My sons C-145

[Kelly 1,030]

Ok I'm not much for taking pictures till it's to late, but I will do the best I can with what I have of the build, to start I told my oldest son to pick a tractor from about 10 I had lined up for him out back, well he picked the only black hood I had at the time, a 81 C-85 8 speed, it was very ruff, I tried to talk him out of that one, but he had his mind set so off to work HE went, I told him to tear it completely apart, well the frame was almost rusted in half, so we swapped frames, the engine would not turn over, steering wheel was broke off, the spindles would not turn in the axle, like I said it was ruff, I paid $25 for it, the hood had very deep pits, I could go on for days how bad it was but, I'll get on with a short write up on the build.

After getting it torn apart, we had to gather all the parts needed for the rebuild, we pulled a frame and front axle from a C-141 hydro I had, he wanted the old style fenders so they came off a C-81, we picked up a overhauled engine from a friend for $40 complete , a 14hp Kohler from a C-141, a friend owed me a favor and I was short on time during the build up of this tractor, so I sent all the big stuff to him to be sand blasted, got everything back, did the bump work on the tins, and put a coat of epoxy primer on most everything, then the sheet metal got at least 2 coats of high build fill epoxy primer, and block sanded, the hood and fenders got another 2 coats of primer to make them smooooth, we sanded all the chassis parts and prepped for paint, he liked the black engines in the black hoods and wanted the rolling chassis to be all black, so it is, the rest is standard red, with semi gloss on the console tins and top of the hood, he only wanted it to drive around and pull things, so we left off all the lift assembly, and used a left side cover off a hydro tractor with hyd. lift so no handle hole to deal with, It's nice having my own junk yard to pick parts out of we found most everything to build it right here, minus the new parts, he also wanted big and little tires so we used front rims off a 70 raider, the rears are 8.5" wide rims off a cub, the offset is not right we had to move the hubs on the axles out about 1/4" so the 10.5 tires didn't rub the gas tank support, we put a few dollars in stainless bolts to trim it out, built the wiring harness from a few diff. tractors just pulled the connectors apart and used what wires we wanted, he also wanted tail lights so we picked up a set of trailer marker lights, it took about 6 weeks of nights and weekend to build this, oh did I say I built another at the same time for my other son??? another $25 tractor a B-100 hydro, more on that one later, here is a few pictures of the build.

What we started with, $25 pile

My son starting the tear down, lots of skinned knuckles on this job.

chassis painted and going back together

back on it's feet again

prepped and ready to paint the red, yes parts for both tractors are hanging there, and yes this tractor was for the most part built in the driveway, all of it was painted outside.

all done.

I picked up a very cool steering wheel from Perry on the site off a bolens it's a 3 spoke leather wrapped wheel, that is on it now, and Glenn Pettit lives near me so the nice guy he is took the center cap and put a WH logo in it and filled it with clear epoxy, looks very cool on the tractor, we are thinking about putting a forward swept axle under this next summer, I have a couple floating around, the big long nose is begging for it, but still keep skinny tires on it, we will see.

Oh ya this is the other tractor I built at the same time for my youngest, he was only 8 at the time, so I built a hydro so he could drive it with out needing to reach the pedals, it's a 74 B-100 hydro, butI put a running 8hp I had in it to save time on the build.

[rickv1957 72]

Kelly,very fine tractors,great job!!!!! :thumbs:

[DMK855 15]

Awesome Job Kelly!! :banghead:

[Cody 276]

Kelly your paint jobs are awesome After you painted the tins did you buff it out or clear coat it? The shine is unbelievable.

[Kelly 1,030]

The paint is Valspar restoration paint with hardener, three full wet coats, about 4 days to dry then wet sanded with 2000 grit, then buffed out, after about 30 days a couple coats of wax.

[rmaynard 15,715]

Great work there Kelly.

:banghead:

[Cody 276]

I don't mean to be asking so many questions but what did you use to buff it out? I have never done it before but I would try it on my next restoration. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[can whlvr 993]

very nice,and what better way to spend with your sons,and maybe he will have that tractor for many years and he will think of his time spent with the old man :banghead:

[Gene_S 93]

Beautiful tractors Kelly... Sure like the rib tires with the ags... Great work... :banghead:

[d180man 5]

Hi very nice ! :thumbs:

[Ken B 3,164]

You and your boys really nailed it on both of these tractors. I love to see totally restored tractors but my favorites are the ones that have been restored with tasteful changes like you have done to make them look a little mean and stand out from the rest. That is something I like to do myself.

[Horse'n Around 22]

Kelly, those are some really great looking tractors I bet your boys had a blast working on them. Plus they have a great teacher too!

Congratulations on both of them

John

[jimbotelho 1]

Kelly, nice looking tractors your sons restored !! Jim :hide:

[JimD 3,345]

You and your sons did a fine job on the tractors Kelly. I particularly like the modified paint job an that C 145, very sharp! :thumbs:

[earlleecliffton 38]

Nice stuff there

[sgtsampay 117]

Very nice. Looks like your sons were happy.

[mavfreak 11]

Your boys did a great job. Something to be very proud of for you boys and for dad of his boys!

[faster 11]

Kelly, Thanks for posting the pictures looks great from front, back and side you and your boys got it just right. I may have to copy that paint job someday on my old black hood. :banghead:

[boatman 3]

:banghead: Kelly,

I sure do like the black frame on that tractor. It looks GREAT.

I like the look of black hoods anyway. Just sold a c-125 this summer.

I bought it new in 1982. Great tractor!!! Sorry I sold it now. The other

tractor looks nice too. :thumbs:

[corn53 4]

Kelly u want to adopt me?

Sweet tractors ur kids have. :banghead:

[wheel857 0]

:thumbs: nice job :thumbs:

[JC 1965 1,530]

:thumbs: Wow!! Great job Kelly, those tractors look great. It's really nice that you got to work with your sons on those tractors. That is something they will remember all their lives ( as will you ). :thumbs: