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Mark, I really think you need to establish what you are willing to pay for a tractor paint job. Material costs alone can run from under $100 if a "tractor store" paint is used to $1000 or more if a high-end automotive paint is used. Usually some type of cost-benefit thinking has to be applied unless the sky is the limit. If you ask 10 knowlegeable people what is "best" you will get eight different answers. What will be common though is that they all will be expensive. A legitimate argument can be made that for a couple of parades a year (housed at all other times), a tractor store paint can serve you nicely indeed. If prepared and applied well, it will look as good as a much more expensive paint. Just don't leave it out in the sun for days on end or spill gasoline on it if you want to avoid fading and staining. I happen to personally believe that a low-end urethane such as PPG OMNI MTK coupled with an epoxy primer like PPG OMNI MP-170 represents a very good compromise between cost and quality. You get a significant increase in performance and durability for a reasonable increase in cost. When material costs exceed $100/gal though, my own break point has been reached. Total material costs over $300 or $400 is just not warranted IMO. After all, my vehicles are not Mercedes and my money supply is limited :o). I do work only for myself and an occasional friend so I can't just pass the costs along. On the epoxy side I moved (down) from PPG DPLF to PPG OMNI MP-170 a couple of years ago because of cost. DPLF is absolutely great stuff. But it is not worth three times the cost of a "nearly as good" MP-170. Others will disagree. On the surfacer side, I have moved (up) from DuPont 131S acrylic lacquer to the low-end PPG OMNI MP-182 urethane to get increased performance at only a modest increase in cost. There again, others will disagree and will prefer a more expensive high-end surfacer. The cost savings in the move down with the epoxy has more than offset the cost increase in moving up to the urethane surfacer for me. BTW, your shop certainly should be using a surfacer on the sheet metal. If not they don't deserve to be called a body shop (unless it is brand new sheetmetal with no sandscratches or other minor imperfections). It may very well be true that the shop you are thinking of doesn't "do epoxy". They may have standardized around an etch primer instead. PPG has always been big on epoxy. To the contrary, DuPont has always been big on etch. I am not knocking etch primers, I just think epoxy is preferable for my own purpose. But then I am not a production shop where time is money and money is profit. Even the pros can't agree on the epoxy vs. etch argument. You mentioned IMRON. I have never used it and can't quote a price. I have always considered it out of my range, costwise. It's great on planes and trains so it must be great on tractors, providing you want to pay for it. Plus if you are a stickler for precise "original" color shades, it most likely is not available in tractor color mixes. I suspect that will be the case with most of the high-end products. You may have to settle for something close (or not so close). In any event, ask around, decide on your goals and cost limits, give your paint shop a general idea of the quality level you want and the price you are willing to pay and leave the details up to those who are actually going to be doing the work. If they are a PPG shop they probably don't "do DuPont". I suspect it would be similar if they used another manufacturer's products. It goes without saying that you should also ask around about the shop itself and the work it has done in the past to avoid being scammed by paying for "A" and getting "B". Rod
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Rod