Upon advice of others I sprayed the wheelwells, frame, axels, spirngs, rims etc with John Deere Blitz Black which is a satin black paint made for this job. I buy this at my local John Deere dealer for $30 a gallon. It sprays easily and drys hard. JD uses it to paint undercariages of earthmovers. It does not need a primer. I put on a few coats and it turned out great. I used a hvlp primer gun with 'zip lock bag' type liner so I could shoot upside down. I did not need to thin with my primer gun. Mix it really well with an electric drill / mixer or it will not come out glossy instead of satin black. I used wire wheels in a 4" angle grinder for the prep work and a rotating nozzle on a pressure washer. Asking around, most don't use a hardener or thin. I put on three coats at one time. I also painted the entire underside of the cab and bed with this.
From: Valspar Paint General Manager. (They make Blitz Black for John Deere.)
#1. If the existing paint is relatively good condition (ie. no peeling paint, no large amount of rust, etc) no primer is needed. Scuff sand the existing paint with extra fine grit sandpaper, wipe surface with a clean cloth and then apply John Deere Blitz Black. shooting to a good surface IE: Bare metal, John Deere Primer, or to a good base of existing paint scuffed up.
1 light tack coat and wait no longer than 15 minutes to shoot the full wet coat.
For a second coat which is NOT needed but why the **** not.
Wait up to but NO longer than 3 hours to apply second coat.
But if you go past 3 hours DO NOT shoot another coat because the paint will react and go to $#!T. Wait 36 hours until you shoot the next coat. For each coat the same times apply. Due to a new label project at John Deere, the new part number for Blitz Black is TY-25669 (this replaces TY-6416).
THE FORMULA HAS NOT CHANGED!!!!!! SAME DURABILITY, SAME COLOR, SAME GLOSS LEVEL, ETC...
The REN3001 hardener will work very well with Blitz Black. Mix ratios are 8 parts paint to 1 part REN3001 hardener to 1 part thinner. This combination will make the paint film cure faster to a hard finish.
A gallon will cover a easily cover a small car.
My recommendation for thinning is to start with an 8 parts paint to 1 part thinner—some guys like to spray the product thin...some like to spray it thick. Spray one tack coat followed by one maybe two full wet coats for the best results.
