857 Refresh/Rebuild Begins

[rmaynard 15,750]

Pretty good couple of days as far as weather is concerned. I got out the MIG welder and welded a couple of broken belt cover brackets back onto the frame. First successful welding attempt without burning holes in something.

 

Then I decided to see why the transmission was leaking. Figured that since I had a good stock of 1" seals, I would replace them all.

 

Found that the previous owner, or servicing facility, had stacked new seals on top of old ones. Yikes, I had heard of people doing that, but believe me it doesn't solve the problem. So, I replaced all the seals with the correct quantity.

 

Next good day should be a primer painting day for a lot of small pieces.

 

I doubt that I will have this one ready for the big show, but since it is not a "featured" tractor, I'm not under any pressure to finish it in time.

[rmaynard 15,750]

Some days I feel like going back to bed. Today is one of those.   I spend all day Saturday wire brushing, and sanding my wheels. I might have mentioned that my powder coater went out of business, and my neighbor's sand blaster is not available at the moment, so it's manual labor for me. After they were done, I shot a quick coat of epoxy primer on them. Then Sunday I devoted 4 hours to painting the wheels with several rattle cans of Gloss Ivory from our friends at Krylon. They looked great last night when I put them in the garage. I gave them plenty of time to dry.

 

 

Then, this morning I gave them one more coat for good measure, and came back 10 minutes later only to find that the paint had lifted and crinkled over 50% of the surface.

 

Note to self --- you had trouble with Krylon before, STOP USING THE STUFF.

 

Okay, I feel better now. So after baking them in the wife's oven for about and hour, I sanded them smooth again, then repainted with Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy (color bisque).

 

They are back in the oven again. Wife gets home at 5:00 pm and I've got to get this smell out of the house.

[squonk 41,731]

I've seen Rustoleum do that to as well as other enamels. Rusty says, "apply additional coats within an hour or after 48 hrs." Another brand whose name escapes me says 'If additional coats are needed wait 48 hrs' to prevent a re-coat lift". I would say that's what happened to your wheels. I painted my trailer and toolbox for it with Rusty oleum. I missed a small spot on the box and the next day when I saw it I shot it quick and yes it wrinkled. 

[rmaynard 15,750]

I'm sure that's what happened as well. The Krylon instructions were to apply second coat within 1 hour or after 24. I guess 23 hours is just not long enough. Give me a break. Remember when Johnny Bench used to advertise for Krylon? "No runs, no drips, no errors". Where's Johnny now? Oh, he's doing commercials for Blue Emu pain rub.

[squonk 41,731]

I remember those commercials. He sat on the chair he painted. I wonder how many pairs of white pants they went thru!   See ya at the show! 

[rmaynard 15,750]

Follow-up:

The wife got home at 5:15. The kitchen was clean, dinner was on the table, and the only odor left in the house was that of the barbecued chicken breast fresh in from the grill. 

[Fun Engineer 859]

Way to mask the paint smell Bob. Barbecued chicken will do it every time.

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[Racinbob 11,376]

Follow-up:

The wife got home at 5:15. The kitchen was clean, dinner was on the table, and the only odor left in the house was that of the barbecued chicken breast fresh in from the grill. 

Nice save!! I've had better luck with Krylon when it comes to the paint wrinkling but I think Rustoleum gives a better finish. I now try to plan things so I can let either brand dry for a much longer time than the can says.

[rmaynard 15,750]

Trouble is the weather has been so darned uncooperative this year that I don't have much of a window of opportunity to paint. Considering that I paint in the driveway, I am subject to hot, cold, wind, rain, pollen, leaves, neighbor cutting grass and raising dust, etc. So with that said, I finally got the wheels done, tires cleaned and mounted.

 

[Mr. 856 170]

they look awesome. any issues with chipping paint when mounting the tires?

[Martin 2,133]

Very very nice Bob.

you just can't beat the look of original tires......

the wheels came out looking real nice. 

[AMC RULES 37,143]

So...if you don't have time to do it right, 

when will you have time to do it over? 

The  world may never know.  

[rmaynard 15,750]

they look awesome. any issues with chipping paint when mounting the tires?

Just a few. I always mount the tires so that the marks if any are on the inside. A little touch-up with a small brush takes care of that.

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[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,498]

Bob, coming along really nice. I am dealing with tires now on the 854. The kids want AG tires. 

 

Glenn

[MikesRJ 552]

Bob, is this one going to be done by Thursday?

[rmaynard 15,750]

Bob, is this one going to be done by Thursday?

I am having serious doubts Mike

[jdleach 525]

That machine is looking very nice indeed.

Regarding the Majic paint, I agree it has issues. Began a resto on my Farmall H tractor back last year, and began cleaning/blasting parts. Bought some Majic IH Red, and had all sorts of issues, not drying being the worst. Another thing, is that after two or three coats, and it FINALLY dries, the finish is rather dull, and not very glossy. I remember reading the can over carefully, and it says nothing about multiple coats. Hmmm..... That got me to thinking. Majic specifically states the paint is an implement type. There are industrial, farm, and equipment paints that are specifically designed for single coat application, I know this from some of the paints I used when I still ran my machine shop. I then wondered whether the IH Red was a single coat paint.

So I did a little test.....

Just this past week, I received from our fellow forum member and parts guru Kelly, a shipment of parts for the Dial-A-Hite on a 312-8. One of the pieces was the casting the adjustment rod goes through. After sand blasting the part, I primered it, then shot a pretty thick coat of the Majic from a rattle can. After letting it hang in the shop for about 3 hours, it was almost dry. Still a little slow about curing, but much faster. By the end of my shift, the part could be handled, and the paint was nice and glossy. Coverage wasn't bad either.

I am beginning to think that if one had to use the Majic brand, you need to prep and primer the part well, then only apply one coat. If you wanted to apply more coats, you should probably wait several days for the first coat to completely cure.

[rmaynard 15,750]

Well...with a beautiful weekend behind me, and another beautiful day today. I actually think I may have this one ready for the show.

 

I painted the belt cover, fender pan, and hood Saturday and Sunday. Both the belt cover and fender got dust in the paint, so I hand-worked them with 2000 grit paper and compound and they turned out nice. That's the good thing about using an acrylic paint. It's hard enough to sand and polish in less than 12 hours. On Sunday, I painted the hood. Put two coats on and came back to find a family of gnats doing the back stroke down the middle of the hood. So I got my tweezers and gently removed them, sprayed a third and final coat, ran the hood into the garage where I was hoping to keep it out of harms way, but no.   Check on it last night and at lease four more gnats had found their way into the back of the garage, only to land on the hood.

 

So this morning, I carefully picked them out and spent 3 hours wet sanding with 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper, followed by an hour of compounding.

 

Anyway, I guess all is right with the Wheel Horse gods as I am proud to present these pictures.

 

 

Couple of other items of note. I rebuilt the engine back during the winter, but never had a chance to start it and see if it ran. So last Thursday, with 3 of 4 grandsons standing with fingers in ears, I cranked it over, it started immediately, and ran like it was brand new. No smoke, and only a small tweak of the main jet.

 

As you can see, there is no seat. Dave Burley (Funengineer) sent me some custom-made two-piece seat covers, so tonight while relaxing in the recliner I will finish assembling them.

 

But otherwise, it looks like a go for Thursdays journey.

 

[Fun Engineer 859]

Can't wait to see your latest resto Bob. Pictures look great.

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[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,498]

BOB. Looks A+ to me. Job well done.

Glenn

[Martin 2,133]

another very nice restoration, Bob!!!!!

[squonk 41,731]

Get job Bob! The tractor I'm bringing is the polar opposite. Paint on the hood is so thin it only has one side! But it's original

[Racinbob 11,376]

Incredible job Bob. Please post more pics when you get the seat on.

[rmaynard 15,750]

Incredible job Bob. Please post more pics when you get the seat on.

I will do that.

[ri702bill 8,613]

Maynard:

 

Looks good - just 2 areas of comment. First - checking the block bore for size & run out is only half of the job. You need to check the piston skirt size against the bore size to determine piston clearance. I recently went thru a K161-T only to find the bore to be good, but the piston to be way too worn that allowed rocking of the piston & excessive oil usage.. A new piston & rings took care of the problem & brought the piston clearance into spec.

Second - you can grind the ends of the valve stems at home to set the clearance. I use a machinist Vee block & clamp to hold the valve and a drop indicator to set the amount to grind off. If you calculate that you need to grind off .010 off the valve stem, then clamp the valve to read about .008 protruding with the indicator. You can then use a bench grinder to cut the end  about flush & repeat the gap check & final adjustment. You need to "sneak up" on the final cut - removing too much off the stem end will require redressing the valve face to sink it deeper in the block. This has worked well over the years for me with several Tecumseh H60's & HH70's, as well as the K161-T.

 

Bill