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Hi Rob, I'll certainly second what Glen said. It's not the brand but the chemistry that distinguishes a "better" paint from a "good" paint. TISCO paint is an alkyd enamel. There's a reason such a chemistry has not been used by automobile OEMs in forty years or more. It is an old technology that lacks the color and gloss retention and chemical resistance of modern automotive paints, which are almost exclusively of urethane chemistry. If your goal is simple and inexpensive metal protection, then TISCO would be a good choice. If, on the other hand you want better long term performance from a paint - even for a working tractor - I believe you need to set your sights a little higher. Generally, the higher the price, the better the paint. There is no such thing as a free lunch. However, you do not need to get into the $400 per gallon higher end auto paints to get the majority of the performance benefits of a urethane. Excellent performance for the buck can be obtained with a urethane, single stage or base/clear, in the "economy" or "value" lines of any of the major automotive paint suppliers. The NASON line from DuPont and the OMNI line from PPG are too such product lines. Primarily because of less precise color matching to OEM auto paint, these lines are generally recommended for overall paint jobs only and not for collision repair work. For tractor painting however, precise color matching to some auto manufacturer code is not an issue. The price of an economy line urethane is about one third the cost of the similar high-end product used in collision repair shops. I can't make the value judgement for you. I can say that I have used an economy single stage urethane on my working AC-B and have never regretted it. It's outside in the weather 24/7/365 and the color and gloss is as good as when I first painted it about five years ago. The occasional gasoline spill when I am pouring into the tank from a gas can does not damage the paint. I think that kind of performance is worth about three times the cost of an alkyd paint chemistry, even for a working tractor. This all assumes you have access to supplied-air breathing equipment for safely using paint products containing isocyanates. If not, your choices are pretty much limited to alkyds such as TISCO or other brands or the few acrylic enamels that can be used w/o hardener additives. There are also some hybrid alkyd/acrylic chemistries out there that claim to improve on the alkyd performance. Those are usually found in the industrial rather than automotive lines of major paint manufacturers such as DuPont and PPG. For a brief history of paint chemistry and performance see this.  Rod
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