Winter Project Week 8 - Little stuff

Nothing big, back to real work so I needed to focus on those emergencies this week. I finished up some wiring, got the gauges finished, and started mocking up my canopy. I found plans on the web I used as a starting point and then adapting to my needs.






I averaged about 18 hours per week with a total of about 144 hours so far; and the project costs are up to about $1860. I had hoped to start it on New Year's Day but no spark. I tracked the problem down to corroded points; they were new last fall but with all the power washing the distributor got water in it, and sitting all this time really corroded everything inside. So all of that on order for next week. We are headed to Texas the week after so you'll get a break from my project updates for a while.

Great looking project! Neat wiring. What part of Texas do you visit? We fly to Austin and then drive to New Braunfels. I have two sisters who live there. A nephew and his wife in Bastrop and a niece and her family in Victoria. My wife's brother used to have a winter place in Donna until it got overrun from Central America.

Wasn't it Bastrop that had the big fire some tears ago?
Doug, very nice work.
I've enjoyed your posts but haven't commented.

We are headed to rural Cleveland (NE of the Houston area) to visit our daughter's family. Check on my grandson's animals, he shows chickens and rabbits. He has won at the Houston Stock Show last couple years. He is 5th generation showman, my grandfather showed animals as well as all of us down the line. Visit some friends, eat some great sea food, otherwise just goof off for a week or two. About half our town goes to Texas for the winter, some have seasonal homes in the Donna area I've heard them talk about. I've been to McAllen a couple times on business. I'd rather winter in east Texas or western Louisiana.

That looks like an on board battery tender? That is the first tool box I have seen installed. How many fasteners did you use and did you have to custom drill any holes? I am painting mine now, will install in a couple weeks.

I see you are not shooting for originality so "won't comment" that you might want to turn the left lift arm end for end. Nice looking work

I wondered about that, but the pin storage clip is on the left side of the arm. Is it correct for the clip to be inside or outside? The other arm did not have a clip. I was going to fab one up and weld it on, but I was well into painting when I remembered and just let it go without. Maybe arms with clips are lefts and rights?

Battery tender is a black and decker 6v/12v model, I mounted it to a piece of black plastic sheet the same size as the battery. All my old cars/tractors have tenders, saved me a lot of batteries over the years.

The battery box mounts with two holes; one bolt goes thru the hole in the middle back of the box into a threaded hole the steering support. On the right side there is a hole in the bottom of the box that goes into a threaded hole in the flange behind the air cleaner. Both those holes have cage nuts; if those are missing you should be able to get a nut on the one behind the air cleaner. That one in the steering support you can't get to with a nut; but you can drill it out and install a RivNut.

The clip should be on the outside but this day and age with after market stuff any thing is possible. My zip is 52361. How close to me are you?

I'll leave it like it is with one up and one down, then tell 'em I'm always half right.

I'm up by Marshalltown. You're down there near Lynn Patrick I think. I get over your way a few times a year.

You are correct about the fire. That is only a few miles north of my nephew's house now. He was still just south of Austin when the fire occurred. He served as a deputy sheriff until a couple years ago when he walked away over local policies. Austin is very left.

We towed a 5th wheel once and a travel trailer once to Donna from Michigan. We visited other senior communities during some of their jam sessions. Great time! We looked at a couple of sites but decided against it. Glad we did. B.I.L. lost his A-- trying to sell because of the boarder pressures.

Hi Doug...
I was following your project along as I have also start started my winter project restoring my 52 8n. Your project looks great so far, good job. I rebuilt mine mechanically a few years back and now I want to do all the cosmetics so she looks pretty.
I think you painted it in the shop but I don't see much overspray. When I did my Jubilee I tried to paint inside my shop and overspray got everywhere and on everything, even with fans moving the air thru the shop. So when I did my 861 I prepped inside and painted outside, which has it's own set of problems but being concerned about overspray was not one of them.
So now doing my 8n I am trying to figure out how to make the experience a little better.
I have a good Devilbiss PLUS gun and it is supposed to be equal to an hvlp gun but only needs about 9 cfm, but it seems to have a lot of overspray. I never used anything else so I don't have a reference for how much overspray to expect. I don't have the compressor for a real hvlp gun which requires 10-13 cfm so I settled on the one I have. I have seen the REAL hvlp guns with their own compressor and they seem to have NO overspray.
So I have to ask what did you use / do to paint inside and not get 8n red on everything ?
Thanks
Alan

Well, I did get a lot of red on everything. But to start I took as much off the tractor as I could, because so much of it needs a deep cleaning or blasting anyway. I set up a small tarp "booth" and hung each part from a wire, maybe 6-8 in a row, and painted as many of them as I could off the tractor. That kept the over spray pretty confined. On castings I wasn't above painting them with a brush as well. A good high quality brush will leave a streak free finish. Especially on undersides of parts like the running boards. Then assembled it, then gave it one more spray coat as a unit. By having 90% of it already painted I didn't have to use a lot of paint for the overall coat, maybe 2 quarts of thinned paint in my Binks model 62 old school gun. That cut down on the time I spent painting in the open shop. But it still has lots of paint dust on everything.

The lift arms are left and right but also a top and bottom so it does not hit the rear und when raised.