854 barn find project

[spitfire1 28]

Really excited about finding this great 854 last week. Planning on spending some time this fall getting her running nice and showing the K181 some love. Planning on restoring the old girl over the winter. I will post progress pictures here as I get the project under way.

Edited September 6, 2015 by spitfire1

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

Awesome find!

If that is original paint, dont restore it! It looks great!

[spitfire1 28]

Awesome find!

If that is original paint, dont restore it! It looks great!

I have been thinking the same thing, I'm on the fence. She has a great look as is. Would be a great candidate to restore, but it is original paint so I'm going to need to think it over 

[AMC RULES 37,130]

Nice original looking  ...      
ditto on the clean up, and no restoration.  
 

[slammer302 2,155]

That is nice! It would be a hard call to make on restoring it. Maybe just a good cleaning paint the wheels almond white and get everything working like its supposed to and you will have a nice horse that ur not afraid of getting dirty     

[bmsgaffer 2,043]

Youll never get the original paint back.

Im holding on to it on my 854 and theres much less left than on yours. If you want one to restore, ill trade you! Also a great candidate for a restore, just a little less factory paint left... 

[speedyleedy 205]

That's one great Find !

[pacer 3,169]

Jiminy! that a CLEAN one!! Nice!!

[Shynon 7,459]

Nice find, I too will vote to leave original, you will  only find it that way once.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Man!  You guys are NOT getting a picture of my "Woods Find"  654!  Not until I have an "After" to go along with it!  What a nice find!

[spitfire1 28]

I think I'm going to take the cleanup rout for now, I'm in the middle of a few other restoration projects, so this little guy will need to wait anyhow, makes me just as happy looking at her with fresh paint as I am looking at her just like this. I could spend hours just admiring how cool these old WH tractors look. Stood in the shop for about an hour a few night back with one of my car guy friends , just drinking a beer and looking at it saying "man they don't make stuff this cool anymore"... think it even has the original spark plug wire and Delco internal resistor coil. .. new tires and a nice new paint job on the rims and maybe a satcover is all I think I want to do this fall along with rewiring it and a new key switch. 

Edited September 6, 2015 by spitfire1

[Brian01 481]

A food washin' and she'll look sweet....nice find indeed

Food=Good according to my dummy smartphone!

[Pullstart 62,829]

welcome to RedSquare!  It looks like you've got a nice machine there for sure. 

[WHX?? 48,813]

Nice find, I too will vote to leave original, you will  only find it that way once.

Now how did I know you would say that..... I suppose you would want to boil it in lindseed oil too!

Edited September 11, 2015 by WHX5
add

[spitfire1 28]

Got the old horse clean this week. New key switch , carb rebuilt , completely took the tractor apart and gunked down the whole thing then gave all the small parts a bath in the parts washer, made a new electrical harness, put on a new drive belt and air cleaner. and finished it all off with a new plug, oil , wirer, and setting the timing. Went for a spin around the neighborhood today,  lost count of all the smiles and waves I got as I passed by . 

 

Edited September 13, 2015 by spitfire1

[Brian01 481]

Nice looking piece of machinery for sure

[Pullstart 62,829]

That last pic I was confused by the MSD decal on your tool box!  Race Horse?  nice job cleaning her up, I'm sure it's well deserved to get some of those smiles and waves!

[AMC RULES 37,130]

Tractor looks great...first pict is waaay cool.  

[Racinbob 11,048]

That's sweet! I had a beautiful 854 with the backrest and HL-5 lights. It was my parade tractor. What's up with the clutch/brake pedal. It's hooked up that way.

[spitfire1 28]

That's sweet! I had a beautiful 854 with the backrest and HL-5 lights. It was my parade tractor. What's up with the clutch/brake pedal. It's hooked up that way.

 

Sounds like it was a nice 854 you had, This one came with the clutch/brake upside down like that when I found it  .. I was going to flip it over, but the brake rod is so seized up at the adjuster nut its never going to move  and the rod has seen better days, I figured it was better to leave well enough alone till I can find or make a new brake rod. It works nice and I was able to set the barking brake with the adjuster on the brake shoe. 

That last pic I was confused by the MSD decal on your tool box!  Race Horse?  nice job cleaning her up, I'm sure it's well deserved to get some of those smiles and waves!

I do run leaded race fuel in it ...does that count for race horse status ?  

[Pullstart 62,829]

it sure do!  It's funny, I help on an ARCA/CRA team occasionally and we're required to purchase 10 gallons of fuel every week from the track.  we go through about 6 gallons most weeks in the car, so the generators, quad, grill if we had one... it all runs on high octane petro.  just to burn it up.