McCulloch Yellow Paint Party

[John Tzortzoudakis]

Just used one of the yellowest of yellow paints according to those in the hotrodding arena. It's called Frueauf Yellow Ditzler/PPG 80515 which I had formulated in acrylic Urethane. There are some other yellows in the same catagory such as Viper and Corvette yellow.
Rustoleum Sunburst yellow is a closer match to original Mac yellow but not as durable. The new Hardhat Rustoleum yellow might be a good one to try but in my opinion anything that comes out of a can is either laquer or enamal based and not as tough as 2 part catalyzed paints.
I still use spray can paint like Rustoleum which is easy to use, lays-out on the surface real nice and it's not as lethal and 2-part paints. There are many trade-offs in what paint to use on our engines. Powder coat is the best and most expensive while spray cans are easy to get, easy to touch-up and fun to see your results.
I used what I feel is something in the middle; fairly cheap, durable, dangerous and something that looks close to factory paint which is about at yellow as you can get anyway.
Just for comparison here are pics showing Factory Original, 80515 and Sunburst.
Computer monitors will probably not show much difference in yellow colors so here ya go anyway

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Factory Original: MC49 fan cover, MC93 complete motor and 93 stator. Rustoleum Sunburst: MC91-A.
Frueauf yellow: MC10 covers, MC20 flywheel cover.

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Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow: MC91-A; Recent paint and chipping already.
Frueauf Yellow: MC10 cover.

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Yellow Paint Party out drying in the SoCal sun in January! DAU80515 Single stage Acrylic Urethane over DP50 Lt Grey Primer. Most areas which were not masked will carefully be cleaned with paint remover/thinner (yikes!)

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Somebody really likes this yellow!
MC10 ID plate rivets are a story on there own; Where do you get them? These are machinery ID plate screw-in rivets which might shake loose.

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[ted johnson]

Hi, John T. I wish I had the room/money to set up a spray booth and buy a suitable compressor, but I don't. I emailed Rustoleum yesterday about their "Hard Hat" rattle can paint, but as yet have no answer. I had a wonderful power coat company in Albuquerque that did my shrouds in RAL 1023 powder. It matches Mac yellow very closely. Since I moved to AZ, near Ron C., I don't have easy access to the N.M. p'coater. I just did my second Mc7 shroud in Sunburst Yellow. It looks as good as the substrate allowed, but I know it'll scratch easily! Your stuff looks really good. My p'coated Mc20 shroud on the 101/Mc20 clone really came out good, though it's gotten a tiny bit of belt rash over the last two years. TJ

[Mark Brubaker]

MC10 ID plate rivets are a story on there own; Where do you get them? These are machinery ID plate screw-in rivets which might shake loose.

John. Would these be too big? #6 X 3/8 They're meant to be driven in,,, they could be ground off on the back side...
http://www.steinertractor.com/ABC464-se ... -tag-rivet

[Terry D Bentley]

I just visited your website. I dont understand this statement on the ID page.


"McCulloch engineered the Super series block to bring the flywheel side bearing in closer to the centerline of the crank."

The standard and super blocks have the case bearings in same location. Are you making reference to the location of flywheel is being brought closer to the centerline since the crank is shorter from the points cam to flywheel taper?

[david a luciani]

Terry D,
i don't really think you meant to be mean but your question does kinda sound mean and picky to me.
John went to alot of trouble to write up all that stuff and if there's a mistake there are better ways of pointing it out.
maybe something like you said thus but maybe you meant this?

you're correct in the thought that the FLYWHEEL was moved closer to the centerline to reduce run out and flex.
i hope this clears up your confusion.

John,
an impressive pile-o-parts there.
kinda wish we had some sun here for myself the heck with the parts.

i've found many thin coats of the rustoleum from the quart paint can works well.
the spray bombs seem to have a lesser quality paint in them i think they use less binder to promote flow through the nozzle.
i thin the paint a little to promote good flow though it's tricky because the layers melt together and too much thinner trashed my last batch on the final coat.
i suppose i could measure everything but wheres the fun in that?!?
after final coat i oven bake the parts at 300 for a couple of hours and it is pretty durable finish then.
of course i also bake the primer to give a good base.
i've started using white primer as it lets the yellow pop more.

the two part paints make me nervous as they can destroy your lungs and i'm just not set up with the correct rebreathers to use them.

Scott Kneisel rivits his mc10 plates on you might give him a shout and ask for specs and sourcing.

Dave
p.s. love your site glad it's back up.
D

[Terry D Bentley]

Sorry, I was not trying to sound mean or picky. Just trying to understand what he was saying. I try to keep posts short and concise, but sometimes that may come off offensive.

Now about the paint party. I do like the looks of the yellow urethane. I hate shooting rattle can, because of the obvious. Nothing worse that getting scratches on those newly painted parts before it even gets bolted together. All of that work seems for nill.

I have used a lot of the POR-15 products with much success. The yellow they offer is bright and another "close" match. I have not sprayed the yellow yet, but the strength of their paint in general is much closer to powder coat than anything else I have used. They are industrial products and require appropriate saftey measures, but the finish is exceptional and paint lays down well and self-leveling. Another thing is they dont have such a deep sheen like automotive paints do. A McCulloch just doesnt look right when it has more shine than the kart its mounted on.

[Tom Smith]

It's kind of funny reading about McCulloch yellow. I've got two 100% stock original Mc-9s that have never been apart. The yellow on them is several shades apart as is the yellow background on both the original Mc-9 tags.
I've built a few McCullochs since I was a kid and I can not ever remember seeing any primer or primer overspray on any McCulloch engine from McCulloch. You would think that if they used primer it would be below the yellow paint, no?

[ted johnson]

Tom, I've also noticed a big color difference between different engines. You just gotta pick one and go! I've never seen any evidence of primer under the paint of any Mac I've stripped, and I've stripped dozens since 1960. We never left an engine with the stock paint. We either repainted or stripped and polished the shrouds. Their paint was about the toughest I've ever seen outside of Imron. Was it an alkyd enamel? Earlier rattle can paint was FAR tougher than it is today, thanks to our "Great Fathers and Procectors" in government. I had a Barris spray can painted candy green Mc10 shroud that I ran twice a week for over two years, and It still looked good.
PS McMaster has drive screws for cheap for the Mc10 ident plates. Many sizes available.

[david a luciani]

hi guys,
i wasn't implying mcculloch used primer.
never saw any evidence of it myself and i've stripped a few parts.
i do suspect the paint they used had lead in it as it acts alot like the lead based exterior paints i've dealt with removing on housing.
also i've never seen two motors painted exactly the same.
i believe they must have just been hung and sprayed as the went by in the factory.

At any rate i use the primer more to "hide" the small corrosion dots found on the mcculloch castings.
a little sanding/filling goes a long way in the end.
also it gives a little better finish in my eyes.

at the end of the day the whole matchy the original thing has really been puzzling to me.
like the other guys i have lots of n.o.s. stuff from saws and kart stuff in differing shades of yellow.
i suspect it never occured to anyone back then that the color had an "exact" spec.
also if you've ever baked a part for assembly you probably noticed it getting a orange tint to the paint.

to keep the parts about the same in color my solution is to paint the parts separately from the same paint lot.
after assembly if it's a whole motor that was painted i just dust a light balance coat to even things up.
no matter what i do they're gonna get a little beat up if they're run so chips don't really bother me.
besides a pretty motor really sticks out on my beater karts anyway.

takin a break from digging the #$%^& global warming white stuff 2' high outside.
dave

p.s.
Terry,
that's cool i hoped that was the case.
as many know i'm the furthest thing from brief and concise myself.
d

[Tom Smith]

John, try getting some 1/16" aluminum universal head (MS20470) rivets for the tags. I think the shank length to try is 3/16". I was going to get some but the minimum order where I checked was one lb. @ $84.00 which equaled about 11,300 more rivets than I needed.

Mc-10 tag .jpg

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