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huffy

2012 make over - finally got my seat

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huffy
quote:
Originally posted by YellowB10
WOW...you really went all-out on the resto...I wish i had that kind of patience...!
Well, I'm kind of in a "down time" area right now. I remodeled the inside of my house over the winter, so there's not much for me to do in there. And, my grass hasn't really begun to grow, so there's not much for me to do out in the yard right now. So, until the yardwork gets here I need something to occupy my time. :D

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huffy
Not much progress lately. After fiddling with the air compressor I was kind of tired Thursday night, so I just painted the plates that I was working on before Wednesday night’s orange paint bomb incident.


Then I primed and painted the BGB. After that I cleaned and buffed the axle spindle covers as best I could. There’s still some pitting, but they definitely look better. I put a few scratches in my tranny paint in the process, but I can fix that easy enough.








The left hub to replace the one I broke should be here early next week. (ReedS to the rescue!). By that time I should be ready to re-connect the tranny, BGB, and frame. I guess I should make clear that I’m not technically doing a “restoration” since I’m making some subtle changes, such as to the color scheme. I’ve never been a fan of black, so I opted for that dark machine gray on the tranny and BGB. I may do the engine, dash, wheels, and hood stripe gray too. It’s darker than it looks in the pictures, and I think it will go nicely with the AC orange. I’ll use a little black on some smaller pieces to accent it. I hope my color change doesn’t offend any of the die hard traditionalists out there, and apologize if it does. Since last night was Friday night the tractor sat alone in the garage while I went out to the bar to see my friend’s band play and talk to some women. I’ve got to teach a class later today, and another tomorrow, but I’ll try and get some work done if I can.

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dentwizz
As long as it isn't green its just a matter of taste:p I prefer the look of the original all orange with black accents, but it could be tastefully any other color. Important thing is just to keep em good and running8D

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GrincheyOne
Chris, I do admire the attention to detail and ambition applied to this project. I started in March with my 2110 restoration-upgrade. I just wish I had the space to work in the garage, rather than mostly outside. My Kids (since moved out, at least once) Think I am a storage facility. I thought Mr.Murphy only had my address in his iPhone. Josh, I used the same method to pull the drive shaft yoke. Works great in that limited space. Well, off to update my forum entry. Continued Good Luck Chris, You will have a sleek result, that you should be very proud of!

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huffy
quote:
Originally posted by GrincheyOne
I do admire the attention to detail and ambition applied to this project.
Thanks Wayne! I gotta tell you, though, the ambition's hard to keep up. I'm beginning to find the word "nuff" steadily working it's way into my vocabulary more and more. For instance, I was sanding on something good and rusty for about an hour yesterday when I finally realized that my arm was numb and had to say, "I've had 'nuff, so that's just gonna have to be good 'nuff." I'm just trying to get as much as I can done before my grass really starts growing, which should be real soon. Once that happens, the work on this thing's going to all but stop until fall gets here and I have more down time. I'm really hoping to at least get this thing back to a rolling chassey before then so that I can at least roll it around the garage and out of the way when I need to.

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huffy
I managed to get a little done this weekend in between classes and such, but not as much as I would have liked to. Since I’m waiting on my replacement left hub I figured I’d turn my attention to the front axle so that when the hub arrives I’ll be ready to get both the front and rear ends back on the frame. I was pretty surprised how well everything looked once I cleaned the grime off. One of the attachment coupler brackets was bent, which was a simple fix. I just put the front axle in the vise, clamped a piece of ½ bar stock to the bracket, heated up the bent area and hammered it back flat.


The spindles looked in very good shape once I cleaned all the grease and gunk off of them. Remarkably, even the bronze sleeve bearings for the spindles looked in excellent shape. They had just the right snugness around the spindles and permitted no wobble. I ordered new ones before I started this project, but I think I’ll just keep them stored away for another day. I was also pleased to see that there was no wear on the bolt that runs through the support block, and that the hole in the block even still has the factory paint with no sign of there ever having been any rubbing or grit having infiltrated. I had originally planned on boring the hole out to 3/4" and installing a sleeve bearing as others have done. But since it ain’t broke I see no need to fix it.


The tip of the yoke on the axle, however, was an entirely different matter. As you can see from the pic below, it had obviously been rubbing. It wasn’t as bad as I’ve seen on a lot of tractors, but it’s bad enough that it needed fixing.


So, I clamped the angle bracket in the drill press and eased the edges of the inside of the hole to keep from ruining my drill bit, and then bored it out to 1". The sleeve bearing fit inside perfectly, and from now on the $2 replaceable bearing will absorb the wear instead of my yoke tip. (BTW, I don’t see any specific term for what I’m calling the yoke in the manual, so I just picked that term out of thin air. If someone knows the proper name for it, please let me know).






Fixing the yoke tip itself was a bit harder. I thought about just building the worn area back up with the welder and then trying to file it back round, but where’s the fun in that? So, I laid the axle assembly on a piece of 1/4" thick plate steel that I have and then tack welded some pieces of angle on each side of the “Y.” Then I tacked on 2 more short pieces, one on each side of the yoke tip. With a little shimming to get the angle right, the result was a pretty good jig for clamping a yoke after the yoke tip’s been cut off and ensuring that the new one that’s welded on will be perfectly perpendicular to the axle and splayed off at the proper angle. Then I just cut the damaged yoke tip off and ground the “Y” bar smooth, cut a new piece of 3/4" bar stock to about the right length and used a big round file to create a “seat” in one end, and put it all in my jig and welded it up. I meant to take a picture of the axle assembly in the jig right before I welded it. But, as always happens when I'm playing with my yoke tip, I got engrossed in what I was doing and forgot. Oh well. Tomorrow I’ll take some pics of the jig itself with the finished axle assembly in it to give you the general idea, in case anyone cares to see them since I know a lot of you guys have worn out your own yoke tips. ;) Fiddling with my yoke tip burned up all of my spare time Saturday afternoon. This morning I woke up extra early and started trying to scrub the rust off of my gas tank/battery support. Boy, was that rough. I only got about half way through before I had to go tend to some other business.


When I got back this afternoon I finished sanding and scrubbing the gas tank/battery support assembly, and then I sanded down the gas tank. Then I spent an hour or so cleaning up a bunch of miscellaneous other pieces with a wire wheel on the bench grinder. I shot them all with a coat of primer, and then after returning from Sunday dinner I gave them all their first coat of paint.








I finished out the evening by looking around the garage at all of the rusty, grime covered parts that I still haven’t gotten to, and realizing that I’m still only about 10% of the way through this project.

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GLPointon
Great job so far...I like the bushing job, cant wait to see the yoke fix. I may need to copy that too. Keep up the good work dOd

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huffy
No progress yesterday as I had to stay late at the office and then babysit my friend's son. I'm sure he'll make a good little helper someday, but right now he's a bit too little to have in the garage with a bunch of stuff that can cause him some serious ouchies. Besides, his mom would punch me B) if I brought him home covered in grease. I ran home on my lunch hour today to quickly put a second coat of paint on some small parts, and was elated to see that my replacement left hub had arrived. The Christmas-like joy continued when I realized the thrust washers I'd ordered had also come in the mail. Now if the thrust bearings would just arrive I'd be ready to put my front end back together. There's still a bunch of parts that need to be sanded, primed, and painted, but I think I need a break from that. Tonight I think I'll start bolting a few of the pieces back together.

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huffy
I started out last night by bolting my front axle assembly back to the frame. I forgot to take pics of the yoke in that jig that I made before I bolted it all up. Oh well, I’ll try to remember to take pics of the jig tonight at least, and I’ll see if I can find another worn yoke somewhere and do a post about the whole fix from start to finish. Anyway, the front axle assembly went together good. The lighting makes it look like I got some scratches in my new paint, but I didn’t.




Next I mounted the BGB and tranny. I decided to change those connector plates from black to gray, and I’m thinking about changing them back. I just can’t make up my mind.


After that I figured I’d get the steering assembly mounted up so that I can put the steering tower on. I decided to add a grease fitting to the steering bracket, as other members have done. So, I threw the bracket in the drill press and bored a hole between where the needle bearings will seat.


I’ve always had trouble getting thread taps to start straight with those little T wrenches. So, I decided to do something I’ve seen my Dad do a few times. I unplugged the drill press, took the drill bit out of the chuck and replaced it with the tap, then gave just a tad or pressure with the drill press crank as I turned the chuck by hand. This threaded the hole perfectly.




I went with a 45 degree fitting. Hopefully it’ll be easier to get the grease gun hose on the 45 degree than a straight fitting, since I’ll have to access it by removing a side panel and trying to squeeze my bear paw hands down in there.


Next I installed the new needle bearings. Packing the bearings and lubing the steering bracket hole was not fun. An hour later I was still getting grease on my freshly painted parts even though I’d cleaned my hands twice.








I used the hydraulic press to seat the needle bearings, and followed the same lube and press process for the sleeve bearing in the steering pinion gear. I really wish I had a set of those dies made for seating bearings, but I made do with some sockets.






I’ve still got some work to do on the steering assembly to try to eliminate all of the slop. But I’d had enough for the night by this time so I just temporarily set the steering tower in the frame and shot a couple pics to give you guys an idea of my color scheme. I really like it. If some of you don’t, oh well. I can’t please everybody, so I only worry about pleasing one.




I’ve got to spend the next few days traveling for work, so it’ll likely be next week before I get a chance to get anymore done on this. In the meantime, not that it'll change my mind, but let me know what ya'll think of the colors.

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huffy
I had a little spare time last night after packing for my trip, so I managed to sneak out to the garage and continue diagnosing and fixing the problems with my steering. Fortunately, the ball joints on my drag link looked okay. They were a bit worn, but not enough that I'm going to bother replacing them right now. They can simply be adjusted to tighten them up, so I just cleaned everything up for primer and paint. A large part of my problem was my eccentric pin. It looked like someone had been in there tinkering around before, and it appears as though they'd done some grinding on the pin for some reason that I can't figure out. This, in conjunction with the worn sleeve bearing, enabled grit to infiltrate and further wear the pin. But, luckily the Talented Mr. Green donated a replacement to me, so that and replacing the sleeve bearing tightened that right up. Another big problem that I had was wear in my steering gear. I fixed that by installing some set screws. I did a post about that in the Talking Tractors forum, and thus won't bother repeating it here. When I get back from my trip I guess I'll see if I can figure out how to take the motor apart for a good inspection and cleaning.

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Talntedmrgreen
Well, I think it looks great! It's still going to look 'Simplicity-ish', but is slightly different than most we see. I really like the grey, and would never have considered it myself! You have no idea how tickled I am to see that old 2012 in such good hands :D

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Blazerjeepman3
I like the the gray too. Looks sort of heavy duty or industrial with that color.

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rpickle
Another very fine retro job. You guys are really an inspiration.

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GrincheyOne
Looking GR8 Chris, You certainly deserve those occasional "cold ones"! Good luck going forward with the engine. Be careful with the air breather, that flapper valve can be tricky!

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colincox1
thanks for the write up, great info and ideasdOd

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GrincheyOne
Looking really professional Pal! I wish I was as far along as you are. That issue with the holes in the gas tank, shot holes in my enthusiasm too!

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huffy
Arrived home yesterday afternoon for a one night stop over before flying out again tonight. I didn't have time to get much done, but I was able to work on the dash tower.


I wish I had a proper heat gun, instead of just that old hair dryer, because those 45 year old stickers were a PITA to get off.


It took quite a while for me to sand away all that surface rust, but I eventually got through it and got the dash tower primed and painted.


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GrincheyOne
Chris I'm glad you didn't send the little guy home with an orange glow! PS Check ACE Hardware if you have one there. I got a dual heat gun for just under $10. Beats the old hair dryer I was using years ago. panel is looking good.

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DaveTenney
Looks Great! Dave

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huffy
I was able to get a few more small pieces bolted on last night after I finally got home from being on the road for several days. I'm really liking the orange/gray/black combo.








I had hoped to make some real progress on this project this weekend, now that I'm finally home for a while. In fact, after bolting on the small parts I had intended to start prepping the seat pan and rear fenders. But, I was out of discs for my air sander and had to run to the store to get some. In keeping with the way my luck's been going lately, en route my truck blew a head gasket. So, unfortunately the tractor project's back on hold for at least another few days. Maybe more, since I'm at the point where I need to order some new tires and decals, and fixing my truck's going to put a pretty big dent in my fun-money budget.

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GrincheyOne
Chris, does this mean Mr. Murphy has moved on from SE PA? Sorry to hear about your truck problem. Keep up the good work. I've been staying up too darn late, the other side of that is waking up late morning, or early afternoon. At least I got my drag link from the BIG TEN cleaned and painted, and finished my first half case of PB Blaster.:o) Have a good weekend! Wayne

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henroan
Your really doing great work, Chris. Sorry to hear about your truck. I'm sure in short time you'll finish your retro.

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huffy
Slowly plugging along . . .




I forgot to bolt the headlight bar back on before taking my grill shot. But oh well, I'll bolt it on when I take the grill back off to drop the engine in.


Aside from the color scheme, another change I'm making is ditching the old pan-style seat in favor of an Allis B series style. I fab'd a frame for it, and now just have to cut some wood and get it upholstered. This seat will be more suitable for my "portly" rear end, having the backboard will be much better for my rickety old back, and the tubular cross bars underneath will prevent the "sag" in the sides of the seatpan that it had with the old seat. I've got 4 of those rubber seat mounting things on order, and they'll go between the bar stock frame and the seat board. I've also got a tool box (courtesy of Rokon), which I think will look really good mounted on back.


I only wish that I was as far along as the pics make it seem. I've still got to finish making the seat and find someone to upholster it; rebuild the hydro lift and get some new hoses made; overhaul the motor (waiting on a gasket kit and other stuff I ordered); get decals made; clean all the rust off my rims (a chore I'm dreading, which is why the tractor's still on blocks) and order tires and get them mounted . . . etc, etc, etc, etc.

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GrincheyOne
Nice seat fab Chris, I just sold a "skeleton" from my BIG TEN. I B cheating a bit, picked up (thanks to GregB) a '69 Landlord (parts donor) on CL. It's a matter of both $ and time economy. Its now a contest "The best of three machines", getting closer to Zippo's "Ugly Alice". here's the pic from the CL ad...


I just went over the pics, with my Paint Shop Pro 6, and can see several cracks in the steering wheel, I'll have to compare it in person to decide which one to fix, the original, or the "donor". Made a jig today to hold the 14HP shroud for old paint striping. It,s raining again tonight. I'm waiting out the monsoons to get out and finalize the field stripping of the '68 frame. I just enjoy working in a soggy side of my turn-around.

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GrincheyOne
It's actually looking like a tractor again! How is the truck doing?

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