advice, I checked the hardener I bought - it contains isocyanides and has lots of warnings about not breathing it. Good note - no garage painting for me, even with the NIOSH mask! The paint I have is SEM Rust Shield... Cat Yellow. I know, that color doesn't belong on a Case! Originally bought this paint for my forklift, which is now sold for scrap. At least I'm not putting John Deere yellow on it - that'd be a pretty obvious mismatch. At work, we have a paint booth, but it's only 30" wide, made for small parts. I've got to get that cylinder back on, so perhaps I'll just stick with primer gray on the cylinder for the winter, then paint the whole machine in the summer. When the time comes and the weather is cooperating, the plan is to paint outside, especially now that I know about the fumes. Hopefully whatever dust gets on the paint won't be noticeable. Then again, I live on a dirt road (was gravel a few years ago, LOL!) Anyone else with advice or photos? I searched youtube and surprisingly only found one video of a backhoe being painted.
Don't use primer as a final coat to sit outside. It will absorb moisture and will eventually start to rust where the bare metal was. The only primer to use without putting a topcoat on is a catylised primer. If anything, prime and put some type of paint on top as a protector. Primer is only used to make the paint attach to bare metal.
Thanks duramax-rob, good note - in the back of my mind I was thinking it's not a good idea to leave it as plain primer. I'll probably hit it with a few coats of krylon to keep rust at bay for a few months until I can get at it properly.
I painted our 2000 310SE, a 1967 Case Dozer, and the trailer for the dozer with John Deere Construction Yellow. Painted in the summer and did not use any hardener. I did use POR (Paint Over Rust) paint as the primer. Quite happy with the color, durability, and ease of doing the job. I did it in our shop parking lot and had the backhoe bucket extended out on the ground. Paint seems to take months to harden adequately; even in the heat.
In the meanwhile, get it nice and clean and hit the flat spots with 220 grit on a DA sander. Also, look for a decal kit. As a Cat dealer tech, I got recruited to fill in for a painter who had to take some medical time off. I became very familiar with the process.
If you don't know to sand, you should really just hire someone with more experience than a couple of hours.
I'd suspect the OP has probably painted his backhoe sometime in the last 14 years.
No doubt the original poster has since painted his equipment. Users of this forum make posts that are not deleted once their issues are resolved: the posts get reviewed by others. Responses should be positive, productive and constructive.