To clean and repaint, where to stop?

I'm the odd guy out here because I think you should paint it. Especially if you are going to break it down and replace worn parts. I have restored old cars over the years and I love taking something old, tearing it down and making it look new again. It has to function well and look darn good doing it. I enjoy painting so maybe that's why I tend to lean that way.
 
My plan seems to be firming up, at least in my mind. I will be pulling the mill apart, and because I want to make sure I have good function I will be replacing some worn or expected to be worn parts. I expect to replace spindle bearings and one shot lube tubing at a minimum, other parts as needed. Since I will have it down I think I will clean and spot repair dent/dings/missing paint with filler and then give a decent repaint to bring it to one color scheme. I'm not planning on a complete strip to bare metal. I think this will save time and aggravation for me, and still present a nice looking machine.
 
only question now is......what color to paint? LOL

Maybe just some highlights, in Blue/red/whatever like Randy, Maybe solid black? Or maybe go wild

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Or as TubalCain says "ubiquitous grey"
 
I like a clean neat shop but a proper repaint takes a lot of time and effort that may be best spent on something else. I hate it when someone has failed to do a proper clean & prep before a repaint. Far more work goes into that than the actual paining.

I recently reworked (not restored!) an old cold saw. Turned into a way longer project than it started out to be. When is it clean enough? My answer if you are going to repaint is: when a solvent soaked rag doesn't pickup any grime. Then you need to give the new paint some "tooth" to bond to. Meaning a complete fine sanding. By then you have so much work into it you say time for Bondo. More sanding, then putty the minor spots. Then more sanding. Is this going to be an exhibit machine? Will it take a blue ribbon? Two component paint or rattle can. Time is adding up.

My cold saw project stopped @ solvent washing, orbital sanding out the dings then rattle can Rust Oleum primer and paint. It won't peel but no blue ribbons. Painting was done while it was apart. YMMV.
 

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Navy grey or white have always been my personal faves for machine tools.............................
 
Personally not a fan of black machines. My mill was black when I bought it. I painted it gray with red highlights. Looks much better now I think.
 
When I bought my knee mill from Precision Matthews, first thing I did was strip it down and repaint it. I have high standards that extend beyond how it "functions" and I take pride in my equipment and workmanship standards. If you want to just get it working, you'll have lots of company in the "hacker" community egging you on. LOL.

flic.kr

Running Blog - PM935 Milling Machine Saga

A "baby Bridgeport" mill to replace my trusty RF45 bench top mill. Updates added daily.
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As for paint/color, I used a polyurethane on my lathe that is impregnated with powdered stainless steel and highly recommend it. It stands up to all the common solvents including Naphtha, Acetone, gasoline, Alcohol, MEK, etc. This is the product: comes in brush/roller quarts and rattle-cans.

steel-it.com

Polyurethane Coating

The STEEL-IT® Polyurethane Coating System features a unique stainless steel leafing pigment, and provides optimum weather-, abrasion-, and corrosion-resistance in general maintenance applications.
steel-it.com steel-it.com


Final color on my lathe - a pleasing warm charcoal grey:

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