Questions about Cub painting

[thenrie]

It seems that when I see cubs being refurbed, on this and other sites, that folks always advocate stripping the frames, etc down to bare metal. Now, I have not yet painted a Cub, but I have done plenty of automotive work, and in that world, you generally only take things down to the metal when you need to remove rust, bad body work, or bad paint. Normally you would clean up surface rust by grinding and sanding or blasting to bare metal, then prep the surface with a rust cleaner or rust converter, then spray primer over that. Any place where the paint was still tight and good, you would just sand and blend into the stripped places and spray the primer over it, sand some more, then paint. As a matter of fact, paint that is not flaking or otherwise bad, once sanded is a better surface for primer than bare metal.

Am I missing something? Is the original IH paint so bad that it needs to be completely stripped? Or, are we simply overly particular in how we do stuff? I can understand either perspective. I'm just wondering.

[toyman]

Tony - It's each individual's decision on how they do their prep work. What I've found is that once I start grinding and then feathering out the leftover paint, it's not too much more work to take it all to bare metal. That and you then know exactly what's there and eliminate any prior products causing issues. But you are entirely correct that you could grind, feather, prime & paint.

Or, if you want the 2 word answer: Overly Particular!

[Matt G.]

I found it easier and less time-consuming to remove all of the paint, rather than try to feather it. If it isn't feathered perfectly, it'll be very obvious that you painted over old paint. Cars are mostly wide expanses of sheetmetal where it'd be very easy to feather any remaining paint. A tractor is about the opposite...everything is much smaller.

[thenrie]

OK. That sounds reasonable. I tend to be "overly particular" myself, but I really don't think the frame on my 1650 needs to be completely stripped or blasted. It appears to have been refurbished and repainted at some point in its former life, so there are only a few small places on the frame that will need to be taken down to the metal. The hood, however, is mostly surface rust. It will get the full treatment. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[cubby]

the time spent feathering and money on sand paper plus the fact that some parts just cant be sanded, ie the grill support and tranny its just as easy to blast the whole thing and start with a blank canvas. just my opinion