# Winter Project - Repainting Vermeer Rake



## 32-0-0 (May 30, 2017)

I've got a Vermeer roller bar rake that works great for my needs, but my type A personality goes into overdrive every time I see the rough looking paint on it. She's ugly, but still works great.

So it looks like I will have time to repaint it during the off season. I've never repainted a piece of equipment that size, so a little guidance and advice would be appreciated.

First off, should the old paint be sandblasted off? I was just thinking about putting Ospho on the rust spots, power wash it, prime it and then spray a coat or two of Vermeer yellow on it. Good plan or bad?

Second, I have a good airless sprayer that I've used to spray our privacy fence and deck. It works great when you have a large surface area to spray, but I'm not sure how it would perform on this type of project....it produces a lot of overspray. I don't have any experience with an air spray gun so that's why I'm considering the airless...it's pretty much fool proof as far as achieving a good spray pattern.

Third...any other input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris


----------



## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Chris I don't know what alphabet I am, but I can't stand to have rusty tools either. I would do just what you're speaking of.....
1) pressure wash with heavy duty cleaner....
2) with a wire brush (on drill or grinder) clean the worst spots to feather around the rough spots, use a putty knife to get those areas that can't be reached easily. Sand paper, wire brush, scrapers, etc to prep and remove old paint/dirt/grease. During this step, you don't have to remove all of the paint just as much as your alphabet demands  obviously the better the prep job, the better the paint job....
3) pressure wash and dry with a blower.....
4) check over the machine good for areas that may have been hidden from view, repeat above step if needed....spray the machine with ospho. It only needs to be applied to the bare metal surfaces, not much it can/will do to painted surfaces, won't hurt it either.....let it dry for a couple of days.
5) check the machine again, this time go over with a fine tooth comb and remove any buildup and residue from ospho using wire brush etc. again....you can paint "over the top" of ospho but it needs to be dry 24-36 hrs....
6) tape up (use some newspaper) areas for overspray concerns, tape up bearings and drives, anything you don't want painted yeller.....
7) pick a good day with good temps above 55-60 to spray. The airless sprayer will be fine. May have to thin the paint a bit, no more than necessary tho.....paint early to achieve good dry down the first day. Probably gonna need two or three light coats on the machine, refrain from laying down too much material at once. 
8) remove any masking tape immediately after the last coat....don't wait, it only gets tougher to remove.

During prep, make sure to cover bearings, zerk fittings, chains, belts etc.....
Majik brand enamel paint is purty good for the price, make sure to get the reducer and hardener....
Whatever brand you use, make sure to mix a small batch (1oz or so) to make sure the reducer will work with the paint. 
Order decals and reinstall...... 
Good luck

I don't like to sand blast as it is very messy and can damage bearings and the like.....if it's just a piece of metal, no problems...

Here's a pic of one I've done in the past.....always a paint project here
Thought I had a better pic of the finished project.....


----------



## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Obviously that machine needed a lot more than paint......

Get you a couple of spray bottles for the ospho and the heavy duty cleaner, use gloves and play the wind, both can be very caustic.....


----------



## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

Milkstone remover available at Tractor Supply is a lot cheaper than Ospho and is phosphoric acid as well...it will do the same thing Ospho does.

If you want to keep the rust at bay, I would hit it with a moisture-cured non-leafing aluminum pigmented urethane primer, these types of urethanes will withstand a 15,000 hour salt-spray test, so nothing's going to rust through it. The product I use is Mastercoat Permanent Rust Sealer. Just mix up the can, thin a bit, and spray it on (2 coats min). Then hit it with your enamel. I use Valspar enamel (order it off Amazon) because the Majik TSC sells is kind of junky.

Also be sure to wipe it down well with a wax and grease remover. If you were asking about painting a car, I'd recommend an actual wax and grease remover and not something like lacquer thinner as they leave behind a hydrocarbon film that can interfere with your coating. But for equipment and these types of coating products I've described, they're very resilient and heavy duty, not sensitive snowflake diva's like automotive finishes tend to be. I don't use the same level of detail painting an implement as I would if I were painting a show car finish.

I also spray a few coats of a clear coat over my enamel (providing the enamel has been catalyzed with hardener, which I always do), this keeps it from fading and looking nice. Not sure if I would bother with it for a rake, but tractor...for sure.

Otherwise, Devildawg's got you covered. I painted my 4610 this past summer...I didn't do the frame because I didn't feel like getting that far into it and the frame's pretty good as is...not rusty.


----------



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Kind of think it would be nice to have a "Winter Projects" forum. You could title your project "restoring 477 haybine", for example. Then others could give help based on experience. 
Would go real nice with the "Field Mowing" forum


----------



## 32-0-0 (May 30, 2017)

So I've been working off and on with this project. I'm going to go ahead and replace all the tine bar bearings while it's in the shop. Most of the old bearings are still in working order so I'm going to keep them as spares, however they need a good cleaning.

What's your recommendation for cleaning the old grease out of these bearings?


----------

