Richard
I would be hesitant about sand blasting anything that you are not going to fully disassemble and clean. The sand will go literally everywhere including inside your engine, transmission, wheel bearings, etc. I once read an article about sandblasting in which the writer related an experience of sandblating the top edge of a semi-truck bulk trailer and aferward finding sand in the front wheel bearings which were 20 ft away./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif He also wrote of sandblasting a mower deck with the blade spindles still in place because he knew that it would be later disassembled to replace the spindle bearings. He wrote that he taped around the openings as best he could and tried to keep away from the spindles while blasting but later found a heaping handfull of sand in each spindle housing./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Needless to say the bearings would have soon been destroyed if they were not replaced. If "brutus" were mine I would give it a good steam cleaning to remove the dirt and grease before refinishing. As far a painting goes there are several choices. At the low end of the price spectrum is the alkyld enamel paint you find at equipment stores. This stuff will look good for a while but it will quickly fade and begin to wear and chip. For a better (and more expensive) finish I would use a good enamel primer followed by acrylic enamel paint without hardener. The enamel primer will bond better that laquer primer but it does not fill imperfections as much (probably not a issue with Brutus). Adding hardener to paint makes the paint harder and thus more glossy and scratch resistant but also makes it more chip prone. If you really want to break the bank you could use an epoxy primer. This stuff is very expensive but it sticks like the very devil. I would probably go the low buck route on a machine that is going to really see some use. Good Luck. MJB
I strongly agree about the sand blasting, and the cost of quality products.
I would steam clean it, if painting it assembled.
Automotive epoxy primers, and even other types for that matter, are not always designed for direct to metal use. Though they are commonly misused as such. An acid etch, or self etching primer is usually necessary for optimal metal adhesion.
A big misconception is, hardener makes air dry paint much harder. It actually does not. It converts the molecules in the resin to a different product that does improve adhesion, (especially if you use a primer that is designed to cross link with the hardener molecules in the paint). The increase in chip resistance actually comes from the improved adhesion.
The reason hardener is misnamed, is because the original development of these catalytic hardeners was in products that would never go from a liquid state, to a solid, without them. Thus, it would cause the paint to "dry" chemically, rather than by evaporation.
I also agree that on a piece of equipment like this, it really is not worth while to spend the kind of money it would take to use good automotive products.
I recommend industrial enamel, (i.e. Rustoleum), all the way. Valspar has a nice system that does have a optional hardener. Industrial enamel takes a long time to reach full hardness, once it does, it is tough to beat for the money. If I bake it, to drive out the solvents, it gets to full hardness much faster, (i.e. put it in the hot sun for a couple weeks).
Even if he decides to use a brush, there is still a need to use the proper protective equipment to avoid inhaling the toxic chemicals.
