Kubota orange paint

[RobertN]

Has anyone tried an automotive paint store?

the one near me will match paints. They can mix a small amount and put it in a spray/rattle can. Not sure of cost though...

Has anyone tried using the Kubota paint in a spray gun? Does it need to be thinned or a hardener added to it? I have a Herd seeder I rebuilt and since there's lots of new steel and it'll take 4 rattle cans I might as well get a quart.

The Majic paint is oil based. I think it's made with Soybeans.

 

[dlyle]

What year did Kubota change the orange color?

 

[94BULLITT]

Has anyone tried an automotive paint store?

the one near me will match paints. They can mix a small amount and put it in a spray/rattle can. Not sure of cost though...

My local auto paint store is $20 a can.

 

[sixdogs]

Kubota fatory paint is already the Cadillac of paints in that it is acrylic enamel and of top shelf quality. Thinned with a little acetone it sprays beautifully, dries fast and is glossy and hard with a long wear life. I do not believe you can buy a mixed acrylic enamel for the same price you can buy factory Kubota acrylic enamel for. I use it a lot and it is without equal.

While I have not done it I have seen tractor re-paints done entirely with spray cans of Kubota factory paint and it looked really good. The guy took his time and sprayed carefully and I would not have known if he had not said something.

Regarding the switch to the current "Orange II" paint, my guess is it happened in the late 1980's.

 

[crazyal]

So here's an update. I bought a quart of Kubota orange paint. The can has very little information about how to spray the paint. The dealer just said paint thinner. The local Sherwin Williams was even worse, they said just use water since it's acrylic enamel. I tried generic enamel thinner and that was a mistake. It didn't mix well and turned the orange a milky color. I found a part number chart on Kubota's web site and it gave a part number (I think) for thinner that the dealer never heard of. It also said Xylene would work in colder weather. I ended up wasting part of the can trying to find what to cut it with and then when I used Xylene I had to figure out how much. It looks like 3 to 4 parts paint to 1 part Xylene worked well for me.

Since I wasted some paint I ended up using a gravity fed gun that I haven't used in years. I used Rustoleum self etching auto primer and gave it a light scuff with 220 sand paper. It was about 80 out when I painted the seeder. The finish is much better than anything other than automotive paint, even a base/ clear wouldn't have done better. If you are looking for something more than a good enough paint job then I would recommend the Kubota paint. If you have experience painting automotive paints then you get a paint job that will rival your Kubota tractor, if not better since they are painted in mass production while doing one off work your attention to detail is finer. One quart would be enough to spray 3 coats to the top of a brush hog. It would have been enough to paint my Herd seeder had I not lost some learning.

Unfortunately I had to go thick with the second coat and it's still slightly thin in spots. Since it's going to be filled with sand for the driveway this winter I'm not going to paint it further. Also you have to get real close, a foot or so away, to see that it could use one more coat.

 

[sixdogs]

Good work and congrats.
Now throw out the old paint gun and buy a $30 Harbor freight HVLP gravity gun and hang on. Acetone dries quicker.
For painting, I put a very light coat on in warm and ideal conditions and then two minutes later give it a slightly heavier coat and I'm done. Clean up the spray gun with acetone and call it good. Oh, buy some of the disposable paint cups from HF (cheap) and cleanup is ultra easy. Now, on to the next project and steer clear of the guy that said to thin acrylic enamel with water. Wow.
Any photos of your newly painted item?

 

[crazyal]

Good work and congrats.
Now throw out the old paint gun and buy a $30 Harbor freight HVLP gravity gun and hang on. Acetone dries quicker.
For painting, I put a very light coat on in warm and ideal conditions and then two minutes later give it a slightly heavier coat and I'm done. Clean up the spray gun with acetone and call it good. Oh, buy some of the disposable paint cups from HF (cheap) and cleanup is ultra easy. Now, on to the next project and steer clear of the guy that said to thin acrylic enamel with water. Wow.
Any photos of your newly painted item?

You wouldn't want the paint to dry any quicker. As it was the Xylene was dry to the touch moments after being applied, almost too fast. If I didn't have a paint gun I would get a HF special but the gun I have is actually a very good gun (Binks M1-G) and in the hands of a pro it's about the best you can get. Plus if I wanted to I can get different tips for it so I could shoot the Kubota paint without thinning it. I figure I'll start a thread in the snow section and add several pics there.

 

[Green Guy]

subscribing...

 

[LSU L4330]

Sorry to resurrect and old thread but this discussion seemed to be right on par with what I am trying to resolve. I have some attachment pieces to paint and am wanting to spray with an HVLP gun with OEM Kubota paint. I am seeing that Xylene or Acetone are the recommended thinning agent? Would actual auto paint reducer not be an advised option? And most importantly what is the ratio of the different reducers? I am in the south so it is getting hot already, hitting low 90's, if temperature is a considering factor on the best thinning agent.

 

[varmint]

Since I was just respraying some parts of my L3130 this is a great thread for me. The comments about paint, thinner and H. F. HVLP guns are exactly my experience, too. I used to have a Binks #7, so I know what a good quality conventional gun works like. I have been really happy with my HF guns- even the little detail gun seems to work pretty well. I would recommend thinning the OEM Kubota enamel with zylene, in my case, I just added a bit to thin it, since I don't have different tips to play with, and would guess about less than 10% thinner. Maybe closer to 5%, but I didn't measure. Curiously, the epoxy primer I use is tough stuff- the photo of the bucket lip shows how the Kubota paint was scrapped off by gravel and pushing over a standing tree, but the primer was untouched! The other photo shows a spot on the inner fender, where the paint had worn off, exposing bare, rusting fender metal. I noted that the orange was a bit deeper/darker than the sun faded paint around it. You can see where I had masked it off, just waiting for the paint to harden to buff it smooth.