I stopped by a John Deere dealer yesterday and picked up a gallon of medium black and some thinner for a little over $50; and a color chip chart. I was going to use the black for a chassis, and after looking at the chip chart started thinking about other colors that I might try. Has anyone tried hardener in any of the colors? Or what experiences have you had with this paint? It appears like a good low cost alternative for a paint job.
That farm equipment paint is pretty tough as it is. I painted the nose of a big IH tractor with IH spraycan red on a dairy I worked on and it stood up to the farm workers daily power washing as long as the tractor was under lease. I think what you have would give pretty good results on a chassis. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
I can't tell you about John Deere specifically, but if it's anything like CAT paint then I caution you against the hardener. Against my wishes (and without me knowing) my buddy put hardener in the paint before we shot my trailer. While the apperance is great if you LOOK at it TOO HARD it chips. I've never liked hardener seems like a double edged sword if you ask me. Sure it gets the paint hard and you think hard = durable, but hard like glass = pain in the ass. IMHO Now OTOH at work they used to use alot of Polane - you could whack those parts with a hammer and barely see any effect whatsoever. I'm thinking the PRIMER has a huge effect on the outcome. Good luck whatever you decide.
I'm not sure if this paint, with a hardener gets as hard as some of the catalyzed enamels that are out there; that's why I was kind of asking the questions. I had thought that the John Deere paint was a synthetic enamel, like what we used years ago. That stuff you could mark it for weeks, it would water spot if you weren't careful. I just thought that the hardener would help it dry and harden it a bit.
I've had extremely good results with Genuine John Deere enamel, I use JD reducer and PPG DU 5 hardener. It dries to touch quickly thus hellping on the dust issue most of us have painting at home. I tend to slightly disagree with some before mentioned problems with hardener causing the paint to get too hard. My opinion is the hardener has a larger effect on dry-time, not the evential hardness of the finish. just my .02
I have a very similar experience to hemirambler with case/ih enamel. I sprayed an M for a friend of mines dad back in HS. It layed out great (for a barn paint job ) and looked good in the sun. But if you took it through standing corn and hit it, it was so hard it flaked right off. I prepped it with a wet 240 hand sand, it should have been coarse enough, but it still flaked off. I too would avoid hardened paints on anything that needs to be durable. Now, on the opposite side of the coin, there was some paint at Family Farm and Home that was cheap, and it looked usable. Has anyone tried THAT stuff yet? JK
Someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong, but I've always believed that the synthetic and acrylic enamels with hardener, don't achieve the same level of hardness. With the synthetic, using hardener, the paint just sets up faster and doesn't stay soft for days.
Folks I work for John Deere. I strongly suggest you not use the Blitz Black on a car body. It is not designed for long term use on a body but it is designed for use on Frames. It is not very UV tolerant and becomes pourous when its in the sun for a long time. I saw a guy use the black on a tractor that he was fixing up. Had it sand blasted and was gonna save money on paint by just doing it in Blitz Black. Well 2 years later he ended up with rust bubbles poping up all over. Also saw a guy paint a 59 Elcamino with that stuff and he kept it outside. 3 years later he had to strip all the black off and found more rust then was there when he started. I got like 10 more stories like these. To make a long post short. If you paint a car body with Blitz Black the paint will get pourous and allow moisture through the paint and create rust issues. If you use it on a frame great it never sees sunlight. Dont skimp on paint, spend an extra $50 and get some Dupont Comercial grade Imeron or PPG Comercial grade single stage or hell get the new Dupont Laquer paint from the parts store.
That's interesting, I guess the way to use the Blitz black would be to put a good seal coat under it; which could be just about anything, sealer or some other kind of paint which would act as a barrier. Sort of like I do when I'm going to run primer on a car; prep the body, prime, paint and then prime. I'm surprised that they call it paint.
implement enamel is usually alkyd in a chemical sense..alkaline/acid=alkyd..same as rustoleum (basically ) we use rustoleum at work, thin it w/xylene and bake it..tough stuff after baking! in new york all the registerd repair shops,nys inspection,new and used car dealer and cycle shop signs you see are made by us and all are painted w/rustoleum! no hardener...they hold up...
Have used JD green with a hardener and it worked and held up just fine on farm equipment. Actually just shy of bulletproof. For frames, I use the medium JD black thinned with acetone and have not had any concerns. It's pretty durable but you can scratch it on a frame with other metal that scrapes it. I spill gas on it all the time with no probs. I could see a too-thick primer underneath scratching and lifting the black so easy on the primer. Did not use hardener with the black but can't see a reason not to. You could always try a sample and drag it across the ground for a test. I also use on suspension parts. Hardener worked fine on the JD green I sprayed. Two thin coats. I think the JD medium black is superior to the Rustoleum black and have used both for frames over the years. I'm not exactly sure why I think that and could be wrong. I use Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer first--thin coat and followed by two or so thin coats of JD med black. It stays stuck for me. You could go the the JD website and look at the material data safety sheets and it would tell you who makes the paints as well as the composition of each item for comparison and might mention hardener. I think guys that own and paint JD equipment would likely use hardener with everything they paint. You could call a dealer and ask the paint guys too.
Back in the day, I used to rebuild totals and front end wrecks. Most were wholesaled and sold as used cars. I also taught body and paint to high school age kids. They would share in any profits on the sold cars they did. TSC stores sold tractor paints in assorted colors for as little as $12.00 per gallon with 1/2 pint cans of hardener for I believe $6-7.00 more. We would buy colors close to the original cars color and shoot the paint with lacquer thinner and the hardner. Paint would set up fast and had great gloss. Easy for kids and inexperienced painters to get used to. The biggest problem encountered, was after about six months in the sun. With no care. The reds would develop a brownish film that could be waxed and buffed off. Kind of like the old GM maroons and reds from the sixties/seventies. The blues would also get a hazy scum. We could always spot a vehicle that we had done that wasn't maintained.
Back in the day, using synthetic enamel, you could use almost anything to thin it. A friend of mine was working in a shop, getting a complete ready to shoot and told the owner that they didn't have any enamel reducer; so the owner gave him some money to go down to pick up a gallon of gas, that's what they used.
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