Hammerhead 817 #1 Posted June 3, 2014 I had several of my Wheel Horse's at the Centerburg Farming Festival last September when a family came along and were asking if i did work on any WH's for other people. I said yes and gave them my business card. They called me a few weeks later and I met up with them at their house to check out their 10 year old son's WH's. They had 3 or 4 around in various stages of disrepair. Seems the boy can take stuff apart but not too good at putting it back together! Lol! Well they finally got around to dropping off one of the kids WH's, a 1964 job. It had a bunch of stuff wrong with it and a junky Briggs motor that the previous owner had installed. A bunch of parts were wrong and a bunch more were missing. So they wanted me to see if I could get it running and fix it up a bit. Well my buddy and I fixed the motor and got it running but the governor was messed up. It ran ok but it searched up and down rather fast. We tweaked the carb and that helped a little. Mean while I did a bunch of painting and scrounged up the missing parts. It also had a ton of cross threaded bolts from the boys lack of wrenching talent. So I had to tap out that stuff and replace alot of bolts. We pretty much left some stuff like he had it, like the rims and muffler pipe, he said he put some bling on it! But the paint turned out pretty good and everything works as it should now with the correct WH parts. I even installed a nice 704 decal from the famed but hard to get ahold of Ed Mayhew. I finished it up this weekend after 2 weeks of wrenching. I parked it in my driveway when they were due to show up so they could see it right away. They pulled in and saw it and they didn't even know it was their tractor! The boy was freaking out when he saw his bling muffler on it and he told his dad that it IS our tractor Dad! The dad was freaking out too and they were talking back and forth about how awesome it looked! That was the desired effect I wanted! We talked about what all we did to it and finally the kid got on it to start it up for the first time! It ran well and he took off and rode all over my yard playing with the choke and throttle's. As he cruised it around his Dad was grinning from ear to ear as well as the kid too! He asked about the amount owed and he didn't mind paying the $235.00 at all and said he has another tractor he wants me to fix up. It is a 1969 Model 700 with a Kohler engine. So he dropped it off the next day! I gave them a big price reduction just to get the kid more into Wheel Horse's and to be a nice guy as well. So here is the finished product! A pretty descent little 704 with an electric start Briggs motor! Hopefully the kid don't take nuttin apart on it this time around! 18 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tankman 3,523 #2 Posted June 3, 2014 Great pic's, thanks for sharing and tellin' the story! Nice work! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
papaglide 542 #3 Posted June 3, 2014 Really cool Hammerhead. Need a fella like you around these parts! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brandonozz 168 #4 Posted June 3, 2014 Really cool Hammerhead. Need a fella like you around these parts! Nope! Need a fella like you around these parts! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speedyleedy 205 #5 Posted June 3, 2014 Great job again hammerhead you are the man ! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jdleach 525 #6 Posted June 3, 2014 That is a very nice looking job. Would love to have seen the "before" pics. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AMC RULES 37,196 #7 Posted June 3, 2014 You're a good man Keith. That's what the story is all about. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluffhunter 37 #8 Posted June 3, 2014 Great looking tractor and fun story to read ! Thanks for posting ! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dodgemike 52 #9 Posted June 3, 2014 Great story. Glad there are folks still lending a hand on the old Horses. Your prices seem VERY reasonable. Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rexman72 210 #10 Posted June 3, 2014 very good work 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hammerhead 817 #11 Posted June 4, 2014 Here's an update pic of the little feller! Thanks for all of your nice comments! Proud of our great hobby! Keith 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
55rj35jr 623 #12 Posted June 5, 2014 nice job Keith,,, gotta keep these youngsters interested.... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mr. 856 170 #13 Posted June 5, 2014 You sir are a stand up guy. Few hundred bucks likely covered parts. You know what the tractor means to that boy. There isn't enough money. The picture of him sitting on it is priceless. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites