Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[4570Man]

It's said that prep work is 90% of a paint job and I think that's true. Hold that thought because I have done a number of beautiful jobs on farm equipment and farm trucks with spray cans. Take your time, do the prep and spray thin coats when there is no wind. As well, lots of old timers could brush paint a vehicle and not easily be able to tell it was a brush job. Again, do the prep and use a fast drying solvent.

For your truck, don't use spray cans unless you are committed to good prep work. It's got to be grat prep work or it will look like cr@p with overspray on the glass and windows or chrome. Remover, chrome, door handles and anything else that will come off. Then paint. Clean, sand and prime and and again. You can do part of the truck each year but do a good prep job.

Oh, always always always (got it?) buy only factory OEM paint if you can get it. The difference in quality is amazing.

I've got a building big enough to park it in to do the paint work so that's a step in the right direction. I'm probably going to fix the truck up and sell it so the whole truck needs done at once. I'm leaning towards buying a gallon of Rust-oleum paint and another gallon of paint and spraying it. I haven't priced OEM paint, but I stopped at an automotive paint store and they wanted $180 for a gallon and that's more than I want to spend. This truck has lost most of the original clear coat and has a different color door. Pretty much anything would look better. I'd probably start with my dump truck bed to get a feel for the gun. If the junk truck looks presentable I might try painting my box truck. That's assuming I ever do anything. My job is flipping houses and I've got a bunch of outside work piling up and the weather is just starting to fair up so I'll be busy for a while.

 

[sixdogs]

Don't buy auto store paint and you already know it's crazy expensive. Can you find a tractor color you like? There are lots of brands and colors and the price is much better for very high quality paint.

 

[4570Man]

I was going to paint the truck white. Now I'm thinking it would probably be cheaper to paint it the same color as my dump truck bed which would either be the same color and its currently blue or back. I don't know of any black tractors. The blue might be acceptable but I don't know of any tractor the shade that my bed currently is.

 

[SPYDERLK]

A friend of my wife told us her husband was just diagnosed with a brain tumor and inoperable cancer, has 6 months to live.

His career was stripping military aircraft for repainting, mostly using MEK.

It sure smells evil enough. ... Theres a clue. :confused3:

 

[SPYDERLK]

that's a local product in these parts...

~199/200 proof is terribly expensive. I guess cuz its the essence of booze. ... The pure stuff is a surprisingly good solvent - and you have peace of mind knowing the fumes arent a cummulative poison as with most other solvents.

 

[PhysAssist]

~199/200 proof is terribly expensive. I guess cuz its the essence of booze. ... The pure stuff is a surprisingly good solvent - and you have peace of mind knowing the fumes arent a cummulative poison as with most other solvents.

This works for me!

 

[KubotainNH]

I was going to paint the truck white. Now I'm thinking it would probably be cheaper to paint it the same color as my dump truck bed which would either be the same color and its currently blue or back. I don't know of any black tractors. The blue might be acceptable but I don't know of any tractor the shade that my bed currently is.

My son is in an auto body course, he recently painted his truck white at school. He bought his paint from TheCoatingStore | Custom Car Paint at Amazing Prices ,his teacher recommended it. He bought the KemFX with UreKem activator and reducer. I guess no need for a clear coat as it's part of it. He went with a matte paint, so far it seems good.


Back to tools.

 

[/pine]

~199/200 proof is terribly expensive. I guess cuz its the essence of booze. ... The pure stuff is a surprisingly good solvent - and you have peace of mind knowing the fumes arent a cummulative poison as with most other solvents.

That has a slightly different meaning than "consumable"...would be such a waste...!

I'm hoping the recent peach blossom bloom did not get frost bit...the local brandy is awesome if the peaches are sweet...!

 

[dragoneggs]

I thought I posted a thread specific to HF blast cabinet mod but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I didn't and probably should start a thread if I didn't...

I have heavily modded my cabinet but one of the items that didn't get an upgrade until now were the gloves. They do suck! They split pretty early in the use cycle and I have been using duct tape with not great luck to hold them together. Replaced the originals with new ones from the Tacoma Company. Highly recommend them if you want to turn your HF cabinet into a first class machine.



As I said, lots of mods but I learned pretty quick that it is nice to have quick access to the whole insides of the cabinet so I got so I modified a socket...

New gloves installed and a peek at some other sweet upgrades from Tacoma Company...



Thought I had another spare pane of glass. But I guess not. :smiley_aafz: So another trip to HD before I button this up.



Indeed this is a very cheap tool and if you don't use it much it is okay, but I found out that with proper modding, this thing rocks! But you will put in double more than your original purchase dollars to get it that way. If several of you are interested in the mods, I will start a specific thread.

 

[prichard]

I have one of those booths a friend gave me. I'd like to see the mods.