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HorseFixer

Dukes 1956 RJ-35 Restoration

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HorseFixer

Thanks guys, Butch that building Bryan has is Quonset hut actually he has 4 of those on his business property. What they were used for was originally they were erected as grain storage bins back in the cold war. The government would construct these on farm land and after so many years they became the farmers property to do with as he pleased. There were thousands of these built across the US. They make nice storage facilities and in this case a nice sandblast building. His front building he uses for his office and shop and spray paint booth. His 2nd two buildings are used for storage, and the last building shown is his sand blast building. Yep he can do just about anything from yard furniture to a semi truck and has done that and everything in between. He even goes portable and has sand blasted bridges and swimming pools. Thats why I call him the Master Blaster! :omg:

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KyBlue

Looks great Duke - did he use actual sand on that sheet metal or something like glass or plastic??

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HorseFixer

Scott he uses sand. Well today I touched up the frame with welds and used my right angle sander with abrasive Rolock disc's and went over the entire frame and removed alot of welding cherries burrs and slag that were factory <_< Yeah the Ole ponds even painted right over arc welding slag! My tractor musta been built on a Friday or Monday after they got their load on cause some of the welds.... well lets say maybe they were in a hurry to get this one out the door! Even the foot rests were out of square. :drool: Now common! thats pretty pitiful if you ask me, what would it have taken to made a jig for these tractors? they must have not invented the square in 1956!

Anyways after working on the frame I had a fabrication task to do on the rear end linkage drive assembly. It had to cut a 1/2 shaft running through it and they welded this in place! That meant all these linkages could not be taken apart and serviced or in this case sand blasted and painted correctly. Soooo that meant that I would have to cut the shaft out and replace it. Well I came up with something even better, I decided to make the shaft threaded and make it removable If I wanted. There was alot of work involved in doing this but I think it will be a nice modification and well worth the effort and something they should have done from the factory! :omg: After everthing is complete the frame will go back to the Master Blaster one more time!

Look at the burrs that were left from drilling from the factory!

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Out of square footrests from the factory!

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Added some extra welds and sanded the frame.

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The rear bracket and pully system before modification.

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After

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HorseFixer

Thursday I Silver brazed the Gas Tank straps on the hood just to make sure as there are just a couple spot welds holding them in place. I put 1/6" rubber over the hood support I will most likely go with even thinner material for this purpose :omg: as the side mounting bolts that go thru the hood are a little off. I then started a little hood filler on the lowspots and a couple dings that were in the hood! :drool: I'm in no way a body man and know just enough to get myself in trouble! Wheres my friend Ray when I need him! :drool: Anyway here are some pics. I will let this coat dry tonight even tho I could sand in 20 minutes its dinner time and I need to get those steaks done so MJ and I can have them on Rits Crackers! :(

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Suburban 550

You're doin' alright my friend. :omg: As long as you worked most of the dents out instead of using a 1/2" of Evercoat you'll be fine. A skim coat of body filler will never hurt anything. The only thing you have to learn now is to feel it out to make sure it's perfect. I know you can do it. :drool:

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KyBlue

Lookin good there Duke!!

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HorseFixer

Been working on the hood taking my time and trying to dial it in the best I can, not that it was that ruff but prolly cause I'm learning a little bit about body work. It wont be perfect but it wont be because I'm not trying but its what I have to work with. There is a sway in the hood due to the Gas tank weighting it down. Anyways tonight I put together the rear end and that went smoothly. It sure is a good feeling to see parts go back together. I need to pick up some new hardware tomorrow night but at least I have all the bolts in and the Spermatex :drool: will seal down Hopefully over the weekend I can show a Red Frame :omg:

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Eriks Red horse herd

And on the TENTH DAY GOD created- blue silicone, Pemetex and duct tape way to go Duke!

Keep it up! :omg:

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Duff

So Duke....did the "Spermatex" come from a Blue Whale? :omg:

:drool:

Duff :drool:

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KyBlue

LOL Maybe He has a Smurf Colony living in his backyard??

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Duke.. Ya Forgot to blast yer bolts...They are still red...SHAME SHAME SHAME!!! :omg: :drool:

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HorseFixer
LOL

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KyBlue

I had to stop licking the pictures Duke... well they were not the pics from here, but other places...was afraid of what I might catch.. :omg:

Grade 8 bolts?? Ya tryin to make it bomb proof??

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linen beige

Duke, Here's a few pointers that might save you some frustrations.

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As the weight of the fuel tank pulled the top of the hood down into a sag, it also pushed out on the upper corners of the "grill". This can be seen in the area circled in black. That also left a flat spot that can be seen better in one of your front shots. This should have been worked back into proper alignment before you added the filler. There is still time to fix it now. Pushing it back into position will probably cause the top of the hood to rise a tad. Maybe even enough to eliminate the need to fill the slight sag that is still in it (the area filled with plastic.)

The areas circled in red have straight lines showing up in them. These are flat spots caused by sanding inline with or at right angles to the crown of the panel. NEVER DO THIS. They show up in the finish as gouges or ripples.

As was brought up in another post by a show car body man sanding at an angle of say 45 degrees to the arc of the crown, and alternating directions of that angle between passes will eliminate this (illustrated by the green and yellow lines.). This also allows you to transition from one crown to another without leaving a break line.

I also agree that this panel is too small to warrant using a power sander on. Use a hand held long block on the larger areas and a small block on the high crowns. Don't bear down on the sander as that causes the center of the panel to deflect away from the sander and when you lift the sander away the panel returns to shape, leaving the center high. You may even want to place this hood over a well packed sand/shot bag to support the middle of the panel and lessen the distortion as you work.

You may want to take some sheet metal and knock a few dents in it. Now break out the body tools and straighten it back out. It's a very good learning tool.

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oldandred

Hay Duke you need a bigger hammer :omg:

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HorseFixer

Duke, Here's a few pointers that might save you some frustrations.

As the weight of the fuel tank pulled the top of the hood down into a sag, it also pushed out on the upper corners of the "grill". This can be seen in the area circled in black. That also left a flat spot that can be seen better in one of your front shots. This should have been worked back into proper alignment before you added the filler. There is still time to fix it now. Pushing it back into position will probably cause the top of the hood to rise a tad. Maybe even enough to eliminate the need to fill the slight sag that is still in it (the area filled with plastic.)

The areas circled in red have straight lines showing up in them. These are flat spots caused by sanding inline with or at right angles to the crown of the panel. NEVER DO THIS. They show up in the finish as gouges or ripples.

As was brought up in another post by a show car body man sanding at an angle of say 45 degrees to the arc of the crown, and alternating directions of that angle between passes will eliminate this (illustrated by the green and yellow lines.). This also allows you to transition from one crown to another without leaving a break line.

I also agree that this panel is too small to warrant using a power sander on. Use a hand held long block on the larger areas and a small block on the high crowns. Don't bear down on the sander as that causes the center of the panel to deflect away from the sander and when you lift the sander away the panel returns to shape, leaving the center high. You may even want to place this hood over a well packed sand/shot bag to support the middle of the panel and lessen the distortion as you work.

You may want to take some sheet metal and knock a few dents in it. Now break out the body tools and straighten it back out. It's a very good learning tool.

Thanks Jim! :drool: I appreciate the help and will be back at it again this weekend on the hood as this is the last thing going on the tractor. Other parts will need be blasted and painted first. I have seen some of those lines on the top hood edge before on other tractor hoods also that are factory which looks like some tooling marks to me. I will try yer approach and get them out.

I am making some other needed parts right now that are fudged up like a new shifter rod that someone broke and then used two U bolts and coupled together. Also a new steering shaft with 5 Universal Joints and sophisticated linkage system to dodge around the gas tank that if not changed, the steering shaft would hit my gas tank due to the modified hood support bracket! :drool: That one will go down in my book as a classic! :omg:

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Butch

Linen that's pretty impressive you picked all that up by a photo! :omg: I was gonna commend Duke on how well it looked. So much for that. :drool:

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bell

Duke, the blue stuff will work just fine.... BUT, next time, try the grey permatex. It is a MUCH better quality. I use it on everything requiring a "gasket maker" seal...

Looking good! :omg:

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HorseFixer
Hay Duke you need a bigger hammer

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linen beige

Linen that's pretty impressive you picked all that up by a photo!

Don't be too impressed Butch. It looks enough like some of my early work where my instructor pointed out those same things it was easy to recognize.

Duke, Some of the ripples may well be marks left from the stamping processes, but the very ends (actually the beginning) of that type line usually have a very slight surface bulge to them. They also tend to change width along their length. They tend to be mirrored on the obverse side of a panel. Given this, to see if those lines are left over from the factory you could lightly sand (almost buff) the inside of the hood with 600 grit. The low spots (high on the inside) along tooling lines will come to a shine first.

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HorseFixer

Well I may do that on the next RJ The underside is primed with etch primer allready. Didnt want it uncovered to rust. Like I said before the hood looks 100% better than when I picked her up. And incomparison from what I have seen suposably restored, I think Im in good shape. Just trying to get the hood the best I can without 3/8" of bondo. There will be a couple dips that just can't be fixed with my ability and Im not going to beat myself up over it. :drool: All in all It will will get some looks and be respectable and I guess thats all I can expect! :omg: Thanks again!

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HorseFixer

Well tonight I had to build a new shift lever. The old one had snapped like alot of them I seen do. Somewhere along the line a fix for this was a couple U BOLTS <_< So it was out with the cut off wheel and grinder, cut a new length of 3/8 cold rolled steel heated it up and bent it in the vise to a 90 degree. I then aligned & tigged it in place and ground all the welds along with threaded the rod for the shift knob. I also did some final work on the frame and welded some other linkages and brackets. I primed the engine tonight with etch primer. The final parts were loaded up in The Jeep in preperation for a trip to the MASTER BLASTERS shop where the frame and everything else will get a final blasting then primed and painted along with the engine. Will be putting a long day in tomarrow maybe by mid week I may have a rolling chassis! :omg: Boy that will feel good instead of tearing stuff off will be putting things back together. :drool:

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KyBlue

Lookin good Duke.... is that a 4 wheeled WH wagon I see sittin there?? didnt know you'd gotten one of them!

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Stigian

You have been busy Duke :drool:

Like you subtle modifications like the hood brace :omg:

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HorseFixer

Thanks Ian & Scotty! :omg: 4 Wheeled Wagon yeah It'a a 4 Wheeler but not a Wheel Horse. It's a Lil Red Wagon made by a company out in DesMoines IA Ya ever find A WH 4 Wheeler kickin around lemme know I trade ya for my "TOP SECRET BBQ Sauce Recipie! :drool:

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HorseFixer

Well today was a busy Day Its 12:36 Sunday morn and I have been over at Brian's since 9:00 a.m. Saturday pulled a late nighter. Was able to get about 99% of the parts blasted and 3 coats of Epoxy primer on the 53 hanging parts. We had to switch gears because the Evercoat polyester high build primer wasn't worth a chit <_< The paint store will deal with me on Monday :omg: Anyways Here are some pics of todays work.

Maybe tomorrow will get some base coat clear coat red laid down. :drool:

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