Gene_S 93 #101 Posted February 8, 2012 Martin your doing a great job! Can't wait to see the tractor in person! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #102 Posted February 8, 2012 thanks gene, looking forward to the summer tractor season.......... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wheelhorse656 20 #103 Posted February 8, 2012 sweet project looks really good!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #104 Posted February 11, 2012 did a little more on the hood today. i dont like how the area where the grill and hood meet was fabricated with limited strength and over time the hoods all seem to crack at the corners. so i thought i would make a piece to brace the area. i cut a 3 inch strip of similar gauge steel and bent it up to conform to the inside shape of this area... it was a bit of a challenge with the bends to get it to lay flat and i think i got it close enough to tack weld in there. i need to drill a 1 inch hole in the middle of it to allow the hood ornament nut to snug up tight against the hood before i do though and couldnt find one in my holesaws, so i need to wait until monday at work to do that. then it will get welded in there and hopefully it will stiffen up the area enough. thats all for now. im working on the seat pan at the same time as this. hopefully they will both be ready for some final painting real soon.... :) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
massey 118 #105 Posted February 12, 2012 Outstanding work, it all looks great. A while back I had some mirror brackets powdercoated silver and they put a clear powder over that, would that be an option for the depth of shine issue? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #106 Posted February 12, 2012 clear helps some. only problem ive seen with every clear weve ever dealt with at work is they all eventually yellow if a good amount of time is spent outside in the sun. thats been the biggest complaint and its more noticeable when clear coating brass and copper. you could wet rub the clear and polish it to a good depth shine. you could do that to the solid colors too. im finding that the case red on this one is really responsive with shine from some mothers cleaner/polish.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Kuhn 1,555 #107 Posted February 12, 2012 Nice fix on the hood :handgestures-thumbup: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #108 Posted February 21, 2012 been working on it a little through the week. got the first coat on the seat pan, still needs a bunch of work in the center section where the seat is mounted. its basically all covered by the seat but i would like it to look a bit smoother than it does now.most of the exposed areas are almost there, just a few areas with really small areas of surface pitting to work out and the odd small dent. wanted to make sure that it fits well before spending a bunch of time making it look better. still learning on the whole multiple coat thing with powder. its a whole different animal than wet spray. well ive sort of back peddled on the seat pan for the past week. after the first coat of powder was on there i decided it was better for me to strip it and work on getting the center area smooth without having the tough paint to deal with. no big deal to strip, an hour or so in the strip tank at work and it was back to bare metal again. then it was smoothed over with bondo. ive experimented with the filler and oven temperature to see if it was going to be able to deal with the heat. this powder needs to cure at 375-400 deg f, so if the bondo was going along for the ride it needed to hang on. anyway success, got it filled, smoothed and painted today. looks better, but dealing with rusted, pitted metal is a pain in the butt when you are using powder coat. even with the deep pitting filled, theres always a bunch of real small pitting that is almost impossible to fill with bondo, it just sands out and your back to square one. you could just layer it on there and not sand back all the way, but keep in mind that powder coat is designed for direct to metal application (DTM).. the metal really needs a sandable primer coat, but the primer needs to handle the oven temps as well, and still need to have as much metal exposed for best results, so thats out of the question..... so all of you out there wanting to do powder, keep in mind, find the best smoothest rust free metal to use or learn to deal with lots of little defects, or pitting with everything that cant be filled with bondo. disclaimer: not saying all types of bondo will work, but ive found one that does, its the bondo brand regular stuff, still no guarantees though, so no complaining if you try it and it doesnt work!! ive finished pulling my hair out with this seat pan, it looks better than it did, compared with the first pic its much better, but its still a long way from good enough. im happy to have the resourses available to powdercoat, so i figure just deal with it. im not about to start doing everything liquid. now ive got to go through the same thing with the hood......fun times..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #109 Posted February 21, 2012 oh and i mentioned before about wet sanding and then polishing. no go on the wet sanding. messed around on the weekend with that and the powder isnt real responsive with polish to bring back the shine. its almost like it develops a 'hard shell shine' during the cure process and once you cut through it with wet sanding its gone. it can be sanded smooth and flat, but getting that shine back was a lost cause. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevebo-(Moderator) 8,331 #110 Posted February 21, 2012 tops in my book-wow !!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
can whlvr 993 #111 Posted February 21, 2012 great restore and info martin,so in the last pic is that seat pan been powdered again,i asume so but i wasnt sure,so the powder coat will go to the bondo areas,when you sanded i guess you get as much bondo off to expose the metal so the powder can be attracted to it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #112 Posted February 21, 2012 don, after the pan was smoothed and ready for paint, with as much bondo removed as needed to get it looking good and flat, it was preheated and painted while the part was still in the 100-150 deg f range. this helps the powder to stick to the bondo. normally when painting metal the powder comes out of the gun with a negative charge and is attracted to the positively charged part that you are painting. the charge keeps the powder on the part until it gels from heat in the cure oven. the heat removes that charge at the same time it cures. painting parts that cant hold a charge really presents problems. we also wash metals with iron phosphate stages in our wash systems as the phosphate helps the powder to etch to the metal as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olratlr 25 #113 Posted February 23, 2012 Good Work, Looks Good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CRE1992 135 #114 Posted February 23, 2012 Incredible restoration! Hope to see more soon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
can whlvr 993 #115 Posted February 24, 2012 thanks for clearing that up for me ,i thought it was problematic to coat items that were not all metal Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Terry M-(Moderator) 2,175 #116 Posted February 24, 2012 Thanks for the painting tips, your tractor looks great!! I hope mine can look as good as your stuff martin.. Terry Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #117 Posted February 26, 2012 thanks for the kind comments, guys....... small update. spent a bunch of time on a small thing the past few days. the dash panel was as rusty as they come so it took some time to get it looking good. grinding on the linishing belt at work got it reasonably good but it still had a bunch of rust pitting in the metal. both the front and back needed to be as flat as possible..... front, so that the decal would look good and not have bubbles or bumps in it. back, so the paint would look decent. i ended up powder coating it twice and wet sanding between coats. then decal application and trimming, and cleaning up the paint in the holes for the lighter and ignition switch so they would have good electrical ground. i also made up an insulator that they had on these switches. pn 5451 out of some plastic that i cut from a rubbermaid container. or you could use a plastic 1 liter bottle. have the dimensions if anybody wants to make one. heres the pics..... decal applied... trimming and cutting out the holes in the dash panel. had to make sure that lack of electrical ground was not an issue so i scraped paint from the holes so there was a good connection. holes all done, glad thats over..... accessories installed, still undecided on choke and throttle cables, maybe if i leave that decision long enough, new ones that will last the distance will grow there...... back of dash. now i need to make up an insulator to cover those terminals.... sort of like this one on my 875... thats better.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AMC RULES 37,132 #118 Posted February 26, 2012 Your work keeps raising the bar Matin, way to set the standard buddy. :popcorn: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gwgdog66 23 #120 Posted February 26, 2012 Wow you are one skilled guy Martin! for sharing this restore with us. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Kuhn 1,555 #121 Posted February 26, 2012 Wow Martin! That looks great! Jake Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Terry M-(Moderator) 2,175 #122 Posted February 28, 2012 WOW! is right...that looks show room quality to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WH4ME 6 #123 Posted February 28, 2012 Awesome looking, keep up the great work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin 2,132 #124 Posted March 4, 2012 well after a little break im back working on the tractor again. cash flow has been slowing the purchase of tractor goodies, just finished a fuel pump on our suburban (im getting real good at gm in tank pumps, i can almost do them with my eyes closed now..... ) and my garage is a little crowded at the moment, its hard to work with that in there as well as the tractors...... but this afternoon managed to squeeze a few hours in on the red stuff....... got a battery from napa, group 26, perfect snug fit for the battery tray, almost like it was planned that way (i just made it the same as the old tray that was there). also picked up a solenoid for the starter gen starter circuit. still need a regulator and coil, but i can still get the majority of the wiring done. the solenoid was an on again off again thing, but im glad i found somewhere out of the way for it. i wanted to get a nice flash looking cole hersee one and mount it on the back of the engine near the starter/gen/regulator but just couldnt stretch the $ enough and pay shipping as well. i went to the local farm and fleet and picked on up for under $10. its just your standard ford deal and then found a good hiding space for it. i decided to go with this style of battery clamps, i find it easier to undo the wingnuts and remove the cables when i need to, rather than messing with the clamps. clamps and post always seem to get messed up over the years if you dont leave them be..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smoreau 658 #125 Posted March 4, 2012 Looking good Martin! With that Battery you should be able to make it back to the garage when you run out of gas Whats the point of the solenoid for on this system? Its a starter generator right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
