What have you done to your Wheel Horse today?

[rjg854 12,425]

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

[MainelyWheelhorse 1,911]

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. 

[JoeM 8,653]

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

[Blue Chips 129]

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 October 1 by Blue Chips

[Blue Chips 129]

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.

[cleat 7,566]

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 !

 

[Blue Chips 129]

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 October 4 by Blue Chips

[ineedanother 1,705]

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?

[JoeM 8,653]

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.

[ebinmaine 74,047]

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 

[Blue Chips 129]

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 Saturday at 01:36 PM by Blue Chips

[rjg854 12,425]

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

[MainelyWheelhorse 1,911]

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.

[ebinmaine 74,047]

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.  

 

 

[Red Stallion 123]

20 hours ago, Blue Chips said:

@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.

You appear to be a painting guru! I'm finishing up my own repainting restoration (but not as shiny) but I was thinking about harder wearing clear coats for under the seat pan, and for under the mower deck.

Have used anything special on yours? I'm wondering if I get a 2 pack clear epoxy if it will stick?

[Blue Chips 129]

3 hours ago, Red Stallion said:

You appear to be a painting guru! I'm finishing up my own repainting restoration (but not as shiny) but I was thinking about harder wearing clear coats for under the seat pan, and for under the mower deck.

Have used anything special on yours? I'm wondering if I get a 2 pack clear epoxy if it will stick?

 

Thanks, but I'm really no painting guru. I try to follow manufacturers' recommendations to the letter for surface prep, painting, re-coating, etc., which 'usually' keeps me out of trouble. That, and a bit of practice.

 

Making the paint shiny is primarily a matter of maintaining a continuous wet edge, which is challenging with rattle cans and fast-drying paint. Some newer spray cans come with selectable spray patterns, which can help. It's easier with a paint gun that applies a wider swath of paint so that previous passes are still wet when the next pass is made. The secret (IMHO), whether you're using spray cans or a gun, is good visibility. You need to have light coming from angles that allow you to see how the paint is going on---applying enough to be wet but not so wet that it runs. Leveling and drying retarder additives can be handy for some jobs.

 

I don't know what to tell you regarding the use of 2K paint/clear coat under the deck, as I've never used it for that purpose. Maybe someone else could weigh in on that question. Some people recommend applying used oil, allowing it to soak in and (depending on the type of oil) bake dry in the sun. I haven't tried that yet.

 

Over the years (a lot of them), I've had fairly good luck by cleaning out grass deposits on a regular basis, since they hold moisture for a long time, promoting rust. For the deck that I posted in this thread, I pressure-washed the underside, removed any rust that wasn't firmly adhered (wire brush wheel, needle scaler, flap disc, etc.), degreased and pressure-washed it again, and let it dry completely in the sun for a couple of days to help eliminate trapped moisture before applying a few coats of rusty metal primer, which is fairly thin, seems to penetrate quite well, and sticks well to firmly-adhered rust.

 

For clean, bare metal, I like self-etching primers, which often contain zinc phosphate for added corrosion protection. In the old days, zinc chromate was commonly used, but it's more dangerous to work with.

Edited Sunday at 01:21 PM by Blue Chips

[Sparky-(Admin) 23,659]

Straightened the plow angle rod on a plow I bought yesterday, believe it or not it was still operating while bent in that serious arc! 
 

 

 

[Andy N. 2,451]

Got the 418-8 ready for plowing. Took the tiller off and replaced some leaking axle seals. 

 

 

 

 

[iR8Leprechaun 31]

New member, glad to find this group. Just pulled this 520H out of my neighbor's parent's shed yesterday. When they parked it 15 years ago, it only needed a coil. Parts everywhere. I ordered a fuel pump, a coil, and new filters. Parts should be here later today, hopefully I can get it to run. Although I'm sure the carb needs to be soaked. Looking forward to posting my progress. 

[Ed Kennell 42,744]

to the 

[peter lena 9,379]

@Sparky   those plow blades  are  relatively easy to  turn into a  , much more functional unit  , that steering quadrant spring start /finish  , and related  lever spring  pull , point , run the entire  set up , shoulder bolts . washers at every  swing movement point  , lets you dial in a perfect  elastic lok nut  finish ,  of course , heim joints at  leverage points . start and finish . had it in use for years , still swings without effort  , this mod is in the  PTO LEVER SET UP , idea , change out  original  drag point  , and enhance movement  . built it  up on milk crates , roller stool , scooting around to  verify  how I was doing .  pete  

[SylvanLakeWH 29,123]

@iR8Leprechaun

 

[SylvanLakeWH 29,123]

4 hours ago, Andy N. said:

 

That is slick!!! 

[ebinmaine 74,047]

4 hours ago, Andy N. said:

Got the 418-8 ready for plowing.  replaced some leaking axle seals. 

 

 

 

 

You done good to remove the hub without breakage. 

 

I've had three rods on & Broken one. 

 

Now I ALWAYS use 5 rods.  

 

 

[ebinmaine 74,047]

1 hour ago, iR8Leprechaun said:

New member, glad to find this group. Just pulled this 520H out

 

 

 

Let us know any parts needs and feel free to ask questions!