C175 Automatic

[mnWHfan 47]

Here are some better photos of the C175 that I restored as a surprise for my mother.

Just to show how far down this went:

It was a lot of fun and she was completely surprised today.

[bo dawg 478]

Simply beautiful!!

I love it.

[corn53 4]

:thumbs: Me too!

[Shuboxlover 474]

.........................DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[neil 2,398]

Have wheel horse starting selling brand new ones again

BEATUIFUL :wh:

[JimD 3,345]

Extremely nice work! I would love to have seen the look on your Mom's face when she saw it. :thumbs:

[sgtsampay 117]

Wow. That was stunning. Very nice. Wow..

[fabricator2009 48]

:thumbs: WOW :wh:

[dgoyette 12]

Looks brand new...that is the finest looking C-175 I have seen. You do exceptional work!

[handyman48001 0]

That tractor looks amazing! I hope my c165 that I just started looks that nice. I have my work cut out for me. Your restortation will be a hard act to follow. Looks awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[JC 1965 1,528]

:thumbs: Wow!! Great job , both tractors look very good. Congrats, on A job well done. :wh:

[Butch 194]

Saweeeeeet! :wh:

[tgranthamfd 28]

Very nice. Do you use a paint gun on your restorations?

[Shuboxlover 474]

Looks brand new...

looks BETTER than new!!!!!!!! :wh:

[n1defan 47]

:D Very nice looking tractors. :wh:

[Kelly 1,028]

very nice, is that a 76 caprice under the tarp???

[Toejam 1]

:thumbs: Very Nice. :wh:

[mnWHfan 47]

Thanks for all of the compliments. The C161 was sprayed with automotive, single-stage paint and the C175 was powdercoated on everything except the transmission, the lift cylinder, the engine block, and the black on the hood. When I surprised her with it, she thought that I had just brought my C161 up there. It took a little bit to sink in that it was her tractor. Also, I believe that you are correct about the Caprice under the tarp. My mother does storage for people during the winter.

:thumbs:

[n1defan 47]

:thumbs: That was very nice of you to restore that tractor for your mom. :D

[can whlvr 991]

real nice pair of horses,your moyher wont beleive her eyes

[ol550 830]

I'll bet she can't wait to ride in the parade at the Pioneer Power Show!!! Mike

[mnWHfan 47]

I'm planning on bringing it to the show this fall, so I'm sure she will ride it through the parade.

[stevebo-(Moderator) 8,059]

That came out very nice. Great quality restore :thumbs:

[JackC 616]

Great restoration. That sets the bar pretty darn high as far as restorations go.

I have 4 C-175s, 2 autos and 2 8-speeds.

I would like to do a top notch restore like yours on one of the autos.

I hope you don't mind a few questions.

1. Were the parts sent out for both cleaning/stripping and powder coating?

2. what kind of cost is involved for that kind of work?

3. how do you specify the color, maybe IH red?

4. same question for the wheels?

5. what paints and gloss levels did you use for the blacks on the engine tin, engine exhaust shield, motion control plate, and the hood?

6. did you use new decals for the motion control plate and if so where did you find the long decal in the middle of the plate?

7. what was done to the control levers to make then look like new?

8. which finish looks closer to factory original between the sprayed c-161 and the powder coated C-175?

9. which looks better to you in person, they both look great in the pictures?

10. Was any work needed on the motor and is that the original KT17 series 1?

11. if I had a tractor that nice I would hesitate to use and use one of my other workers, so will your mother actually use the tractor and if so what for?

TIA

Great job and attention to detail.

[mnWHfan 47]

Thanks for the compliments Jack. Let me try to answer your questions:

1 and 2. I sandblasted the smaller parts myself in a small sandblaster that I have at work and I brought the larger parts to a guy that was local to me that does sandblasting professionally. He charged me about $80 for the batch of big pieces, but it saved me a lot of time. In the future, I would probably bring the whole batch over to him and let him blast them.

3. To determine the red on the C161, I had one of my cousins, who works at a body shop scan the dischaarge chute from the new mower deck that I had bought for my mothers C175 a few years ago. On her place, we take the discharge chute off to keep the mower from plugging up. That one actually came up as a Nissan red and it actually matches very close. It would be difficult for most people to which part wasn't sprayed. For the C175, I wanted to have that one powdercoated because of the increased wear resistance of the paint. Her tractor will still be used to mow about 2 acres of grass every week. I brought in the discharge chute to a local powdercoater and looked through the samples that he had until I found the one that matched the closest. It turned out to be a Carmine red. The color is different than what I put on the C161, but it seems to match what was on that year a little closer. The red on the C161 seems like it has more of an orange base where the red on the C175 seems like it has more of a pink base.

4. All of my wheels are powdercoated to an Osyter white. I have an RAL number for the color, but I will have to find it. When I did the C161, I bought my decals from Mayhew Reproductions. I picked out the Osyter white because it was the closest match that I could find to the off white on the decals. For the C175, I bought the decals from Terry Denis at redoyourhorse.com. I sent him a color sample from the powdercoater so that he could match to it as close as he could. Terry did an outstanding job on the decals, including the custom one that we came up with for the rear fender. I like the powdercoating on the rims because it is less likely to get damaged while you are mounting the wheels. For the set of four, I paid about $120.

5. I knew in my head what kind of sheen the black should have, so I picked out one of the samples from the powdercoater that matched the color and sheen as closely as possible. He charged me about $80 to do all of the motor tins and the two black pieces on the console. It probably would not have cost me any more to include the seat springs, but I forgot to put them in the batch. I sprayed them at the same time that I painted the engine block. To get the liquid paint for the engine block and the hood, I took one of the console pieces to a local auto parts store that also specializes in selling automotive paints and they matched it up. It is actually more of a satin black than a gloss.

6. New decals from Terry at redoyourhorse.com

7. To make all of the silver parts look like new, I sand blasted all of them and then had a clear zinc plating put on them. Platers would usually charge $40-$60 for the complete batch of parts, but one of my cousins owns a machine shop that has this process done for some of the parts that he makes for the company that I work for, so he just threw my parts in with the batch for a price of $0 (favor).

8. I think that each of the reds looks close to what would have actually come on it in the year that it was made.

9. I'm torn on which color I like better. I never used to care for the look of the black hoods until got to see how it would have looked when it was new. I think what I disliked about it was the fiberglass rear fender. It always looked out of place to me. The one that I put on there tends to match the shape of the hood better and looks a little tougher.

10. This motor had about 2,500 hours on it the year before last and it was using almost a quart of oil every time I would mow her two acres. I rebuilt it last spring with new pistons and rods, had the cylinders bored .010 over and had the crank ground to .010 under, replaced the crankshaft bearings, all of the seals and gaskets, rebuilt the carburator, and replaced the pto pulley assembly and friction disc. The engine runs beautiful and doesn't seem to use any oil after I mow with it for a month. The oil also stays clean much longer.

11. I built these tractors to use and enjoy, I just use and enjoy them nicely. I am looking forward to my son getting to develop some memories of driving the C175 like I did growing up. My dad bought that tractor new in 1981 when I was 9 and I mowed with it until I left home and then again when he became sick with cancer and passed away back in 06. Someday maybe my son will like to fix up one of mine.

If you have any more questions or need some information, don't hesitate to ask. I also have a lot more photos of it as it went together.

Thanks,

Dennis