rjg854 12,417 #24626 Posted Tuesday at 01:58 PM 11 hours ago, MainelyWheelhorse said: Hopefully it’s plenty of time for the implement paint to set up fully or close to it. Let it bake in the sun 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MainelyWheelhorse 1,885 #24627 Posted Tuesday at 03:25 PM 1 hour ago, rjg854 said: Let it bake in the sun @rjg854 I pushed it outside in the sun yesterday after I painted it. I would have put it back out if I wasn’t working today. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoeM 8,634 #24628 Posted Wednesday at 11:57 AM This pic kind of makes you feel like your sky diving into a wheel horse plant. (or falling off a ladder) Shop looks good Don, mine always looks way better in pics then in person......I think 2 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blue Chips 115 #24629 Posted Wednesday at 01:09 PM (edited) 1 hour ago, JoeM said: Shop looks good Don, mine always looks way better in pics then in person......I think Ditto here on shop pics. Instead of cleaning up my shop for photo ops, I usually just take close-ups or crop out most of the junk in my shop that I haven't had the time (or energy) to 'organize.' Edited Wednesday at 01:16 PM by Blue Chips 3 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blue Chips 115 #24630 Posted Wednesday at 02:09 PM Piece by piece, I'm gradually getting the paint sorted on my GT18. Here are the steps in fixing up one of the foot rests: A fair amount of rust had developed under the rubber mat: I slathered on a thick coat of CitriStrip, wrapped it in a polyethylene sheet, and let it sit for a few hours. About 98% of the paint came right off without any scrubbing or scraping: Here's how it looked after washing off the CitriStrip and removing a few bits of remaining paint: Next, I let the foot rest sit in a phosphoric acid bath for a while, which took care of most of the rust, and then hit any stubborn remaining pockets with my spot blaster. (Note: I don't use phosphoric acid on high-strength or hardened steel, since I want to avoid hydrogen embrittlement.) I applied the initial coat of self-etching primer, which contains zinc phosphate: Then I filled the pits with 3M High-Bond filler and sanded it flat: Here it is after more primer coats: And after a few coats of paint: Now on to the next one. 7 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cleat 7,562 #24631 Posted Wednesday at 02:57 PM 47 minutes ago, Blue Chips said: Piece by piece, I'm gradually getting the paint sorted on my GT18. Here are the steps in fixing up one of the foot rests: A fair amount of rust had developed under the rubber mat: I slathered on a thick coat of CitriStrip, wrapped it in a polyethylene sheet, and let it sit for a few hours. About 98% of the paint came right off without any scrubbing or scraping: Here's how it looked after washing off the CitriStrip and removing a few bits of remaining paint: Next, I let the foot rest sit in a phosphoric acid bath for a while, which took care of most of the rust, and then hit any stubborn remaining pockets with my spot blaster. (Note: I don't use phosphoric acid on high-strength or hardened steel, since I want to avoid hydrogen embrittlement.) I applied the initial coat of self-etching primer, which contains zinc phosphate: Then I filled the pits with 3M High-Bond filler and sanded it flat: Here it is after more primer coats: And after a few coats of paint: Now on to the next one. Great job ! 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blue Chips 115 #24632 Posted 21 hours ago (edited) Almost finished overhauling the 48-inch side-discharge mower deck for the GT18. Here's what I've done so far, more or less: Degreased and pressure washed the deck, inside and out...three times. Sanded areas of rust and flaking paint. Welded three small cracks that were just getting started. Straightened one of the anti-scalp wheel mounting brackets. Primed the underside with three coats of rusty metal primer and primer-sealer. Primed and painted the top. One of the spindle body castings was broken and another was corroded, so I replaced all three castings with new aftermarket ones. Tossed out the other parts that came with the new aftermarket spindles, due to quality and correctness issues. Installed new OEM Toro bearings in the spindles. Re-installed the original OEM bearing spacer sleeves. Installed one new Toro OEM spindle shaft, one good used Toro shaft, and re-installed one of the original spindle shafts. Installed new bolts/nuts of the correct sizes and types for the pulleys, blades, spindle mounts, and various brackets. Upgraded the plastic washer and bushing set for the sliding idler pulley bracket to a bronze bushing and UHMW polyethylene washers, which should be low-friction and impact resistant. Welded new axles (shoulder bolts) onto the anti-scalp wheel adjusting plates (as previously posted). Miscellaneous other repairs. I still need to install the new blades, a few more fasteners, and the chute, and it should be ready to mow. I haven't decided if I'm going to fab up some sheet metal to make a couple of belt/pulley guards. Before: Mostly done: Edited 21 hours ago by Blue Chips 6 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ineedanother 1,698 #24633 Posted 21 hours ago I've been reluctant to put a deck on any of my tractors but I need to chop leaves so am going to put bearings in a mule drive and just do it. Looks expensive for two bearings but isn't everything expensive these days? 5 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JoeM 8,634 #24634 Posted 10 hours ago 11 hours ago, Blue Chips said: Almost finished overhauling the 48-inch side-discharge mower deck for the GT18. Here's what I've done so far, more or less: Degreased and pressure washed the deck, inside and out...three times. Sanded areas of rust and flaking paint. Welded three small cracks that were just getting started. Straightened one of the anti-scalp wheel mounting brackets. Primed the underside with three coats of rusty metal primer and primer-sealer. Primed and painted the top. One of the spindle body castings was broken and another was corroded, so I replaced all three castings with new aftermarket ones. Tossed out the other parts that came with the new aftermarket spindles, due to quality and correctness issues. Installed new OEM Toro bearings in the spindles. Re-installed the original OEM bearing spacer sleeves. Installed one new Toro OEM spindle shaft, one good used Toro shaft, and re-installed one of the original spindle shafts. Installed new bolts/nuts of the correct sizes and types for the pulleys, blades, spindle mounts, and various brackets. Upgraded the plastic washer and bushing set for the sliding idler pulley bracket to a bronze bushing and UHMW polyethylene washers, which should be low-friction and impact resistant. Welded new axles (shoulder bolts) onto the anti-scalp wheel adjusting plates (as previously posted). Miscellaneous other repairs. I still need to install the new blades, a few more fasteners, and the chute, and it should be ready to mow. I haven't decided if I'm going to fab up some sheet metal to make a couple of belt/pulley guards. Nice work, so good that this info should have been in it's own thread under restorations. I think a lot of valuable info gets lost in here. I kind of look at this thread as a day to day tinker thing rather then rebuild/major repair thread. Hats off to Red Square It is one of the most organized places on the web to find info. Just my two cents. 2 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebinmaine 73,950 #24635 Posted 10 hours ago 2 minutes ago, JoeM said: Nice work, so good that this info should have been in it's own thread under restorations. I think a lot of valuable info gets lost in here. I kind of look at this thread as a day to day tinker thing rather then rebuild/major repair thread. Hats off to Red Square It is one of the most organized places on the web to find info. Just my two cents. @Blue Chips @JoeM Agreed 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blue Chips 115 #24636 Posted 8 hours ago (edited) 1 hour ago, JoeM said: Nice work, so good that this info should have been in it's own thread under restorations. I think a lot of valuable info gets lost in here. @ebinmaine Good suggestion from JoeM. I will keep that in mind for future work. Initially, I was just planning on fixing a few little things on this tractor...just enough to get it running well...but like many projects it sort of 'expanded' into a bigger project, which makes me think I should have started restoration threads for the tractor and deck. I have several past/present/future projects and tasks that could be candidates for their own threads in Restorations, Modifications & Customizations. Edited 8 hours ago by Blue Chips 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rjg854 12,417 #24637 Posted 8 hours ago 2 minutes ago, Blue Chips said: 1 hour ago, JoeM said: Nice work, so good that this info should have been in it's own thread under restorations. I think a lot of valuable info gets lost in here. I wonder if one of the mods could gather up the posts and then post it in restoration @nylyon 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MainelyWheelhorse 1,885 #24638 Posted 8 hours ago Yesterday, I organized and consolidated the parts for my tractors. I took a few of the ones that sit more like the 308 for a little ride to clean them out, pumped up tires etc… I also added some cushioning to the C-141 as I took it on a quarter mile ride to a neighbors to do some yard work. Granted, while it is a tractor and almost 50 the vibrating parts buzzing got old after a while. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebinmaine 73,950 #24639 Posted 5 hours ago The BBT aka Lead Logging Supervisor and I went off to the right side forest to get a few pieces of standing dead trees. 3? Small ash. A couple small maples. We sectioned them to 84" because we use 14" cuts of firewood. 6 pieces there. We hand hauled those 40 to 60 feet out to the pole trailer. Then brought that to the upper yard. 5 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites