Painting YM-146 Clearcoat or no clearcoat any advice

[bmaverick]

I know this is not a true top coat, but what about putting a clear polyurethane finish over paint. In areas that have lots of use (like kitchen drawers) paint doesn't last very long. I've put a poly top coat over paint and it seems to last a lot longer.

Depending on the polyU clear coat, some are not UV resistance and will turn to a yellow haze over the color of the paint looking like oil or staining was smeared on the machine. You would need a ployU UV resistant paint typically an automotive grade. Rustoleum has such a clear coat in the rattle cans for painted on metal.

 

[ponytug]

Clearcoat tends to have better UV resistance than even UV stabilized polyurethane. Personally, I have given up on polyurethane in direct sun applications for most applications as it ages faster than I am willing to tolerate, and I really, really dislike scraping paint or varnish.

All the best,

Peter

 

[YanmarFever]

I use to paint Yanmars in our paint booth, 6 at a time. Most of the work was prepping the tractor, the painting was a breeze.
We used an electrostatic paint machine to paint with, I used Rustoleum red, and green Sherwin Williams industrial enamel, custom mixed.
We could paint a 1610-d green in 4 minutes flat, the hood and fenders were hanging on the steel cable and took a little longer, cause we had to be really careful, not to get runs.

The rototillers we painted 13 at a time and took and hour to prime and an hour to paint.
All this sounds like a breeze, and it was, but it was a lot of work putting everything back together, I would be out there until midnight many nights.

There was nothing finer than opening up that container and smelling those Yanmars all neatly packed and stacked with 4x4 frames.
I loved crawling in the container cause I couldn't wait to get them out and start the whole process.

Thinking back it was a great time and a fun business, I met a lot of nice people along the way and made a ton of friends, a few of them hang out here at TBN.
Would I do it again? If I was younger, I would in a heartbeat!