New orange paint on FDR 1672 mower

[rkidd]

Bought a used FDR1672 mower last spring to use with my B2650. Was pretty solid and used all last season and worked well. It is a 12 year old mower. Bought it for third of the price of a new one. Thought I would go thru it this winter and then repaint it orange to match up. I replaced all the bearings and bushings in the 4 bogey wheels it rides on, replaced both idler pulleys for the belt drive and the bearings in the center blade tower. Replaced bottom oil seal in gear box. I have never really done any body or paint work but thought I would tackle it. I completely disassembled the mower. Then took and stripped all of the rust and paint off. I then got all of the parts ready to prime. Definitely alot more work to this body work than I thought. More to come.

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[chad450r]

Looking good man.. If you got it that cheap what a deal, its not that old of a mower as it has the flat free tires on it. Just upgraded mine after almost ten years of constantly being flat. I found Lobster Red Rust-Oleum paint to be almost a dead ringer for the new Kubota orange, might save you a buck or two.. Keep up the nice restoration job.

 

[rkidd]

Got the deck and all of the parts for the FDR1672 primed and ready for paint. Just used rattle cans to shoot the primer. Bought a HVLP gun to shoot the paint.

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[rkidd]

Well I got all of the pieces and deck for the FDR1672 painted. I had bought a HVLP gun which I had used once to paint my ballast box. So this was my second paint job. The gun works very well. I really wanted to paint outside due to the mess, but was too windy and had to rig up my garage. Painting does make a mess!!! I had checked here on the site for bright orange paint recommendations, but I ended going with quarts of Kubota bright orange due to the amazing amount of work it took to get to this point. There was no way I wanted to take a chance on paint and have to redo anything and after all of this I surely wanted it to match the tractor. Used the paint, thinner, and the hardener in the right ratios. I shot 4 coats of paint on everything. I used about 1 1/4 quarts of paint. I was very happy with the results. Everything covered good and no runs!! It took almost all the next day to clean the garage back up and the wife was really pleased with the mess and smell!!! Next step will be to get it back together.

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[Kyle_CMU]

Cool! I'm looking forward to pics of the assembly. Thanks for keeping up with posts.

 

[rkidd]

I got my freshly painted FDR1672 all back together. I painted the 4 bogey wheel brackets black and got new decals to finish it off. Very happy with the way it came out. Mechanically with new gear box seal, bearings and pulleys the unit is 100 %. Now with fresh paint it looks like new. With the purchase of the deck and new parts and paint I have about $1100.00 dollars in it and have basically a new mower. Less than half of he price of a new one. It has been quite a project.


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[Kyle_CMU]

That looks great, well done!

 

[zzsparky]

Good to see projects where people take pride in their work. Very nice. I have been fortunate enough to have a local auction yard to get my various implements at ridiculous prices at times, but they are all different colors and brands. Have been doing the sanding and painting outside, since we are not talking about painting an automobile. Have just waited for a good day to paint (low humidity, little to no breeze, etc.) and have things lined up to get all of the painting done that day.

The sanding has gone by quickly, simply using a flap wheel sanding disk on my 4-1/2 inch grinder. I followed it up with some 320 grit on a square vibrating sander. I use a epoxy primer (since I am painting outdoors, knowing how dangerous painting with epoxy is), followed by the Kubota orange paint. I also add some hardener to the kubota orange to hopefully add a little more durability to the paint. So far, so good.

But, like you have shown, it is the end result that counts. It would have never looked that good had you not taken the time to disassemble and deal with each part independently.

 

[rkidd]

zzsparky. Thanks for the comments. I see you are just a little down the road from me. I did prep mine the same way with 4 1/2 grinder and flap wheel and then sand. I really wanted to paint outside too due to the mess but weather wouldnt cooperate and had to get done to move onto other projects. After all of my years of doing all of my own work I know that there is always time to do it right the first time. The second time is not fun. Thanks again.

 

[Knott]

Nice job.


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[CaveCreekRay]

Its so nice to see somebody take a jewel in the rough and put a little work into it to restore it to better than new condition. You can take pride in that job for quite awhile.

Just curious: You mentioned hardener. Did that come from Kubota too? I bought a quart and didn't get any hardener. I thought it was the same one-step as the rattle can paint.

Ray

 

[live_roll]

Thanks for the post!! I have exactly the same project about to happen, I picked up a 1572 Finishing mower a month or so ago for 200.00, The vendor offered me a new set of blades for additional 50.00( I priced out blades @ local Kubota dealer for $ 43.00 each) I ordered up a decal set ( $120.00) and new Kevlar belt for another $ 100.00 or so. So with the added cost of paint ( Rattle can Chevy Orange ) for another $50.00 I will have $ 500.00 or so tied up in it, I work pretty cheap, ( food) So I am not going to factor that in as it is pretty well a hobby.
I tried the mower out behind my BX just for the heck of it, it works really well but it is a little too much for it comfortably. I have My zd335 for mowing. But I do happen to have two new acreage owner neighbours that just may be interested....

Thanks for your post!!!

Cheers

Roger

 

[rkidd]

Cave Creek Ray. That is a yes on the hardener. They had it at my Kubota dealership and bought it with the quart of Kubota orange paint to mix in.

 

[zzsparky]

Looks like we have the same idea on prepping. I've tried a lot of different methods, including sand blasting, but that little flap wheel on the grinder can make some short work of things and can also get into some fairly tight places.

I think you are around 40-50 miles from me. Not sure what you have in your area, but you might want to check this place out. I have gotten most of my implements there (new implements) at some very ridiculous auction prices. Might be worth a trip for you if you don't have anything in your area. The site to check out is Chalkers.net They only show a little bit of stuff on their site, but if you do go, get there early and expect to spend much of the day there. It is a lot of fun, if nothing else.

As for hardener, I use an off brand that is made for acrylic enamel paint. It has worked fine. It's always better practice to stay with a certain brand instead of mixing brands, but have not had any problems with it. You can also add a glossing additive if you want a little more gloss. I tried it, but the gloss is too much, IMO. The Kubota orange seems to have enough gloss to it as it comes out of the can, so reducer and hardener is all I use.

 

[vvbigbb]

You are more ambitious than me, so, you can see where this post comes from.
I power wash (avoid the hydrolic dip stick and vent area) then use a pre-paint cleaner before applying paint, after paint has dried and cured, I apply an automotive paint sealant (easy but expensive) and this will keep the paint orange for a couple of years. I have done this to all my Kubota's for 10 to 15 years and they are kept in a shed with only a roof for protection and are still orange.