Hey gang! I'm new to the forum and wanted to hit you guys up for some direction. There's tons of videos on Youtube about how to paint a car, but very few on how to paint heavy equipment. I only found a couple channels like Newman Tractor, Blastaway Enterprises etc..., but they show limited instructions. I'm looking for step by step instructions for painting equipment. Can you recommend a good Youtube channel or even a good book or DVD? Thank you.
Welcome to HEF, Striker ! You came to the right place for painting help. Do a forum search with just the single word painting . Here is a recent thread about a T/L/b that was prepped and painted. HeavyEquipmentForums
Scrape loose scale, Wash with a GOOD Pressure washer to remove anything Loose, allow to dry. Anything Soft as seats or arm rests, Pull. Anything as Gauges or Sight glasses mask, control handles just mask then Spray it like using a fire hose!!! Standard DuPont Overhaul.
Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. If anyone else reads this, feel free to pipe in.
you can do it any way you want to, depending on what you expect the results to look like. In addition to Dmiller's suggestions, use a degreaser such as purple power from wallyworld after pressure washing, on the greasy spots that didn't come off the first time, pressure wash and repeat until clean enough for your tastes. Use a sander to blend in the paint edges if you want it to look nicer. Any rusty areas after sanding use a phosphoric acid product like ospho or navy jelly . If the rust is bad enough, use air chipping hammer or peening hammer until the scale is gone before sanding.
Like the others have said, your expectations of the finished job will determine the amount of work you put in it. I've had pretty good luck with rust by using a real heavy wire wheel on a 4 inch grinder.They cut scale pretty good and will even feather the surrounding paint. I get them cheap at Harbor Freight, but be sure you wear goggles and leather gloves, it will spit wire and spear you! Another tip: I use Cat primer regardless of what my topcoat is, it seems to stick to just about anything. Their paint is good too, but only available in yellow and black. Tractor supply is a good source for other colors
I have a 4000 psi pressure washer ,needle gun on scaly rust and then the air sander until i run out of patience from sanding. Dont sandblast unless your doing a complete teardown and its induvidual components with no bearings ect to comprimise. Decals are the hardest to remove. I spray with a Lemmer 2/1/2 gal. pressure pot sprayer , It was the best 400.00 i ever spent . You can stick a mixed gallon in the pot and siphon it so cleanup is quick and easy.
Forgot to mention, for decals get a decal eraser wheel. It's a rubber wheel that will peel vinyl decals off in no time without damaging the paint beneath it! A little bit of solvent afterward to clean the residual glue and you're good to go.
They must have used superglue on the decals of the last crane i painted ,i burned up decals erasers ,sanding discs and wire wheels . I was getting ready to attack them with the plasma cutter
You try a heat gun and peel them off?
I got to fill in for a painter that was sick, when I worked for the Halton Co ( Cat Dealer) in Portland. The thing I remember most was hours and hours of sanding with a DA sander & 220 grit paper. Tires didn’t get masked off. They were painted with thinned black paint. ROPS screens were blasted with needle scalers. Sandblasting was only used on stripped components and track frames. Ted Halton had a impressive collection of rare antique tractors and all that gear was meticulously stripped and painted. They did some excellent customer-owned restorations, too.
Yes ,tried the heat gun to . ground and sanded then ended up using body filler to smooth the mess out then more sanding to get rid of the decal shadow. Tin foil works great to quickly mask hoses and cyl rods. grease on cyl rods is ok to to. Be sure to mask windows really well a bit of paint fog on glass is tough get rid of.
Hey guys! Thanks a million for your input. I'm gonna put a list together of they key points you shared. Depending on the weather, I'm gonna try to get started this week.
Rent a hot pressure washer to get rid of caked on grease.