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We had a great day at the shop yesterday! The girls and I took a factory tour and we enjoyed the festivities. @ri702bill there was a little motorcycle engine race car next to my FIL’s VROA inline6/V8 cars. They are noticeably different sizes The ‘57 Pontiac took second, only to the dark red Chevelle SS. It’s in the background of the picture with the motorcycle and the white Camaro.

This thing is all rewired now minus the safety switches. I know @953 nut won't like that, but every one of them was shot and pricey to replace so they got removed. @ebinmainesaved me with a fuel tank. The one that came on it leaked at the seam. All the lights work now, the two tail lights are new. Relined the brakes thanks to @rmaynard. Just ordered some tie rods from @wheelhorseman tonight. Needs a clutch spring and brake spring yet and then I quit for a while lol. This will end up getting painted and the engine will get bored out at that time too. Has a pretty good gauge in the bore, but it runs and drives now good enough to be called saved.

If I were the Karate Kid and Miagi offered to choose one

Wow you cleaned that deck so well I can't even see it...

Twenty years ago I installed a marble floor in our family room. My wife decided it was time to paint so we painted ceiling and walls. So, today I decided it was time to strip and clean the floors. Pretty amazing how dingy a floor can get. We've been talking about stripping the wax off of the floor and what a difference it makes. I told Pam, the next time I strip it will be in 20 years and I'll be 92!

Either you need: Shorter legs or you are trying to buy off of the kiddie menu!

In the shop ….

I'd go with white ...

Wheel clean up will take awhile while I decide… then it’s a trip to hardware store for rattle cans!

Been pretty busy at the show. Lots of visitors at the tent . Asking questions. Where to get stuff. I directed them to @76c12091520h , A-Z, @Vinylguy & @wheelhorseman. Entertained 3 guys from HS. today. My 5 tractors and my friend Bruce's 3 We don't get any snow anymore! Big Cat!

Alto is a small unincorporated village with a population of around 1100 that has a 2 day (Wed & Thurs) fair every year. This was my first time at this fair & I was absolutely amazed at the crowd of people that were there on a Wed morning. The crowd only grew through out the day & it was down right packed when I left at 3:30pm. The garden tractors started pulling at 9am followed by antique farm tractors at 1:30. I participated in both. Wanted to share a few pics with you. Mod class. Child stock class. Most of the kids in this class are between 6 and 11yrs old. Lt pro mod. I was in Adult Stock class, not much time to take pics during my class. My brother was able to figure out my camera long enough to get short portion of my pull. I did not win but I did manage to go further than a few of the Cub Cadets. Actually I did better when I jumped in to the 25hp twin cylinder class, still no win but pulled 20ft further than I did in my class. Was a lot of fun and the weather was great.

The service station I worked in during high school did a lot of service calls in the surrounding neighborhood. We carried several new batteries in the cab of the truck and always suggested replacing bad batteries when a jump start was needed. If we replaced the battery there was no charge for the service call. I jump started this one thrifty gentleman's car a half dozen times before he decided it was time for a new battery. He felt that we should refund what he had paid for all of the service calls. At that point we began a bit of negotiation and I reluctantly deducted the cost of three of them. My boss was impressed, as cheap as this customer was he figured the guy would never buy from us when the nearby auto salvage yard has lots of use ones.

I had this one guy who was a masonry contractor. Had a heavy accent and an old Ford truck. Brought his battery in and it was shot. He buys a new one and comes in later wanting to return it and get his old battery back because the truck still wouldn't start. He is going to tow it to the Goodyear store and have them fix it. I tell him the first thing they are going to tell you is you need a battery. We argue and finally I refund him. He leaves and I call the Goodyear place to warn them. I also ask them to call for the battery and I will send them the battery he returned and they can mark it up even more! Then there was the Ford dealer parts manager who comes in on Saturday to get an alternator for his Grand Marquis He changes it in the parking lot and then comes back in saying it doesn't work. I go out there and point out his 10 yr. old battery with fuzz all over and acid leaking out is shot!

Be careful using Comet on a Pontiac. Compatibility issues and such.

Good to hear you guys weathered the weather alright. We had some flooding my way, but nothing bad as far as I have seen. Wife went to visit her aunt for the weekend and told me to call her tonight and let her know if the basement flooded (ours won't) and I told her I'd have no idea because if the rain got that bad I was taking an air mattress and sleeping in the boat.

For the most part there is only about 3 battery producers, they make them for all the companies. They supposedly do make them according to each companies spec though. So a quality named battery company batteries should last a bit longer than the cheaper ones, but not that much longer. Put them on a maintainer if your not going to use them for a couple of months , it does help.

Horror Fright needle scaler works well getting into the tight spots.

Here is a picture of the 2010 raffle tractor. Last week, I had one of the rear tires blow out. I never did like the white paint job on those wheels. So I am buying new tires and painting the rims as I type this. I am going with Almond on this horse. For Sparky's, I suggest trying to match the grey. Mike, maybe use grey primer and see how is looks?? Maybe Aluminum??

I was half expecting to see a cut up water heater for a body on a go cart!!!!!

When they started to seal the batteries (no water caps) is when the longevity started to drop. I used to check water level frequently. A low water level meant something was going on. After adding distilled water to the correct level, I would usually get a good charge that lasted the whole summer, assuming the charging system was working. Going back quite a few years, when my father had a battery that would not charge, he would check the water, make sure the water caps were tight, then turn the battery upside down over night. Next day it would fully charge and off he went.

I have not done this as I use the M. E. Miller tire paint. i know several other tire black options are used by other Red Square members . However, this is the first time I have seen this idea or formula for tire black application. On older tires the application of tire black enhanced the look and seals fine cracks if you have them. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/6GevjS68eJnAPLao/?mibextid=UalRPS

Yea yea yea. I am getting the paintwork done now so it has lots of time to dry. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am getting to old and 48" decks are getting to heavy to drag in and out for the cleaning that they should have. Scored this at auction this weekend for $45. Looks like new. Now I have to find a new excuse for not cleaning decks more often...

EDIT My father passed away just before midnight. Thank you for all you support and reaching out. He was in great spirits right up til the very end. My Ole Man @Qball Bruce was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer a few years ago. He's been fighting the good fight and doing so for all his worth. The past few days have been quite a challenge for him. He went to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston over the weekend and they are hoping to bring him home tuesday. Some of you have met my father or parents. Believe it or not, there are decent folk even though they raised me. They are Protestant and would love to see your prayers or thoughts. I don't do Facebook or know how it works but if there is such a thing as a page I can share I will do so. I do encourage you folks to share this page by "mentioning" people or a link or whatever. The more the merrier. They would love to hear from you.

Rolled this one into the shop…thinking it’s a good time to redo the wheels. I’m wanting a change, leaning towards gloss black. Don’t even suggest “white” cause that just won’t happen, no way. Thought about the same gray as my B-80 but nothing else is gray. On the workhorse the frame and front and rear axles are all black.

Woulda thought promotional woulda had a dealer signage on it?

Battery quality may have changed but back in the mid 90's about 95% of the batteries turned in under warranty were perfectly fine. It was all "operator error". Back then the companies didn't want them back so instead of having customers flipping out and throwing things in the store we either refunded their money and said go somewhere else or gave them another battery with the stipulation this 2nd battery had a 90 day warranty no matter how big it was. If their original battery was indeed defective they got a replacement pro-rated from the date of the original sale. Of course they threw a fit if they had to pay 20 bucks after owning a battery for 4 years but we had a rule. We have buttons to make a price what ever we wanted so if you were a trouble maker list plus 10% was our motto the next time you came in. We got free "defective batteries" for years. I used one for 5 years in my truck. They finally changed the warranty policy where we had to test the battery , print out a digital result and turn the battery back in with the results

Randy, Have a GREAT one.

Somehow that guy finished behind me in votes it’s a sweet ride too!

I can see why that guy behind you is at least 6 feet back.

Inside weights will also need to be re-shot…

Hahaha! I have more and that’s the truth!

Looks like you have a lot of footwear. I can't imagine how many shoes your wife must have!

I'm not generally a huge fan of dark wheels but in this case I can see the logic.

Seeing as how Vampires don't reflect in a mirror, I'm surprised you know what "old " looks like!

Again... nothing personal... but I hate that red fender...

I’ve heard and seen good things about this Comet wash. It did wonders!

Sad but agreed Bill. I'm also with the trickle charger/ maintainer crowd. I'm also with the best deal I can get bunch damn the brand. Many tractors to feed. @Achto says it helps to run them and I'll buy that too. Many many discussions on batteries here John but that's what we do.

The motor cycle method is used a plastic bag punch a hole in one corner insert cable tape bag tight . Fill bad with the best pentare you can come up with then hang the bag up. I have found the best way to fix them is to install new cables.

I see the same downward trend in battery life / quality. If this keeps on going, we will be using wingnuts to fasten in place for frequent removal....

In addition to all the suggestions above, it would be a good tie to check the front to rear deck level.

275 to 350 CCA is very good. My local small engine repair place says a modern average U1 battery is getting 2 to 3 seasons with no maintenance (as most get). With proper usage of the trickle charger you should easily double that, or more.

When I originally put it in I checked that the flag lined up with the governor pin, so that’s not a concern, and it does go fully into the boss in the block.

I'm the only one that will operate this tractor so I promise I'll be ok!

Happy Birthday Randy! Enjoy your hot hot coffee and your chicken marsala! And Wheel Horses!

Most of my herd is so old that they never had safety switches to begin with. I don't advocate the removal of safety switches but what others do with their Wheel Horses is up to them. In fact my 418-C has no safety switches, it came to me that way and I am the only operator of that and don't mow with it. What I will not do and hope others won't do is give guidance on Red Square for the elimination of safety switches. We have a good thing going here and I would hate to see someone inadvertently injured as a result of safety switch removal that we participated in or openly condoned. In addition to the guilt we would feel if such an injury occurred there is the potential legal exposure to be considered. Mike, I'm glad you are making good progress on your auction score am confident that you will operate it safely.

Guilty your honor, but I’ve never been too concerned with the resale value of my most prized possessions. That’s for the family to deal with when I die

I love you too....