paint em up

[imagineero]

Nice work, looks tidy!

Must be something in the air, I did my truck last week and have been prepping the chipper the last couple days. Was going to spray today but it was too windy. Will have a go tomorrow if the weather is good.

 

[climb4fun]

is it just me or does there seem to be a common trend with tree service companies to either go with construction orange or white? you want good advertising? make that sucker look like an ice cream truck. every kid in the neighborhood will be talking about you to their parents roflmao :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[ducaticorse]

Day 5: Touched up spots that i missed, spots that werent as glossy as i wanted, waited a few hours and pulled tape, and rolled her out in the sunshine to get a good look. Then i put everything back on the truck that i had taken off.

Final Product:View attachment 295672View attachment 295673

Logo will go on next week or so.
And i apologize but i have no idea how to rotate all these pics.

I also painted the guards that go over the hydro controls black, breaks up the white nicely. Then i replaced the marker lights with new LED's, and the rear lights that are mounted up on the box. New mud flaps that dont say Asplundh. Looks like a professional truck now, i couldnt be much happier. The only down side is the inside of the cab and all the doors are still orange, but i wasnt about to open that can o worms.

Congrats! You turned a 12K auction truck into a 50K Tri State Forestry / Schmidty's retail truck! (Except your finish is of much higher quality) they sure are going to be pissed when they find out you're divulging their secrets!!!!

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I used van sickle paint with hardener when i painted my truck. Best part is if i get a scratch in the paint, i can use a $3 can of paint to touch it up.

I hope during your prep process, you skuffed the paint. If not your gonna be sorry.

Here is a pic of before and after of my truck paint project. Been a couple years, so when i get time, I will be breaking out the spray can and making her pretty again.

 

[rtsims]

I wire wheeled all the bad problem spots and sanded and scuffed the majority of the truck.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I wire wheeled all the bad problem spots and sanded and scuffed the majority of the truck.

Not scuffing the paint enough to get the primer to stick is the number one cause of paint chipping off. I learned with painting that you have to really take your time during the prep phase to get a great paint job.

 

[mckeetree]

Congrats! You turned a 12K auction truck into a 50K Tri State Forestry / Schmidty's retail truck! (Except your finish is of much higher quality) they sure are going to be pissed when they find out you're divulging their secrets!!!!

I think old schmidy tries to make $30,000 on some of that old #### for just throwing on that white paint job. Oh, and of course the obligatory chrome simulators.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I think old schmidy tries to make $30,000 on some of that old #### for just throwing on that white paint job. Oh, and of course the obligatory chrome simulators.

I know manurak, buys those elevator forestry trucks at the jj kane auction for around $38k. Sometimes they put a new engine or trans in them, sometimes not. They slap some paint on them and try to sell them for $75k. I under stand that they need to make money, but it seems a little greedy to try and make that much money.

If i had more time, i would buy trucks at the auction and fix them up and sell them. I am sure, my asking price would be alot less, and most likely the trucks would be fixxed up alot better too.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I think they all do, I bought this last truck at that KidCars IN Rockford, major mistake..... they suck 2. Actually think they are the worst of them, these dudes lied to me saying they where vets to get me to "trust" them. My mistake for believing them, pretty sad when ya resort to tactics like that.
My truck is white washed now, this winter it will turn Marine Green like the last one.

 

[sgreanbeans]

Where are these auctions? I wouldn't mind buying a elevator and "re furbin" it myself.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Where are these auctions? I wouldn't mind buying a elevator and "re furbin" it myself.[/QUOTE

JJ Kane inplymouth meeting, pa is the closest one to me. I know they have auctions all over the east coast.

I know that liberty financial deals with them a lot and pre approve you so you can buy one at auction with a loan.

 

[ducaticorse]

Where are these auctions? I wouldn't mind buying a elevator and "re furbin" it myself.

I think 38 K for an el at auction is really high to be honest. You gotta keep your eyes peeled. My home town is trading in a 98 INT ALC 55 dt 466 with maybe 50K on the clock, centermount to terex for 5K. I'm trying to get them to sell it outright to me.

 

[imagineero]

I got my chipper painted up today, I'll get some pics up over the weekend. If I had to do it over again I probably wouldn't do it. I never really thought about it much before having a go, but the bandit chippers are a lot more work to paint than vermeers. Like a *lot* more work. So many surfaces.... really hard to get into all the nooks and crannies. I didn't disassemble it, but I probably should have.... or at least taken off the main belt guard and the fuel tank. I got quotes on painting my truck and chipper, the truck was quoted at $3k, and the chipper at $1500. The truck was well worth doing, it took me only a day to prep, mask, undercoat and two top coats, inside and out. I only painted the bin. The paint was only about $150 all up with thinners etc.

The chipper was totally the opposite. A full day for me and another guy to prep (degrease, sand, mask, clean) and then another full day to prime and one top coat only. It would look better with a second top coat, but I'm out of time and honestly I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's a huge improvement over how it looked, I just didn't realise it would take so long, and so much effort.

Shaun

 

[ducaticorse]

I got my chipper painted up today, I'll get some pics up over the weekend. If I had to do it over again I probably wouldn't do it. I never really thought about it much before having a go, but the bandit chippers are a lot more work to paint than vermeers. Like a *lot* more work. So many surfaces.... really hard to get into all the nooks and crannies. I didn't disassemble it, but I probably should have.... or at least taken off the main belt guard and the fuel tank. I got quotes on painting my truck and chipper, the truck was quoted at $3k, and the chipper at $1500. The truck was well worth doing, it took me only a day to prep, mask, undercoat and two top coats, inside and out. I only painted the bin. The paint was only about $150 all up with thinners etc.

The chipper was totally the opposite. A full day for me and another guy to prep (degrease, sand, mask, clean) and then another full day to prime and one top coat only. It would look better with a second top coat, but I'm out of time and honestly I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's a huge improvement over how it looked, I just didn't realise it would take so long, and so much effort.

Shaun

I want to paint my chipper, and I received a very detailed proposal at a cost of $1600. almost 40 hours of prep work alone. Then a primer, then paint. I think Im going to go that route after hearing the above...

 

[imagineero]

I want to paint my chipper, and I received a very detailed proposal at a cost of $1600. almost 40 hours of prep work alone. Then a primer, then paint. I think Im going to go that route after hearing the above...

I think it's a fair price honestly. Having done it, I'd paint my truck again in a heartbeat, but the chipper I'd pay someone else to do. The cost of my time and materials added up to more than what I thought. I figured I'd get two coats out of a gallon, because I did two coats inside and out on my chip bin with just over a gallon. The many surfaces of the chipper suck up a lot of paint though, so I got only one coat out of a gallon, and I didn't do underneath the chipper, or parts of the chassis that you can't see etc.

The guy who quoted the paint job for me works for bandit as a sub contractor, and painting chippers is all he does. I'm pretty sure the price included the factory stickers too, which ended up costing me nearly $300 from memory. If I had a vermeer, or other similar enclosed chipper with simple surfaces I'd paint it myself.

Shaun

 

[imagineero]

Some before photos of the chipper. I dont have any of the whole machine. It was generally pretty tatty though - surface rust, cracks, stickers peeling/missing, various repairs.

 

[imagineero]

Showing after paint and new stickers.

There was quite a bit of prep involved - first all the original stickers were removed, cleaned it out with blowers, then water blasted. I spent a whole day welding up cracks, and made up a few new things for the chipper, shown in the next post. After that, a degreasing to get all the grease and crap off it, then a light sand and a wipe down with thinners. Then masking off all the little ID tags, moving parts, levers, tyres etc.

Then one coat of primer and one top coat. Could have looked better with a second top coat but I ran out of paint and patience. It's just a chipper after all. You have to keep telling yourself that or you're going to spend forever on getting it perfect. The new stickers didn't really stick and needed a coat of 3M spray adhesive before they would sit down properly.

 

[imagineero]

As well as tidying all the cracks up, I made up a few extra things. My chipper never came with an adjustable flap at the end of the discharge chute, so I made up a flap from some 1/8" steel, hinges, and the height adjuster off a lawn mower. It works well. I used to get a lot of stray chip up on the roof of the chip bin, but not any more

Second pic shows some holders for wheel chocks when parking up

Third pic shows a holder for a 5 gallon drink cooler. I fill it up with ice and water in the morning and it lasts a couple days. Sure is nice, and a lot cheaper than all those crappy energy drinks. It used to just ride in the back of the chipper but it was forever falling over and sometimes the lid came off and we lost out drink.

Finally a vice. I couldn't find anywhere better to mount it, but it's not the best place.

I also made up a new linkage for the reverse/forward/stop bar, which is a lot smoother and easier to use.

 

[tree MDS]

Looks real nice for a quickie shaun!! I wish my tailgate was in that good of shape. I think the winch is responsible for that.

 

[tree MDS]

Here's mine after a year or so. I just spritzed it off at the end of yesterday. So far she's holding up pretty well..
View attachment 296000