Formerly PaMike
Member
I finally got the 685 painted and back together. I bought it 2 years ago and it had spend its entire life as a highway mowing tractor. It came from the factory with orange paint. We split the tractor and put a clutch, rear main, and hydraulic seal in it. We then pressure washed it(hot water) three times. First complete, then without the sheet metal, then with the platform/tank removed. All removable sheetmetal was sandblasted. We used Utech epoxy primer and Utech 3.8 polyurethane. Turned out very nice, but we did have some orange peel. I built a brushguard for the front, and mounted an old towmotor weight on it. The brushguard also has a toolbox mounted to it for extra storage. I put a new muffler on it, and its much quieter than the old rusted out one. We did everything ourselves except the sandblasted. I didn't keep track of everything, but I would say probably 150 hours labor and $2000 in material/parts. The complete color change from orange to red/black was a lot more work than I thought. Just gotta throw in my new Bosch H4 headlights when they show up. The "driver" joined us May 1st....
