Export thread

The family, Wife, Me and two cats, had to go without pizza one night just to fund this large-scale research project. Now, you be the judge. On one hand we have eXmark paint part number 1-850337 Lazar Red, 12 oz can for $33.88 plus tax. On the other hand we have a can of Rust-Oleum in Regal Red, 15 Oz can for $ 10.99 plus tax. For the drill down investigators, the Original paint was $2.82 cents an oz; the Rust-Oleum was $.73 an oz. However, let's assume that cost is no object. We are all independently wealthy here on this forum (except for the wife, me and two cats) so the only thing that really matters is how does it look. Photos attached, you judge. To save you some time these two samples have been laid on the cutting deck, which is still in original condition and paint color, (as it should be since it's only been used once and was washed after that use).

Sorry about picture orientation. The first three are rotated clockwise 90 degrees, so look at them as if you are standing on the left side of those. If it says left side that would be top and right side would be bottom. The fourth is correctly oriented. If we had a bigger budget I would have fixed this rotation thing.

that rustoleum is a pretty decent match

I like it !! Nice job ..

Seriously, I agree. I think the OE paint is a little too orangish. Neither is perfect but the Regal Red is close enough to make anyone look hard to determine if it's been touched up. As a bonus, the Rust-Oleum is much cheaper.

Plus there will not be a prefect match as the original paint as aged so without feathering it will still be noticeable to the trained eye.

StarTech said:

Plus there will not be a prefect match as the original paint as aged so without feathering it will still be noticeable to the trained eye.

Click to expand...

Not aged much, the mower was built in 2022 or late 2021 and it's only been used to mow one time.

I like the red better..

Why are you questioning this, it's only a lawn mower. I would say take it to a body shop and have a professional paint it, sand it, at the least three times, then buff it. Will look better than new. I have found out with years of use on my old Wheel horse that the Rust-Oleum will last better then oem paint. The Wheelhorse only gets use with a snowblower in salty snow.

do you want some info?? should have bought the pizza and just did some checking. Ace hdwe sells a Regal Red in shaker cans that matches. If I say if you had even looked across almost all lawn equip including toro, MTD, even my three chippers and edgers they are all roughly the same color. Guess what that is. has a royal sounding name, hmmm could it be???? Maybe the same regal red is a hit in asian countries where they make this stuff by the RR car at a time? wow, all I can say is wow. Even Tractor supple sells John Deere Green, so is there going to be another pizza less night as you test again??? no, I am not being sarcastic.

Rather than pizza or paint, could have got a bottle of Bourbon. After 4-5 shots, no one would care what the color was

Rustoleum, hands down.

Roll said:

The family, Wife, Me and two cats, had to go without pizza one night just to fund this large-scale research project. Now, you be the judge. On one hand we have eXmark paint part number 1-850337 Lazar Red, 12 oz can for $33.88 plus tax. On the other hand we have a can of Rust-Oleum in Regal Red, 15 Oz can for $ 10.99 plus tax. For the drill down investigators, the Original paint was $2.82 cents an oz; the Rust-Oleum was $.73 an oz. However, let's assume that cost is no object. We are all independently wealthy here on this forum (except for the wife, me and two cats) so the only thing that really matters is how does it look. Photos attached, you judge. To save you some time these two samples have been laid on the cutting deck, which is still in original condition and paint color, (as it should be since it's only been used once and was washed after that use).

Sorry about picture orientation. The first three are rotated clockwise 90 degrees, so look at them as if you are standing on the left side of those. If it says left side that would be top and right side would be bottom. The fourth is correctly oriented. If we had a bigger budget I would have fixed this rotation thing.

Click to expand...

You can afford pizza? You must be wealthy. Tried the same on my Mahindra tractor, but used Sunrise Red which was a perfect match on the paint that had not yet faded. A quart can is used for spraying with mineral spirits for a reducer. This seems to work best in my hot sub-tropical climate and is a cheap alternative to more expensive reducers. I'm thinking that my paint supplier can whip up a quart of base coat if I get the urge to do a 2000K repaint in the future. Tractor Supply has a yellow that is a perfect match for IH Cub Cadet yellow, and the Rustoleum semigloss black is a good match for the black frame pieces. I expect that some will say "it's only a tractor, or mower" but I have plenty of free time and like to make my old equipment last.

MarineBob said:

Rather than pizza or paint, could have got a bottle of Bourbon. After 4-5 shots, no one would care what the color was

Click to expand...

You hit that right on the head.

MarineBob said:

Rather than pizza or paint, could have got a bottle of Bourbon. After 4-5 shots, no one would care what the color was

Click to expand...

Oh for the old days... Cindy and I out drinking, dancing, flirting, with all our friends. Boy those were fun days. Then it became too much drinking and there were the kids. I decided for me, I could not continue. Didn't want the kids to remember me as drunk (a lot of the time). So I gave it up at 40 years old. That was 33 years ago. Hard thing to do but I always have been stubborn. Interestingly, my career took off shortly after. Funny how that happens. Now I doubt any of our 4 children remember I tucked them into bed at night smelling like a brewery. And our 11 grandchildren will never know. Thanks Marine for bringing back some really fun times. Thanks for your service and also to Dan and Jim, two of my wife's brothers who died in the last year. Both Vietnam vets, Jim a sailor in the brown water navy (river boat in Vietnam was dangerous work) and the other, Dan, a Marine stationed in Saigon and one who helped people board the helicopters when the embassy was evacuated in 1975. And finally, our youngest son who is an Afghanistan vet. He came home without physical wounds but not without damage. He is doing fine now, after battling the demons in his head for 8 years.

Ranchito said:

You can afford pizza? You must be wealthy. Tried the same on my Mahindra tractor, but used Sunrise Red which was a perfect match on the paint that had not yet faded. A quart can is used for spraying with mineral spirits for a reducer. This seems to work best in my hot sub-tropical climate and is a cheap alternative to more expensive reducers. I'm thinking that my paint supplier can whip up a quart of base coat if I get the urge to do a 2000K repaint in the future. Tractor Supply has a yellow that is a perfect match for IH Cub Cadet yellow, and the Rustoleum semigloss black is a good match for the black frame pieces. I expect that some will say "it's only a tractor, or mower" but I have plenty of free time and like to make my old equipment last.

Click to expand...

Nope. No wealth here LOL. If only... ;-) I like to keep my equipment running too. Nothing more interesting and fun than working on the old 1973 Kubota in the garage. I never lived on a farm but I have learned that tractors just don't wear out. Built like a tank and parts available, you just keep fixing them until you die and then someone else takes over the job of keeping the tractor in running order. ;-)

If you have them local, Tractor Supply(menards?) sells 'tractor paint' in gallon size cans. Perhaps in quarts too, but either way the cost per oz is relatively low compared to body shop paint and the 'rattle can' paint.
Check IH red to see how close it is...
tom

red423 said:

do you want some info?? should have bought the pizza and just did some checking. Ace hdwe sells a Regal Red in shaker cans that matches. If I say if you had even looked across almost all lawn equip including toro, MTD, even my three chippers and edgers they are all roughly the same color. Guess what that is. has a royal sounding name, hmmm could it be???? Maybe the same regal red is a hit in asian countries where they make this stuff by the RR car at a time? wow, all I can say is wow. Even Tractor supple sells John Deere Green, so is there going to be another pizza less night as you test again??? no, I am not being sarcastic.

Click to expand...

Price the John Deere Green rattle can lately? Not the Space Shuttle!

Roll said:

The family, Wife, Me and two cats, had to go without pizza one night just to fund this large-scale research project. Now, you be the judge. On one hand we have eXmark paint part number 1-850337 Lazar Red, 12 oz can for $33.88 plus tax. On the other hand we have a can of Rust-Oleum in Regal Red, 15 Oz can for $ 10.99 plus tax. For the drill down investigators, the Original paint was $2.82 cents an oz; the Rust-Oleum was $.73 an oz. However, let's assume that cost is no object. We are all independently wealthy here on this forum (except for the wife, me and two cats) so the only thing that really matters is how does it look. Photos attached, you judge. To save you some time these two samples have been laid on the cutting deck, which is still in original condition and paint color, (as it should be since it's only been used once and was washed after that use).

Sorry about picture orientation. The first three are rotated clockwise 90 degrees, so look at them as if you are standing on the left side of those. If it says left side that would be top and right side would be bottom. The fourth is correctly oriented. If we had a bigger budget I would have fixed this rotation thing.

Click to expand...

The main problem I see is that the Rust-Oleum is 10.99 per can.
Completely unacceptable!!!
Their prices started soaring a number of months back and I will probably never buy their paint again.
Remember for the past couple of decades their prices had remained good and they had kind of taken over the spray paint business and they had those bonus size in black and white which were even a better deal and weren't priced any higher.
Then, all of a sudden because of covid, and because they just could they cranked the prices out the roof.
If you do search around though I just recently found some for 6.88 but of course that price could have changed in the past week.
Most places it's at least 8.49 or more and I don't think I'll be using much spray paint in the future at least not that brand.
These companies can think all they want and their results will surely vary from my intent because people are far too easy going with price increases but when they price something above a certain threshold or a percentage increase in a short period of time they lose with me! I will simply not buy their product or do without.

I think one of main problems out there is now costs are out of control. I am seeing prices that are more double on some parts than just two years ago. Really make it hard to just keeping repairing things reasonably.

A lot of greed is involved too.

I have my fathers 1977 Ariens snowblower. The paint has held out rather well for its age. Minimal rust. I went to Tractor and got a can of Kubota orange. I lathered up the scoop, impeller and chute with the paint and a brush. Took a little while to dry, But it dried hard. No snow will stick to it. Was not critical to match the original Airens orange but it looks pretty good. I shake my head when I see newer snowblowers that are total rust buckets. I guess you can see where MTD has done cost savings. I'm sure other manufactures have cheapened out on their choice of paint.

Uh, this is a mower, not a 69 pace car convertible Camaro. Paint it cheap and don't look down ..

Or, do a camo paint job so it is harder to find. that would cut down your mowing time. yuk.

chuckpen said:

Uh, this is a mower, not a 69 pace car convertible Camaro.

Click to expand...

Well, fyi, I wax my Scag at end of mow season. Why ? Because I take good care of my toys.

I have a 1977 Yanmar 2500 tractor that has been outside for 15 years or there about. Weather has taken it toil especially the Texas sun. Took the hood off this summer and found some $12.00 a can of tractor paint at Tractor Supply. Bought 2 cans of it then found $3 or $4, cans of Krylon that matched pretty good. Little less paint in them but the cost makes up for that. Can't post photos because of not knowing how but think it came out pretty good for a homemade spray can job that was done outside.
Texas John

7394 said:

Well, fyi, I wax my Scag at end of mow season. Why ? Because I take good care of my toys.

Click to expand...

Yup, I try too. Except for the old big box store JD I bought for a riding mower. I ignored it for 18 years and it finally failed. It was not a quality mower though. Nothing like the quality of the larger JD equipment.

This is a Woods Mow'n Machine (Similar to Grasshopper) that I bought new in 1996. 1150 hrs. I keep it cleaned up waxed every year. Still have people that don't believe its that old..

I stopped using any OEM paints as they are WAYYY overpriced and have yet to get a decent match.
That being said, they’re just lawn mowers and unless you’re taking them to car shows, generic equipment enamel is as close as the OEM and a much more cost effective solution.

Nice rig there 4getgto. Did your wife tell you to sell your Pontiac GTO? If so, you're not alone. Mine said I could learn to fly over her dead body. I gave that dream up. Then years later after getting careless and going off the track twice she said I had to quit the racing. So I did.

4getgto said:

This is a Woods Mow'n Machine (Similar to Grasshopper) that I bought new in 1996. 1150 hrs. I keep it cleaned up waxed every year. Still have people that don't believe its that old..

Click to expand...

Sweet, that does look near new.. If it weren't for the few deck scratches I'd have said NEW..

Roll said:

Nice rig there 4getgto. Did your wife tell you to sell your Pontiac GTO? If so, you're not alone. Mine said I could learn to fly over her dead body. I gave that dream up. Then years later after getting careless and going off the track twice she said I had to quit the racing. So I did.

Click to expand...

Was going through my 2nd child hood in late 90's and was looking for a GTO. Wasn't finding anything I wanted (or could afford) and ended up at a Pontiac dealer. They had new Trans Ams sitting on the lot and the sale man said go ahead take one home for the weekend...Well I did and still have it today. The wife got me the license plate .

Sharp Ride, is the color black or dark blue ?

Agree nice ride, and you take very good care of it. Nice.

4getgto said:

This is a Woods Mow'n Machine (Similar to Grasshopper) that I bought new in 1996. 1150 hrs. I keep it cleaned up waxed every year. Still have people that don't believe its that old..
View attachment 63168

Click to expand...

I have a Mow N Machine also. 1992 model.
They were made by Grasshopper for many years. You can save some money on parts usually with Grasshopper bring cheaper than Woods but I always check but just to be sure. So far I haven't found anything cheaper in Woods brand that I could get in Grasshopper brand.
Great machines though.
These were back in a time where they were only making commercial grade machines that many people bought when they had some land.
Like the early zero turns that were similar in durability when only commercial people bought them.
Then residential only people started wanting zero turns and the industry created the watered down residential grade ZTRs. Then unitized "hydro" transmissions were pretty much created for these and only to a few years to make those barely adequate for the weight of machine and then entered the hydro failures at 150-225hrs. A commercial guy would lose his mind and NEVER but that brand again if one had a hydro (pump or wheel motor) failure in under 2000 hrs!!
Then they decided to push towards unitized for all of them. At least there are better bigger stronger hydros available but they had bucks deceptive what the numbers.
You had ezt, 2100, 2200, then 2800. Then 3100 which

4getgto said:

This is a Woods Mow'n Machine (Similar to Grasshopper) that I bought new in 1996. 1150 hrs. I keep it cleaned up waxed every year. Still have people that don't believe its that old..
View attachment 63168

Click to expand...

I have a mow n machine also 1992 model.
They were made by grasshopper as pretty much all of those front mount mowers were made for Woods by grasshopper.
You can save some money by buying grasshopper parts but I always check both places. I haven't found anything yet with the woods brand that was cheaper than the grasshopper brand for the same part.
These things were back when grasshopper made commercial quality even though residential people and people with land bought them.
This was back in the early days of zero turns when all of them were commercial grade. Then about 15 years later residential homeowners decided they wanted zero turns also so they came out with the ztrs and watered them down to provide them at a price point.
They went with unitized transmissions on most of them thus we started having hydrofailures and 150 to 225 hours.
Commercial guys would have lost their minds and never bought that brand again if they ever had a hydro (pump or wheel motor) failure and under 2000 hours.
Then the push came along to use unitized transmissions for even commercial ones. Unfortunately there are better hydro units bigger and stronger ones available.
You used to have the ect, 2100, 2200, 2800. Then they tried to market the 3100 as entry level commercial grade which was an if if you asked me. Now they're playing games with the numbers and calling it a $2,800/3100. How can this be? They were two separate transmissions before but they still share the same axle output diameter so that's probably why. This is why I would not want a $2,800 or 3100. They have a 1 inch output shaft and even though they change a few parts inside they're just not durable enough. They claim that they are the top of the line residential but again that's not saying much residential grade.
The industry is looking for us to have to replace any outdoor power equipment we buy about every 8 years overall on average. This in actuality pretty much means you'll get closer to 10 years plus if you're lucky out of a rider or a zero turn that you'll get fewer than eight out of a push mower.
These new Briggs & Stratton engines which are the only ones they're making for push mowers from Briggs at all have a 100% plastic camshaft inside of them. Yes, the entire camshaft is plastic. Well technically the cap on both ends is made out of metal but they must have found out early on that it wasn't going to last they just made a round cap that looks like a top hat that sits on each end so that can spin in the aluminum housing and be oiled and last longer than the plastic. Then you've might have a little spring assembly or whatever on the side of it too for a compression release or whatever but again that's just an accessory add-on to the camshaft. The camshaft is 100% plastic and they're already failing.
Grasshopper still seems to make a really good machine and you'd have to look into the woods line to see exactly what is what. For a while their front mounts were made by grasshopper but their mid-mounts were made by someone else.
Grasshopper and woods went through some changes in growing pains and their transmissions having chain drive on some of the old ones then they went to what they called The Gemini transmission which were eaten transmissions which are complicated as heck and darn near impossible to fix or rebuild but extremely durable.
As a matter of fact even going by the manufacturers recommendation and the owner's manual the fluid changes are amazingly far apart and if you use their grasshopper brand fluid even further apart.
I forget what it is now but it's something like a thousand or 1500 hours. I would have to look it up but the average residential grade zero turn will never last long enough or be in operation long enough to see that many hours on it and for these grasshoppers and woods this is simply the normal change interval. They built these things well and expected them to be around for a long, long time.

Interesting..

It took me over 15 years to hit 500 hours on my old broken JD LT160. I certainly hope to get more than that out of the new xMark Radius.

Roll said:

It took me over 15 years to hit 500 hours on my old broken JD LT160. I certainly hope to get more than that out of the new xMark Radius.

Click to expand...

I'm quite certain you will but if you'll think back to earlier years lawn mowers didn't have hour meters on them and then when they first started doing it they were the analog style which were kind of expensive. Then by the late 90s and right around 2000 the little digital ones were very cheap and you could get them for only three or four dollars and the manufacturers were buying them by the cases so they got them cheaper than that and even your entry level lawn mower from the department store as a riding mower was having an hour meter.
Now, even though the holes or indentations are still on the dashes who are they knocked the whole out or sometimes they have to put a plastic plug in the hole because it's already in the design of the dash, there is no hour meter on most of the models especially the lower end ones.
I have decided this is so they don't incriminate themselves!
They've been making these machines cheaper and cheaper and watering them down and along with the engine manufacturers not making them that good either that it doesn't look good when you look at the hours.
My point is that in a lots of climates the average person only puts 25 to 35 hours a year on their riding lawn mower and sometimes even fewer on their zero turn so a lawn mower could be 10 to 15 years old and only have 175 to 300 hours on it.
A lawn mower that's 12 plus years old that serves you well does it seem too terrible if you have a fairly major problem and you may even decide to not fix it and get a new piece of equipment BUT if you look at an hour meter whether it's been 3 years or 15 years and it's only got 210 hours on it and you have a transmission issue or internal engine problem etc you're feeling quite cheated.
This is why I feel the hour meters have gone out of favor. Not because they went up in price or anything else like that because I can buy them all day long on eBay even individually for under five or six bucks to this day.
I'm sure they get them for under two or three dollars but having said that, I know the bean counters and Penny Pinchers will delete something like a drain plug on a transmission to save $0.44 or $1.12 so you never know what their mindset is.

7394 said:

Sharp Ride, is the color black or dark blue ?

Click to expand...

Dark blue..

4getgto said:

Dark blue..

Click to expand...

Very Sharp..Looks brand New. I'm thinking LS power

7394 said:

Very Sharp..Looks brand New. I'm thinking LS power

Click to expand...

It is. LS1

Yea man.. That's the ticket..

factory coatings are powder coat however...

Life will still go on tho..

Roll said:

The family, Wife, Me and two cats, had to go without pizza one night just to fund this large-scale research project. Now, you be the judge. On one hand we have eXmark paint part number 1-850337 Lazar Red, 12 oz can for $33.88 plus tax. On the other hand we have a can of Rust-Oleum in Regal Red, 15 Oz can for $ 10.99 plus tax. For the drill down investigators, the Original paint was $2.82 cents an oz; the Rust-Oleum was $.73 an oz. However, let's assume that cost is no object. We are all independently wealthy here on this forum (except for the wife, me and two cats) so the only thing that really matters is how does it look. Photos attached, you judge. To save you some time these two samples have been laid on the cutting deck, which is still in original condition and paint color, (as it should be since it's only been used once and was washed after that use).

Sorry about picture orientation. The first three are rotated clockwise 90 degrees, so look at them as if you are standing on the left side of those. If it says left side that would be top and right side would be bottom. The fourth is correctly oriented. If we had a bigger budget I would have fixed this rotation thing.

Click to expand...

I buy all my paint for touch up from Home Depo or Lowes $6 to 7 a can.

That's the ticket..