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Had this client for a few years where I exclusively do all the woodwork in their house. This is the recently completed master bath.

Ok since the cat's out the bag..... told ya it was gonna be pic heavy!

Well.. in light of a total lack of tractor/engine shows likely for this season.. and for once all my jonque happens to be running.. (for now) I set about another project. In light of the recent pandemic, uncle decided to not launch his big old v8 FourWins pleasure boat at the campsite. Instead deciding to borrow Gramp's 1953 Alumacraft for camp duty. Which left me without a putter boat. This lead to a month search for a vintage aluminum boat with forward controls.. bad shoulder always made a tiller steer bothersome anyway. And .. somehow along the way, a local tractor buff heard about my search.. So, a deal was struck that literally fouls every aspect of an aluminum boat for occasional runs.. IE.. easy maintenance, or lack thereof. Virtually bombproof.. Annnd.. I towed home a 1957 Chris Craft! She came with her original 1959 Johnson 40hp outboard in pretty nice shape. (1957 model year, sold as a kit and finished in 1959) Has not seen water in decades. Was kept in a barn. Seems to be very solid. Worst damage is the side trim and one spot atop the bow. Nothing major. Some of the chrome was removed and put in a box, which was found my mice.. so the lamp and side badges need rechroming. It wont be a showboat but it will be seeing a good sealer and repaint.

Then her sisters got tired of field work and had to jump in the act..... Hard to believe it once looked like this...… even then not a bad somewhat original…. Gotta Hand it to Tom to getting it back to where I even took over.

Kev, dont waist your time milling the head. The info you read about is for pulling, where every last bit counts. Milling that much will raise compression, possibly requiring a fuel change/timing etc. As far as pulling a plow your biggest gain will be switching to a 12hp or bigger. There is a noticeable power gain from 10-12hp the only real change being the length of the stroke from the crankshaft. To answer your next question you cannot just put a k301 crank in a k241. The crank is not balanced to the piston and you are likely to grenade the whole engine. Just sand the head flat and leave it be, or change engines all together.

You need to relax too.... may get the finals up today people leave me alone … 'sides I'm running out of build pics Used this edging on the hood edge to help the paint and worked really great so far. It was supposed to be used for stopping rattles on AC units and has a glue inside to hold it on. It can be had in various styles and chrome from McMaster's. It made a tight fit for the knurled knobs tho. Terry's decals... all on brushed instead of the white background. Again Dan's department to put them on I woulda had them all messed up. Check out how perfect he's got these on... thanks Dan!

Another job for same client was her own personal closet. Cherry is the species on this one. Center island is a “jewelry box” with all velvet lined drawers with custom compartments for her jewelry.

I'll second Mike's comments. I am running heads that probably should have been thrown in the scrap bin. So far no problems and if I do run into problems in the field I know guys with a tow strap! Leave the head milling to the pro pullers. I went with a couple of pulling tips on a recent rebuilt but wasn't worth the effort.

Compression= torque, but not much in the hp department, which in our cases grunt is where its at. Not sure if youd feel .020, and like Prondzy said, if you did enough milling to make a difference, timing, jetting, even cooling and longevity will come into play. When I was playing with the 'run whatcha brung' oval race karts a few years back, I would grab those 6.5 Predator 212s (yep, same ones you guys are stuffing in the Horses for a repower) change valve springs, strip the governor, bore the carb, jet, bump timing, throw a pipe on them, toss the .050 head gasket for a .010 shim steel, then whack .070-.100 off the head- most times lose the first cooling fin haha. Wed fill em with Mobil 1 5-30 and turn them 5500-6000 all weekend long, for months- stock rod, plastic cam gear and all. Everyone did these mods, but only a couple of us got silly with milling the heads- the engines had a much more noticeable 'pop' to them, and on the green flag, we would walk away from the other guys. So yes, it helps, but you wont feel it unless its a drastic change and you do the supporting mods as well. PS- thats another shameless plug for those Harbor freight Predators. If any of you have doubts about a 99.00 pressure washer engine, dont. They are an excellent little powerplant, and will handle a LOT of abuse. Just keep em under 6000rpms or you could have flywheel parts in your face. That part I am very serious about.

@formariz I would like to learn more about your hand rubbed finish. I've been doing lacquer finish on cabinets and furniture for awhile and personally prefer to show off the wood grain. My daughter-in-law wanted white cabinets so I sprayed them with the shelac base original Kilz, sanded them with 220, buffed with red scotchbrite, then sprayed them with white oil based enamel with hardener like I use on my tractors. Not to steal your thread, but heres a little of Tuesdays work painting the back side, and this mornings work spraying the front side.

If the Raider 12, (tractor #3) I snagged yesterday and posted wasnt confirmation of the addiction, today is. Buddy had this listed 2 miles away and dropped it off. Being kinda new to Horses, wasnt sure what it was but it had a Kohler, foot rests, and a hydro? Research showed most likely a 875, maybe a 1075. Nope. 1277. Never heard of them, but digging online sounds like a picked a winner? One year only? If thats the case, so much for a quick flip. This baby will live the rest of her days in my hands I am 100%, completely, full blown addict at this point and its all you's fault!

Go ahead, ignore this sign! Be my guest.

He isn't parking on the left or right,and there is no arrow pointing up.Cut him some slack!

Not one thread can keep away from going down the drain... huh? Where’s Plunger when we need him?

The thanks.... Cindy.... for keeping a fire lit under my @$$! Dan @Achto of course.... can't say enough about his help and expertise! Tom @Shynon the hubcaps totally blew us away! @Vinylguy The decals of course. They sure do put a finishing touch on a tractor! @jimkemp the stack... Jeepers cats forgot to thank @prondzy for helping me install Cindy's newly painted pallet flag for the back drop! Hell of a job eh Mike?!? I know I am leaving guys out but I'll think of them at cocktail hour tonite! Other mods that might come down the pipe are a 701/702/753 style steering wheel if I can find one. It was on the shopping list for the BS... ….I got a dandy on a 753 but I hate to sacrifice a nice original tractor. Tom suggested a chrome coil for a little pop under the hood. Anybody else have some other suggestions I'll always listen... things they like ...things they don't like... be honest.

No replacement for displacement!

Without insulation you will get some condensation for sure. Why would you store your wife in a shipping container? Isn't she going to live in the house?

I put 6 ply trailer tires wheels and hubs on my C-129/180 I sure makes a different in the steering. I did mine about 1990 the only thing I've done since is tighten the spindle nut on each wheel. I just used it fro mowing and vacuum up leafs.

Relax Silvia... we saved two tractors from scrap... The lighting ... so Dan turned me on to some lights he got off fleabay and has a on a tractor so thought I would give them a try. Thought I would mount them on the existing holes in the forward frame holes. Ain't no way I was goin to drill the hood for mini bug eyes. Worked good if I was going to shine coons. Angle was a little off. He also turned me on to these nifty bevel washers that are used on angle iron to get fasteners to sit level on the inside of the iron. We uaed them on his trailer build and I never knew they existed. I can neither confirm nor deny these came from his place of employment but they worked great after some losing the light bases and some hardware mods looked like they grew ther! The visors were actually on the rear taillights I ordered but thought looked better on the fronts so a simple swap out. Making a mount for the solo rear...I had tears in my eyes in losing old metal to mount this but at shows and partispating in night booze cruzes lighting is important so I sallied up for the good of the cause.

Wow! I can fit all my jewelry I own on the ring finger of my left hand

I love seeing the smaller “lake size” older boats when I’m out on my boat. Always catch my eye with their stylings. My aluminum bass boat is just a boat, no class and no style

Lol thanks Mikey... I was gonna hold off another day or three just to get pullstart's undies more twisted but after Richie and Jack told me they saw it on FB I figured I better crap or get off the pot!

Except for installing the shift pattern decal, this long overdue project is done.

Christmas decorations Mr. Nut Yes I have been reading/watching videos about the condensation issues. Plan on insulating the ceiling with close cell foam sheets and contact cementing them up and wall studs with a channel on too for the edges. Lot of work but I think it will be worth it in the end..... if I finish it.

I gotta take some time and read through this thread- lotta great stories and bad ass machines! I’ll throw a couple up here from time to time👍 Heres the one that they will bury me in- my 66 Cutlass- "big orange". Bought it in 1992 when I was 17 and spent 4 years redoing it, showing, cruising, and a ton of drag and street racing back in the day. Not one thing has changed except tires, some decals, and the engine. Originally powered by a healthy 396 Chevy (yeah yeah, I know) with a shot of happy gas, now a aluminum headed, pump gas 496 Chevy stroker that was built 100% in house when I had the speed shop. Slicks in the trunk on Friday, Mid 10s@128 in the quarter, pick up groceries and an ice cream cone on Saturday. Approaching 40,000 miles now. This pic was from about 4 years ago- a big show/drag race event 100 miles away. Drove there with the slicks, sleeping bag, and cooler in the back, and slept in the back seat all weekend. She never missed a beat!

Nice work! Wow - Beautiful! (The toilet paper is probably a non-contract "added cost item" these days!)

Interesting plan Richie... any thoughts on putting windows in??? Ventilation issues?? Guy I delivered a tractor to once had one but it was like a cave and it echoed somethin fierce. Even with decent lighting it reminded me too much of being back on a submarine.

Credit goes to Dan ther for that Randy.. Ok ... you guys mostly behaved.. well maybe not EB or Pullstart so heres a few more. Hubcaps... as mentioned earlier Tom had a set of them that he woulda sold with the tractor at but at the time I saw no need. Not NOS by any means but not the worse for what he was askin. In our weekly Sunday morning check in I asked if he still had them and was willing to part with them. Well after some sticking it to me in the ribs about a trade for a certain RJ nothin else was said. Couple a weeks later I come home from work to find a flat rate box on the porch with these in it. Like I said not NOS but definitely usable. You guys know what these go for on fleabay. Bit of the red and black paint gone but ... Stripped the factory paint off, mixed up a little CA that was left ove and set Cindy to work. Now she's no Rembrandt either but came out well. She did a nice job, not perfect but good enough for the guy I go out with she says. They really pop in the glamor shots. Since I didn't really know if we would run them in the end or even then I set them up for scratchless install ala @Racinbob which I detailed in another thread.

Just picked up my 2nd wheel horse. It's a 417-A. It came with a 42" rear discharge deck, and 2 snowblowers. $600 for the whole package. Did I do ok?

Point taken Jabel.. this is why never again.... at what point I am going to stick that trailer queen in the dirt and I can justify to myself thats what they were bred to do. When Dan built his Raider 12 plow mule from a worn out POS to a fine queenie looking tractor, and a quite capable worker, everyone including me said to him "you really gonna stick that in the dirt ??" Damn strait he said without even thinking and he had no qualms about doing it. That's what he rebuilt it for. So that brings up the age old dilemma.. why resto and stick this kind of coin into it when it was meant to do work? On the other hand it's pure satisfaction to resto a tractor like this and say "honey, let's just park it next to the Christmas tree and look at it." Personally I enjoy getting them back to good mechanical shape and using them as was intended. I guess either way it comes down to keeping history alive. Anybody ever figures it out let me know!

Jim and Dan my hats off to the both of you... Financer and artist. Oh and the missus for having great taste in paint and design.

Sign below it reads:

I thought my wife had too many clothes . That closet is bigger than a bed room.

In my teenage years I would read articles in Hot Rod and other magazines that showed how much HP could be gained by porting and polishing the intake and exhaust runners of a Ford Flathead V8 and then adding dual exhaust, shaving the Edelbrock heads, changing out the cam to a high performance one and adding a manifold with twin Stromberg 97s. and so on. I had such an engine, and the day I replaced it with a Buick 401 Nailhead my Flathead days were over!

Rebel’s a runner! He spits more fuel out the pump to carb line than any big block Kohler could consume! I’ll work on fixing that issue next!

He identifies as a “sitting bird” and not a “parking bird”

Very nice @WHX24...I have so much respect for you cheese heads talent, @Achto. Can't wait to see it in person in October...I also loved the slow gentle release of the resto. Really was a great climactic ending

Mowed the green and verges today. Using the C-125 as usual. Got the green done and was doing the verge down the lane to the junction, when the engine died. Refused to restart and I had to push it back home. Check plug for spark. Check pump for delivery to carb. Off with float bowl and it looked clean. So off with carb and blew the jets out. Carb back on and changed the in line filter. The one fitted had been on for some years. Primed the carb and the engine breathed life once more. Must have been a minute particle that had found it's way into the main jet.

Try it with Trina, Eric. What flowers would you like?

Already saw a picture of it somewhere else on the internet

I'm not seeing a problem here

I love all the detail I this! The only thing I can’t stand about you and Dan’s unveiling process... is the wait! I’m not gonna say it’s worth the wait... because I wanna see it all!

This is my first car I have owned since I was 15. Owned it for 32 years now. Recently had 340 built with x heads, exhaust and fully manual automatic to match motor. It goes real good but cannot keep up with what I am calling my mid life crisis car... 2008 Z06 LS7 505hp 6 speed standard with only 18,600 miles. This car is bone stock and bad to the bone performance!!

Considering the view from that window I'm not too sure I would ever want to leave the bathroom.

A box showed up today from a Greater Something Tire today. Getting kind of excited i ordered the verstein v61's 18x8.5-8 to show comparison heres a pic next to a carlisle 5 rib 16x6.5-8.

Forgive me, my GT1642 is not in the most eye appealing condition but it was given to me by my father in law and was my first horse. It's currently out of commission with carburetor issues. And the 417A has 850 hours on it.

I put news shoes and a sleeve hitch on the old girl. Front and rear tires loaded and ready to plow.

Great finish, or to tell it for Kevin in other Words 100 ‘s Few hundret Uhhhhhhhh‘s and a lot of Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh‘s 😂 👍 or simply Whow. !

What do you guys do at those shows anyway?? Sit around and get all lit up I suppose....