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Well, @pullstart checked in with me last week wondering if I’m ok. Well, I guess I’m doing ok. I’ve just been distracted by another one of my hobbies - vws. I’ve got a 74 VW Thing that I hadn’t moved in about 7 years. Emory was wanting to go for a ride as he doesn’t remember being in it when he was little. I was really surprised that the battery still had 10.75 volts and all I had to do was drain the old gas (had been treated with fuel preservative) and charge the battery and she was off. We took it to a VW show a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been slowly mounting military accessories I have for it and collecting a few more. Been kind of nice to mess with it again after all of this time!

Believe it or not, the battery is an Advance Auto Parts battery. Build date on it is 2011. I think one thing that helped it is that I have a battery disconnect on it, so there is no parasitic draw at all once disconnected. I ended up letting it sit as Emory needed more attention, Mom got sick - then passed 4 years ago, and I just decided to concentrate on family time with Emory, Becca, and Dad. Emory is big enough to enjoy it now and had been wanting to get it out. Below is a picture of night I pulled it out of the garage. I had the military antenna mount, blackout lights, folding shovel dated 1969, first aid kits, warning signs, gas cans, traffic paddle, and others - all og German. Now I’ve ordered the correct flag set, shovel for the rear package tray, emergency lights, hatchet, and cleaning brush. I know - that’s a lot of stuff, but I’m trying to get the items an original military issue 181 would come with. i made the light pole and mounted a European beacon to it - not quite correct, but I like it. Thanks for the kind comments guys! Gotta go to work. Check out Emory’s smile below!!

We have such a wide range of folks that enjoy a cross section of different hobbies associated with machines that I am starting a thread that is dedicated to how you store those and when you store them. There is a large contingent of us that live in the north where it is impossible to drive a vintage car or truck all winter unless you want the salt to kill it! Boating on the ice? Not so much! Motorcycling can be done through the winter on select days if you are crazy enough but still most of us park them for the winter. I have owned my Goat for just over 21 years or more than half my life (just realized that—cool)! I was watching the news this morning and they said that we could wake up to some snow accumulation on Tuesday morning of next week and so I don’t want to run the risk of not getting it winterized. Took my favorite people to school this morning in it... You should have saw Caleb’s expression when I told him that he could be driving us to school the next time if he keeps his grades up over the winter!!! Claudia instantly looks like, “I’m gonna be sick!” For winterizing, I pull the battery and put it in the basement on the fender, run Sea-Foam in the FULL tank of premium fuel, put a mouse trap (if you can’t scare them away, kill ‘em) in the car and trunk with a note to remember to check periodically. Clean it good and cover—good night! My 1996 Vulcan is similar. With it, I make sure the chrome is polished well, SeaFoam in FULL tank, run carb dry, and hook up battery tender. Gonna miss seeing this! Judge (pictured in his new Punisher helmet) asked me for a ride this afternoon or tomorrow! I must oblige, after all it is my kiddo asking😉 I can’t wait to see what you guys have and how you do it! This could be a great informative thread while still being lots of fun. Remember—if it is a machine of any sort and it gets stored through the winter months—IT IS ON TOPIC!!!

So today i came home to find this in the driveway, someone thought it needed a new home, i guess mine will have to suffice, needs a battery and belt guard hydro and motor are suppose to work.

Put on the plow that came with the machine.

Progress on this has been slow but it’s starting to turn red.

years ago my car died on my parents driveway ... slight uphill part ... car was blocking entrance and exit to the garage so had to move it immediately ... I towed the car - 3600 lb car - slight uphill - with a 1964 704

Nice score Mike!!Here are some pic's of my 1076 which should have the same stuff as your new 1276. The mount for the engine might not be exactly correct, i'm not sure. But note the extension that was seemingly added on. Here is the fan guard. I have a drawing with dimensions if you wish to try and make a new one. Let me know if you need it.

Read yesterday that the earliest recorded snowfall here in Oklahoma was on 10/25/1957. We beat that record yesterday. It started snowing around 1 in the afternoon and snowed most of the night, sure is pretty but I was out most of the night in the wrecker. Luckily no major accidents just a bunch of people sliding off the road and needing winched out

Winter is on it's way!! I have a gravel driveway so I have my blower set to leave about an inch or so of snow behind. Now that I have a new side walk to maintain I wanted an easy way to keep it scrapped clean after I run over it with the blower. Today I made a new wear bar for my recently acquired push plow. I did a lot of research, and would you believe that they don't make a drill bit that will drill a square hole so a guy can use carriage bolts?!?!? Given this fact and the fact that I don't have a broach to cut the square holes, I decided to make things easy on myself and bolt the wear bar on with button head bolts. Now I have to get the blade sandblasted & painted so that snow will not stick to it. Also need to decide if I want to paint the plow frame right away or if I'm going to just leave it the way it is.

My 'Horses are usually kept in operation all through the winter. I keep the stabil in them all year round, and come cold weather I just bring batteries indoors. Nothing more. Around Christmas they all get drug out and the neighborhood kids take them out and pull sleds up and down our road. Then I usually keep them rotated on snow duty. Only got one vehicle.. some come winter we dump the 20w50 and add some 10w30. (Good time for some homebrew undercoat BTW) Its an old Ford Big Six. Just adjust the choke for cold and dont forget to reconnect the heater, throw the snow wheels on. Dont give her any more attention, she doesn't like that. Only my hit and miss engines and old outboard get a proper tucking in. I pull my magnetos off and store them indoors, as well as any brasswork. Drain the tanks and a good cleaning, oil the cylinders and valvegear, and put them to bed. And since it's winter, and you're a Kohler buff, it's time to break out the old cast-iron 4 stroke motor toboggan!

What’s winter?

So am I reading this right or do l not understand ! You say you found this in your driveway and someone left it there? Hmmmmm. Most of us can only hope for this type scenario. Or maybe in a dream! Nevertheless the Wheelhorse gods are shining their lights upon you! Nice!

Nice VW , drove one in my Military time for few Day‘s, unbelievable where this simple car gets through. Not to much power, not to much weight, a perfect ratio. Can be compared to a Wheelhorse, build to work, simple and reliable.

Ok Jack here's what I think... just turn the tractor over to Dan and let him work his magic. .. ain't like he's got no other projects?

Some more wood split and stacked on the truck.

First off I don't have a fully enclosed garage for my lil "street rod" it sits covered in the carport on the asphalt with the battery disconnected (being in the carport with the sun shining on it. from rise to set no mice) but instead of premium gas with an additive it gets 5 gallons or so of Sunoco 110 octane "racing" fuel (it stays fresh for years at least the 3 the engine was out being rebuilt), I have owned this ride since March of 2001 so a little over 18 years.

If you call it Steve, you have to fill the Tank with Mexican and Rock N Rye It has a deck so I vote for "8 Horse Toenail Clippers"

Same here, went out to car 6.15 this morning to find it hiding in snow, still went off to work in my shorts though... Phil

It is a hockey puck. Never seen them but was told they are useful for all kinds of things. Solid rubber and it is machinable in the lathe. So I drilled and hollowed one out to make a gear lever gaiter. Hopefully should let water drip clear of the ball joint.

I have a piece of 3/4" all thread rod bolted through my work bench and I secure the rim to the bench with it then use small tire irons, works great.

Changed the right front tire on the 312 last night. Full of slime!!! Before I do another tire though, I am getting one of those tire changer set-ups from HF! Having the right tools means everything, and my time is worth more than $45. Watched Norm on isave tractors dot com use it last night and it worked good. https://www.harborfreight.com/mini-tire-changer-61179.html

My step daughter wants a "Thing" and there's a fella back home in WV that has at least 3 from what I can remember, Sweet looking ride you have there... Sometimes you Good a tinker with the big toys even though the little ones are cheaper... And I just pulled a 10 year old (10/09) Advance Auto battery out of my '06 Silverado because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore. ....................................................... Sorry my bad it was 11/10, a 9 year old battery but sorta impressive nonetheless

You get too tied up with this nonsense Dells maybe we just come get some tractors....

Thanks Kev. He really has seemed to enjoy it. We were going to another large east coast VW show and drags with the car last weekend and Emory woke up sick Sunday morning. He still wanted to go, so we just rode over for a little while to let him look around for a little while. Now, he says he wants a Baja bug. Might just see another project in our future in a couple of years!

Give me about a 6 month warning, I need to wrangle up another buggy engine.. somehow I hurt this one Otherwise, I’d be glad to take video while you and Emory tear it up!

I keep my car, truck, and Wheel Horses in the basement year around with trays of mouse food not completely open.They think they are stealing it. I haven't had any to last long enough to do any damage.

Trina bought us a full size version a couple years ago I guess? I use the full size changer to break the beads on the smaller rims and then just manually change them with screwdriver spoons. That paid for itself the first couple tires.

this was the car they got into the glove box 69 Hurst Olds pic was taken early 80's at Car Craft Street Machine Nationals (2nd year of the event I believe) orange Chevelle SS is factory L78 (396/375) year before - attended that show with friend 69 GTO Judge w / Ram Air III note the sign lol

Shorts and boots, brother! Shorts and boots!

You get a small taste of it when your up here in North Carolina. I don't think you will see much of the white stuff where you going to be. We are usually in the very edge of that. The most we have got in the last 10 years or so is around 4" at a time. Looks pretty and is gone in two or three days, we have had it to last a week. I had to go back to February 2015 to find one worth taking a picture of,

I’m all for some off-road VW action!

There is a story that just can to mind reading your post @SPINJIM that Jim Wangers (the promoter of the GTO and Pontiac in the 1960’s) related to a group of us at GTO nationals back in 2006 when I attended. He said that when the TV show the Monkees came out as part of a promotion they gave each of the band members a brand new 1968 GTO. Apparently Mike Nesmith was pulled over doing 125mph in his. It made National news and Wangers said that it caused a spike in sales for a couple of weeks after the story was printed!!! Can’t buy advertising like that!!! Thanks Dan for the informative post!

I have had mine for 25 years or so now. Changed lots of tires. I have done 12in but if they are at all stubborn it can't handle the bead breaking. Got a full size changer from HF works much better for the 12""

With any small engine that I store for the season I will fill the gas tank full of non ethanol premium gas mixed with Sea Foam if it has a metal tank, not worried about rust in with the plastic tanks. Then I will fire the engine up & let it run for 10 min or so. After 10 min I will shut the gas off & let the carb run dry. On a side note: My neighbor just loves it when I put my tractors away for the season. 11 tractors all running together wide open for 15 to 20 min . If they have a battery it will stay in but it will spend at least 8hrs on a trickle charger so that it will not freeze over the winter. My walk behind snow blower gets this same treatment in the spring. With the boat I make sure that my premium gas is treated with Sea Foam the last time that I take it out. Being an out board I don't have to worry about putting antifreeze in the engine like you have to do with inboards.Then I change the lower unit grease and put it to bed for the winter. My on board battery chargers will stay plugged in all winter.

This works pretty good for the 1533 bearings. For the outer axle races, I use a long enough 1/2 drive extension with a 1/2 drive socket (put in backwards) that is just big enough to fit down the axle. A good punch and ball peen will work also.

Thanks guys for all the advice and positive comments. My plan is to work on this thing over the winter in my nice climate controlled shop (thanks to Jim👍🏻) and get some of these items taken care of so that it is ready for next spring. We can definitely combine orders if Glen is ready to process😉. Next spring, I’d like to get a couple of Dump Truck loads of driveway gravel dumped and then play with Rusty and the mid mount to level it all out

Let us know if you need any more help getting it going.

We haven't used this lawn tractor in years. We gave it to our daughter and the wheels went flat. She had her neighbor help. He ruined the wheel on one front tire but we've found a replacement for that. It was the back tires we are trying to figure out. We will then see how it runs to use for our lawn. We will use it for cutting grass and tilling a garden.

Not so with the "Deestone" or off brand ( @The Tool Crib said above) AGs like I have here on my 315-8...

That's one very nice VW. I don't think I've ever seen one like that in the UK. Looks a modern version of the '40's Kubelwagen and not as ugly.

I bought a pair of commercially available stub axles and cut them down, boring them to 3/4 inch to take the original axle inside. I'm going to bond them on initially with bearing adhesive rather than weld them and risk softening the metal. May cross drill and pin too but that might be a bit over the top.

Red oxide primer is a close match to a lot of patina ...

I also thought the same thing when I got into WH's. To test this, I pulled a few dead cars around with my GT-14. The tractor itself didn't have a problem with it - the original turf savers however did. If I had a set of ags and wheel weights I don't think I would've had an issue. The belt didn't seem to have an issue with pulling 4k pounds!

That is a @BOB ELLISON seat and it was worth every penny.

Loose engine mounting bolts?

Government job, one working, three along for the ride.

Yes left there, somone gave up on her thought i would get use if it

Oh yeah, i believe he has a somebody call’s it „Plow fever“, what cannot be healing, It just can be supressed by Plow til end of Gas.. 😂 @Achto 😂😂😂😂😂👍