# PSA to All Toro Owners with "New Red" Paint



## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

Who here enjoys a little story with their informative reading? If you do, check this out.

Some of you may know I recently picked up a used 2 year old Toro Power Max Heavy Duty 1028 OHXE. It was in decent shape, but the previous owner did confess that it partially ingest the plastic blade of a shovel that was left in the driveway. How that happens, I have no idea. As a result of that, and her being "not strong enough" (her words) to handle the snowblower after her husband passed, it had a couple of marks here and there too. The box interior, augers, and chute had gotten a little beat up from their snow shovel incident, which was bugging the hell out of me. Earlier this week, I had tried to find some bona-fide Toro New Red paint in town. I called and even stopped in at a couple Toro dealers and they said, sorry, it's on national back order, no known availability. Online, prices were all over the place and there was no guarantee of the retailer actually having it on hand.

I decided to find an alternative. "How hard can it be," I thought. Hard enough. There's a couple posts about this on this very forum. Some folks mixed their own paint, while others recommended Rust-Oleum's Sunset Red as a substitute for Toro New Red. I pulled off one of the skid shoes and brought it with me to Menard's. Sunset Red was very close. There were a couple that were also close, but some were too dark, others too orangey. But then I saw Rust-Oleum offered a Professional High Performance Enamel in Regal Red (7765502). Sure enough, cap to skid shoe, it was almost indistinguishable. So, I took a day off from work and got started. Initially, I had planned on doing the box interior, then masking that off and doing the augers in their original black with farm implement paint. When I realized it'd be a logistical nightmare, I decided to mask off the gear box, driveshaft, etc and just paint everything red (I think it looks better this way anyway).

I was going to take more pictures of the process, but it was pretty unexciting. After scuffing and cleaning the surfaces, laying down some Rust-Oleum Professional High Performance Enamel Primer, I laid down a few coats of the Regal Red over the course of the day. The anatomy of the snowblower made it challenging to get good coverage, but I think overall, it went pretty well. I still have some cleanup to do. Despite using garbage bags and tape, I still had some overspray I need to address. Here's a few pictures of the blower after setting overnight with some of the masking removed, taken hastily before running to work. I also grabbed a couple comparison shots to the skid shoe in original Toro New Red versus the scraper with the Regal Red paint. Overall, not too shabby. Hopefully this will help folks seeking a substitute for New Red in the future.


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## Tony-chicago (Feb 10, 2021)

Great job on a great deal!


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## michaelnel (Feb 12, 2019)

Looks great!


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## Yanmar Ronin (Jan 31, 2015)

Close enough fo' sho... thanks for sharing. 👍


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## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

Thanks, folks! Glad I could share my experience and I hope it helps others like I said. I appreciate the kind words and support throughout my decision making/buying process. Unfortunately, after sharing my experiences with a different group as well, I learned not all communities are as supportive and considerate as this one, so I'm glad to be here.


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## numb3rs (Oct 25, 2021)

I just finished repainting the auger housing as well. I started out with covering everything I could and sprayed everything red. After that I painted the auger black with a brush.

PS: I used Krylon Farm & Implement spray paint in Massey Ferguson Red. It is not 100% match but close enough and it is only inside the housing so not very noticeable. You can try fanning the spray and it can blend nicely. It is currently on sale for $10 so I chose it over the Rust Oleum in regal red.


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## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

numb3rs said:


> I just finished repainting the auger housing as well. I started out with covering everything I could and sprayed everything red. After that I painted the auger black with a brush.
> 
> PS: I used Krylon Farm & Implement spray paint in Massey Ferguson Red. It is not 100% match but close enough and it is only inside the housing so not very noticeable. You can try fanning the spray and it can blend nicely. It is currently on sale for $10 so I chose it over the Rust Oleum in regal red.


I guess I lucked out. Menards has 15 oz cans of the Regal Red for $9.99 before 11% off. Not bad. Regarding the auger, my wife said something similar. She said just do it all in red and then if you don't like it, you can always paint that black again. This is pretty good quality paint and it's a gloss enamel. Close visually, although to the touch there's definitely a difference versus powdercoat. That's just how it is, though.


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## Toon (May 11, 2021)

I have sprayed a 1955 IH tractor and all of the Honda snowblowers I have rebuilt in Tremclad (Rust Oleam), Regal Red. It's a great paint although it can't compete with powder coat. The only drawback is you need to leave it at least 2 days between coats or it will wrinkle the paint. Good product but I keep an eye out for it to come on sale.


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## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

Toon said:


> I have sprayed a 1955 IH tractor and all of the Honda snowblowers I have rebuilt in Tremclad (Rust Oleam), Regal Red. It's a great paint although it can't compete with powder coat. The only drawback is you need to leave it at least 2 days between coats or it will wrinkle the paint. Good product but I keep an eye out for it to come on sale.


I appreciate your experience with that. Looks like I might've gone a little too hot and heavy on that stuff. 😅 I prepped it in the evening, hit it with primer and a good base coat or two. It had a pretty optimistic time between coats, but I went with it. There were a couple spots where it ran, but mostly that stuff stayed in place. I've used plenty of aerosol paints and this is easily one of the highest quality.


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## numb3rs (Oct 25, 2021)

Toon said:


> I have sprayed a 1955 IH tractor and all of the Honda snowblowers I have rebuilt in Tremclad (Rust Oleam), Regal Red. It's a great paint although it can't compete with powder coat. The only drawback is you need to leave it at least 2 days between coats or it will wrinkle the paint. Good product but I keep an eye out for it to come on sale.


Do you brush or spray? I never experience wrinkling with rustoleum or krylon spray cans. you might have sprayed too thick for the first coat or you are spraying when it is too cold. The instruction says layer 2-3 thin coats 1 min apart and you can do 2nd coat the next day.


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## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

numb3rs said:


> Do you brush or spray? I never experience wrinkling with rustoleum or krylon spray cans. you might have sprayed too thick for the first coat or you are spraying when it is too cold. The instruction says layer 2-3 thin coats 1 min apart and you can do 2nd coat the next day.


I used the aerosol cans to spray on. If I remember right, I let the base coats rest over night and they were applied more slowly. The ones I did the next day were a few layers, then after several hours, another few layers. We were lucky because it was about 70° that day, so the curing temps weren't too bad. I'll take a closer look at how things set up after I pull the rest of the painter's tape off.


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## Toon (May 11, 2021)

numb3rs said:


> Do you brush or spray? I never experience wrinkling with rustoleum or krylon spray cans. you might have sprayed too thick for the first coat or you are spraying when it is too cold. The instruction says layer 2-3 thin coats 1 min apart and you can do 2nd coat the next day.


I spray mostly. I do try to apply a heavy enough coat to get a gloss but not enough to run. Yes, you can recoat for up to an hour after the first coat with no side effects. After the hour though you had better wait 2 days before you apply another coat, or it could wrinkle on you. It has happened at least three times on me, even in the warmer summer temperatures. It sucks to have to sand off your paint and redo it.
















The tank is the original Honda red, so you can see there is a slight difference but it's quite close in color.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

Toon said:


> Yes, you can recoat for up to an hour after the first coat with no side effects. After the hour though you had better wait 2 days before you apply another coat, or it could wrinkle on you.


Yeah, this is what happened to a member over on the lawnmower forum when he recoated after "a couple of hours"...


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## mphilleo (4 mo ago)

tabora said:


> Yeah, this is what happened to a member over on the lawnmower forum when he recoated after "a couple of hours"...


Yikes. 

Mine isn't the greatest - I think I might have some orange peel going on. But luckily it doesn't look like that. My condolences to that guy.


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## Toon (May 11, 2021)

Another thing you need to consider if you paint outside is rain. It only sprinkled a bit, but it messed up the finish.


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