Dozer Painting

[whiteclipse16]

Hey guys,
This is my first dozer restoration and I'm getting close to starting the paint process.
From you guys' experience, what is the easiest? Assemble part of it (Finals, Steering clutch housing, tranny, motor) and paint all that together and paint sheet metal and put that on.
Or paint each piece individually.
Any other opinions are gladly accepted.
Also, I think I found some industrial yellow from sherwin williams, has anybody used this paint?

Let me know some opinions.
Thanks

[Lavoy]

I typically piece paint. There are just so many areas on a crawler that are hard to get to once assembled. An alternative would be to paint what is not easily done assembled, then finish coat later.
Lavoy

[mapaduke@yahoo.com]

I half to agree with Lavoy.I like to paint what I call sub assemblys. After making all the mechanical repairs I will assemble the engine,center section trans and final drives together and while there on jack stands paint them at the sane time I will paint the side frames dash and any other parts that are the same color and at this time I will paint the inside of the grill and underside of hood I will paint the top of hood and grill after they are on the tractor to avoid them been scratched.After the tractor is completely back to geather minus the tracks I will give it another couple of coats of paint.If you want to cheat a little and your tractor is already together than I would use an aerosol spray paint to get to those hard to reach spots then top the hole tractor with an enamel.
I usually use Martin Senior acrylic enamel although this last one I used John Deere paint. It came out good and at only $80 a gallon with reducer.
This is how I would do it but remember its your tractor so do what works best for you.

[Tiny Crawler]

I have used the ford red and Gray in the Sherman Williams paint system with hardner, on a ford industrial was a perfect match, didn't fade, nice gloss and was durable, if you put on the final coat with the primer system as recommended, painted the sub-assemblies, and hardware, and did light touch up after assembled.

Depends on time you want to spend, and the quality of the paint job you are looking for. I have seen some good cover up jobs from the distance but when you look at the details you can see uncovered areas, and other items painted over that just look painted over and paint on areas the should have not been sprayed on.

so it depends, is it a parade beauty or work alcoholic also factors in?

tiny.

[whiteclipse16]

Thanks for the replies.
I was leaning toward what you guys are saying. Assemble trans, final, steering housings and possibly engine and paint all that.
Then piece paint the other things like seat, fenders, etc.
You guys answered my other question as to whether you brush painted or sprayed. Sounds like everyone sprays.
I'm sure I'll work it some but not like I would a newer one. Parts are just too expensive and hard to find if something breaks. I'm also going to take it to a few shows, since the crawler is in a million pieces I figure I'll do it right and get everything cleaned up and repaint. Its getting all new bolts, new wiring harness etc. so most of the crawler will be new.
Already put all new bearings in both finals and the trans.

And thanks for the help with the final last Friday Lavoy. I put a little pressure on it with the puller and hit the axle where the sprocket bolts on and it popped right apart. I'll prob. finish putting it together tonight.

[Lavoy]

Good, glad it worked, they can be a pain sometimes, but at least that means your splines are good.
Lavoy

[Rick Kr]

Me, I prefer to disassemble as far as possible and piece paint. I go for a nice paint job, that is going to see the field. Never nothing for show.

Your question reminds me a place nearby

On local tractor jockey performs the "liquid overhaul". Everyone around can pick out a tractor they have sent to the local consignment auction. They spray the whole tractor, and I mean the WHOLE tractor, including lots of overspray on the tires. On the hard to reach areas, it appears they just hold the spray gun until the area is covered, the area nearby will have runs all the way to the oil pan. Funny thing is, some of the fastener must take a wrench or two bigger based on the amount of coating. Rubber hydraulics lines, gas lines, you name it, nothing is sacred from the paint. It literally looks like they dip the tractor in a giant vat of paint. Then they top of this "crown jewel" with a new seat from Tractor Supply. It is amazing the amount of people that initially will flock to the tractor at the consignment auction because of the paint, and then as they get within 20 feet and start inspecting, they walk away with somewhat confused look on their face.

Everyone sees the same folks each week at the local auctions. The above people buy the almost basket case tractors, give them a set of plugs and fresh gas, and a nice liquid overhaul and try to flip them a month later. Amazingly, they have done this for 15-20 years and somehow manage to keep moving these tractors to one or two unsuspecting people.

Rick

[Rick Kr]

Here's a pic of my last paint job. Hopefully I am smart enough to post them.


http://www.tractorshed.com/gallery/tphotos/a127467.jpg

http://www.tractorshed.com/gallery/tphotos/a100012.jpg

[440 iron popper]

what do you use as watertight stuff between different casings? Silicon or special paint? thanks.

[mapaduke@yahoo.com]

I believe the manual said to use shellac.I use silicone gasket maker especially on the final drive housings.Be Sure to wipe off the excess sealant once its together,paint wont stick to it

[Tigerhaze]

I've been using a slightly different type of gasket maker to seal cases- it comes in a can and wipes on with a brush in the can. They sell it at auto parts stores for mating transfer cases to transmissions, etc. I like it because it isn't as messy as the silicone and doesn't squeeze out as bad when mated. It is pretty sticky so you don't want to get it on areas you don't want it on (like your fingers).

It is called High Tack made by Permatex; here is the listing at Autozone for it:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/access ... id=2781105

[440 iron popper]

Permatex makes good products. I'll give a try with High tack. I used a lot of their gasket maker with old Detroit and Cat engines in addition with a good gasket... where dissassembling again if it leaks means pain in the ass. Recently Cat changed its ''compounds and gasket maker stuff'' to loctite. I know they make good thread locker but don't know that much about the rest of their products.

[Ray III]

I use Loctite Hi-Tack. That is probably the ideal thing to use to seal the clutch housings. I put one on dry and buried the crack in paint, in hindsight I should have used hi-tack on it.

I would remove all the sheetmetal and frames to get down to the basic tractor unit and paint separately. When painting parts separately I sometimes paint the bolts themselves and assemble carefully with 6-point sockets so the paint is complete yet the areas behind parts are fully coated also.

For this sort of thing, find a good alkyd (oil base) enamel. That stuff sprays on without running, is bulletproof, and never loses its shine. It takes a long time to cure but that should be taken as a sign that it is not cheap Wal-Mart rattle can dry in 5 minutes paint.

[whiteclipse16]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.
Its gradually getting close to paint time but I have a lot of sandblasting/cleaning to do on the big parts left (hood instrument panel, etc.)