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I bought this beautiful 603 from @Shynon last summer. I’ve been thrilled with it. The carb got some gunk in it the last time I had it out, so I figured I’d bring it home to the garage while I have a chance to work on it. One of Tom’s stipulations was that I not paint the tractor. I agree that it would be a shame to mess with such beautiful patina, so I thought I’d try my hand at enhancing it. I’ve honestly felt like cr_p today, but thought it might perk me up to mess with it a little. I put the carb in the tank to soak, so I took a few minutes to sand 1/2 of the hood with 800 and 1000 grit and then oil to see how it looks. Man does it pop! Ear in mind I will buff it down and it will dry with more of a mat sheen, but retain the beautiful color. The only other thing I’m going to do to this tractor is clean and paint the wheels with a fresh coat of Rustoleum almond. I do have the original hood, but decided to keep this one on for now as I love the look. Hate to admit it, but I think I’m really on board with this patina thing!

Trina and her mom spent a few hours moving the rest of the firewood from the upper yard in the shed to the basement. 5 loads in the Ohio Steel brand trailer tugged by her 867. I spent a lot of the day in the outdoor workshop moving/organizing/cleaning then took apart the 1267/1287 mongrel so I can shelf some of the stuff and use the 8 speed transmission for the Colossus project.

Yup. Elvis comes out for the big jobs.

I plowed the driveway today, before the rain! I can’t believe how wonderful a job the old power king does.. slow.. but it does it!! Here’s some pics! 65 power king 10hp kohler. @ebinmaine

It should look like this when finished...

I know here in UK on this tiny island we are very stiff upper lip, don't really like causing a scene, or drawing attention to ourselves, or talking about how we feel... but holy moly this was an eye opener lol and this was one of the more tame clips ! link Phil

Maybe an intake and exhaust would be enough to help out mileage. There’s plenty of fart IN the truck!

Oh no no no no no Please don't.... No no no no no no no

Plan on doing some drifting Kevin? In my humble opinion, I don’t think you would have to worry about it. Now if you make it 15’ long with dual axles, you might have trouble turning it without a lot of weight up front.

WOW you folks are anxious for this project! Between you and @Lee1977 I better get back to going!!! We got @19richie66 working on his. @pullstart making a monster. And @Cvans working on getting an incredible engine in a C160. You'd think you should have enough to watch but noooooooo...... Ok well I'll see if I can The Paint Department to throw a little sparkling brown around today. I'll be having some shop time dismantling a parts tractor to get at the transmission I want to look at.

@Gordyhogg here's my poor old Blue thing as I found it. I still havent decided if its a restore project or a parts machine, but at least its now in a dry barn.

Today I managed to put a fresh coat of red paint on the garage floor and accidentally got some on my trailer frame. I picked up a set of rims from a Ford Ranger that I'm going to use for my trailer. The factory clear coat has pealed off in quite a few spots leaving the aluminum oxidized pretty bad. I'm considering sanding them down and painting them. Unless any body knows of a good way to get them back to their original state.

My 21 year old son built this snow making gun when he was about 10... Cost about $20 at Home Depot for a few parts...Cool thing is, it actually works!!! Hose on one side, compressor on the other, adjust flow of air to water ratio based on air temperature and tada!!! Snow... By the way, he’s now in his third year at University of Utah getting a Mechanical Engineering degree... Still have it in the garage...

I have built many odd things in my life but I think to most this one will be the oddest and most unusual. Its a typical Portuguese oxen yoke. I am probably the last one in many years that has built one of these, and it is probably the one I am most proud of.

finally got started on this tractor tore it down little over a year ago haven't had to to mess with it stated sandblasting it and like a dummy i didn't use a respirator (face shield only ) used the black blaster sand from menards it is recycled coal slag time i was done i inhaled about a bag of it and face was black from it . felt the effects latter that evening hacking around from it. bought this blaster from harbor freight worked pretty good sat down and did the dash panel and strg wheel cap that a little tedious to do when wife talking at you asking questions paint be here for it next week and have one of the guys at my work going to paint it in our paint booth at work should look better than new i hope will have more pics to come

Hi all. Thanks for the add to the group. Always have liked the older tractors and mowers. This will be my first antique tractor resto. I hope to learn alot here and hope I can help out along the way

I made an attempt to try and polish the rims today. The results that I was getting for the time that I had invested were less than satisfactory. So.. on to plan B. 80 grit sand paper and a DA sander made short work of the clear coat that was on the rims. Then a couple of coats of self etching prime, some black paint to high light the "deer track" looking recesses, Silver base coat followed by 4 coats of clear. Not the bling that polished aluminum would bring but I'm happy with the out come. The plan for tomorrow is to throw the old wheels on and move it out side and then get the fenders and ramps adorned with some red paint. Then unfortunately it's back to the salt mines on Monday so there will be no progress until next weekend. I will how ever, get the new tires mounted on the rims some time during the week.

I sanded with water first. Then, I coated with boiled linseed oil cut with just a little mineral spirits. After it’s wiped down the finish will be more soft and aged looking. It just brings out the beauty of mother nature’s work.

Eric I'm sure now that trailer that I have is an Ohio steel wagon. I am in the process still stripping it down and going to paint it soon. I'm thinking about putting truck bed liner on the inside. Got some custom decals ordered from the vinyl Guy to finish it off. Heres a small preview.

It certainly is a Colossubility

It probably will take a colossal amount of time for a project like Colossus, just thinking out loud

So after some looking around I found this one. It's a Precision Mathews PM 932 milling machine. Had a vice,collets, DRO, power feed. Nice to have a son with a great boss that let us usd his new skid steer to move it. Now it's home in it's resting place. Pretty excited to see what I can do with it.

You know sometimes leaky axle seals are an advantage. Leaky side is sliding off with just a light tug from a two jaw puller. Other side didn't budge with the set up on there (pic 1) Do not want to snap the flange so have to reconstruct my pull from behind set up used a few years ago on the D200 (pic 2) Some of the steel tubing I used was repurposed in the interim so some new fabrication is needed.

Guaranteed no pressure here either. You guys will all have several rebuilds done til I wrap up my first!😀 Hang in there all, still hoping to get back in the mix soon. I’m still going for the record of longest drawn out project ever!

Don't know if my project qualifies as odd either,but, different than some we'll say.... 22 foot skiff

A little update for today. Replaced the fuel line and cleaned things up. Had to readjust the governor and throttle cable. Starts and idles with one pull. Puffs some blue smoke with running. Drained the trans. HUH half full of water due to the shifter boot being cracked and sitting outside for quite some time. So now the job of flushing it out

Never measured it but you can easily observe the difference in the angle of the tires when turned all the way. I'm not so sure it needs to be deadly accurate but it does make a difference to have each wheel tracking close to the correct radius. Otherwise, they are skidding to make up the difference which my guess would be mostly on the inside tire since the outside would probably have more traction from the weight transfer during the turn.

Glad to hear you just had a stomach bug Dells instead of the usual STD you have... Heres a little inspiration for your current aspiration. .. it was sitting in my local Chevrolet dealer, why I have no idea, while I was waiting to have my 25k on the clock wheel bearing replaced. Kev @pullstart we is gonna have a little talk about GM crap! But being the HD fan I am....the white stars are a must!

Just wait til you reinstall it. Suggestion : Start with a cocktail!

I don’t have any pics of it, but I made a 1/2” cube inside a 1” cube inside a 1.75” cube inside a 2.75” cube inside a 4” cube out of a chick of 4” aluminum square bar. All of the cubes float freely inside the next larger one, but none of them come out. I don’t get to use the mill very much, so once in a while I do a project just to stay sharp. This was one of those. I also make these rockers.

Countless hours and nights.

Not sure this would be odd but this was my last piece l made.

Maybe in a car engine but put a couple drops of used motor oil into the head on a small engine and it will come out the other end white. Maybe should've said dark instead of blue for the fuel. I can never see the difference

Looks good, but buy a quality respirator. Silicosis, CWP and COPD is a real thing and it will kill you.

Alright made some small progress got my new front tires and some cleaning done.

Mechanics that put bacon on the table when folks have problems with ethanol love it.

Love it. You should come over to The Ranger Station and tell those guys about your project, TRS is basically the Red Square of Ford Rangers. Here is my home-brew resto-mod 87.

It has thick blue fire...it didn’t before. It had fire..but thin fire... that and between the intake valve and exhaust valve.. both being open way too much.👍😁

Well had a few minutes to work on the RJ again today. Got the steering wheel off the shaft, the gas tank out, and found out what we thought to be welds over the cracks in the hood was really lead. Got it all melted out (outside in fresh air) and cleaned up so I can have my welder from work tig the cracks shut for me. Slow progress is still progress

Oh wow, I figured it would be quite a bit higher than that. That's close enough to what the 5.3 gets to almost make it unnecessary. Just don't put a fart can on it

I built this water feature using an old Milk Can. 30 years ago a friend and I built 2 wooden rocking horses. This one is 2" thick walnut with inlaid cherry for the reins and saddle. His was 2" cherry with walnut inlaid reins and saddle. We didn't own a band saw and did all the cutting (slowly) on a craftsman table top scroll saw. We made lots of router jigs to fabricate parts. The mane and tail are Zebra Wood. After going through my three sons, It just so happens its in the shop this week getting a threaded insert in a leg replaced. I need to get a small piece of Zebrawood to re-carve the missing front piece of the mane. This morning I buffed it off and will apply another coat of Tung Oil, so the 3 grandsons can have fun on it. Some say it's too nice to let the kids ride it hard, but I get a lot of happiness seeing the kids having a good time. I'm hoping it can make it too the great grand kids. Our boathouse roof was too low for a Wakeboard boat tower. After a few hours of prep, it was raised in about 10 minutes with 6 hi-lift jacks. My wife was so afraid it would fall, I'm kind of proud of pulling that one off!

Yes I will be using diesel. I also have noticed some play/slippage in the wheel hub. Another thing to look into. Would like to have a spin around the driveway before the rain starts today.

... as time goes by, i‘ll think eric is on turn..😂👍

Take your time Eric. No pressure here. My project is liable to stop at any moment.

Waiting!

Original plow blade?? BTW we like our here. Full resto would out of the question noting that patina and character, for me anyway, BUT fellas here got me brainwashed to stay character but we get the notion that it is your tractor you see fit. As far the rims you may find some ' barrow rims to get/keep it a roller but later Suburban rims might be better suited. Rims from another brand may be another option as well. No chance the rims can be saved? Don't rule that out as I have saved some pretty nasty ones per @oliver2-44...then again lost a few on the table.

That is a great looking complete tractor. you might consider keeping it original, or doing a light wet sand and clearcoat to preserve the patina. Of course the most important thing is to make it you own, and it also is a great tractor for a full restoration. When you get it running flush the transmission by draining and filling it with diesel, driving it around, and draining and refilling with 90w gear oil. The spindles on it are longer than most modern rims. You can find 3/4" spaces at Tractor Supply, etc to put on the spindle, then use a modern rim. However if you want to do a correct restore, those rims are hard to find/expensive. Those rims can probable be repaired. I've taken some with holes in them and sandblasted and welded up the holes. Then used JD weld to smooth the bead area on the inside and smooth the outside. Below are pictures of a really bad David Bradley rim I repaired. I taped the hole on the outside, and on the inside used fiberglass cloth and JB weld. JB weld can be worked down with a files and sand paper. From the outside I can't tell which rim I repaired.