Wheel horse factory painting process?

[c-series don 9,060]

18 hours ago, JimmyJam said:

@Anthony Wendover I doubt WH powder coated anything.

When Marino (Straight from the Horse's Mouth book author) interviewed Cecil Pond, he asked Cecil "Is there a definitive color of red you use?". Cecil responded, "Red!, any red we could get!".

In the initial years of Wheel Horse, the Pond's tried to be close to IH Red. Later years they slightly modified. Toro use to sell "Wheel Horse/Toro Red" rattle cans (uncertain anymore??). 

Which I am stumped in WH history, Why, very briefly, did AMC get involved in Wheel Horse??? Why??? What was their intent???  I understand the Toro buy-out purchase because they needed a good tractor.

I personally spoke to Cecil Pond about Wheel Horse paint one year at the big show. Yes he said he was looking for something close to IH red. He also told me that the paint mixing process wasn’t the exact science that it is today so the shade of red varied over time. I told him as he signed my freshly restored C-121 that I used three coats of two part of epoxy primer,three coats of red and three coats of clear. He then chuckled and said well we definitely didn’t do that at the factory!! Seems they changed something around the time of the 3,4,500 series and the paint just didn’t stick well. 

[ebinmaine 68,879]

17 minutes ago, c-series don said:

Seems they changed something around the time of the 3,4,500 series and the paint just didn’t stick well

That would have been about the time of government regulations and the switch to low VOC...

[adsm08 2,231]

On 4/13/2020 at 2:45 PM, ebinmaine said:

I worked for auto parts distributors back in the 90s.

 

I can't answer what the five-step process was specifically.

 

I can assure you that vehicles for sale in the United States and many types of commercial equipment painted from around 1982 or 83 up, depending on company and STATE, was low v o c paint.

 

You basically had to be a wizard to get that stuff to hold on to a vehicle.

 

The aftermarket paint companies were  able to get materials to stick to metal once again by about 1991 or 93.

I know it was in the late 90s that the big three American corporations finally had that under control.

 

 

I remember Ford had a customer satisfaction campaign specifically on the two-tone brown used on the F-series trucks from about 87 to 91 for adhesion issues.

 

I have a 90 F-250 in that color with some big grey patches.

[Anthony Wendover 124]

A small update to this one guys.. Just picked up some books off of ebay and flipping through a book i found this page! It outlines the 5 step process.. However it states its for the hood not sure on the rest.

 

 

[pfrederi 17,990]

9 hours ago, Anthony Wendover said:

A small update to this one guys.. Just picked up some books off of ebay and flipping through a book i found this page! It outlines the 5 step process.. However it states its for the hood not sure on the rest.

 

 

 

  Is there a date on this info sheet?? 

[Anthony Wendover 124]

1 hour ago, pfrederi said:

  Is there a date on this info sheet?? 

 

 

1988 is the copyright in the book. 

[tom2p 2,394]

12 hours ago, Anthony Wendover said:

A small update to this one guys.. Just picked up some books off of ebay and flipping through a book i found this page! It outlines the 5 step process.. However it states its for the hood not sure on the rest.

 

 

good find !

["D"- Man 827]

On 4/16/2020 at 8:04 AM, 953 nut said:

If you look at any unmolested, well patinaed older Wheel horse you will see that Kohler did a much better job of painting the engine tins than  did of painting the tractor. They were the same color, but the engine paint is always brighter. Case in point, my 1055 engine tins are red, the rest of the tractor,    not so much

I would assume that engine tins had to be painted with a high heat paint that may have been better than the tractor paint.

[ebinmaine 68,879]

1 hour ago, "D"- Man said:

I would assume that engine tins had to be painted with a high heat paint that may have been better than the tractor paint.

on a good running engine that isn't too hot the only place you ever see an issue with non high heat paint on an engine is within an inch or so of the exhaust port

[RandyLittrell 3,885]

On 4/16/2020 at 7:47 PM, ebinmaine said:

That would have been about the time of government regulations and the switch to low VOC...

 

I started in the body shop in 86 and painted a crap load of warranty paint jobs in my day from crappy paint! The low VOC deal caused them to use as little paint as possible and the paint makers just hadn't figured out how to make good paint with low VOC yet! Really not Wheel Horses fault entirely. 

 

 

 

Randy