Andres' Air Horse Restore

After the bottom was welded a gusset was welded on the backside.  I know this bracket is a little overkill but too much is better than not enough. 

  These pics are from the same day in Jan as the last post.

 

These are the last pics from the last 3 posts including this one, all done on the same day.  The new steering shaft and bracket were put in the tractor and test fitted, it all came out really well considering there were so many things to make and line up and get right.  

 

Next up was starting to strip down and find out what all the tug needed.  This was done in Jan as well.  Thousands of little yellow specs everywhere.   

 

Just more clean up.  Everything got flipped over to do the bottom side.  There's also a piece missing from one side to hold the rear steering arm (last 2 pics).

 

These are the final pics of the main tug body cleanup, they are from Jan as well.  There were a lot of spots hard to get to but carb or brake cleaner does good at taking paint up.  After this we'll get into pics of the parts off of the main tug body and damage there. 

The first pic shows damage to the main body pipe that holds a solid brass king pin.  It will have to be welded up and fixed.  I bought one of those king pins for Jim's Air Horse about 4 years ago and it was over $500.00 back then.  Fixing the tug pipe now would be a fraction of the cost and the wise thing to do.  It's hard telling what that piece would cost now...  The last pic is the new one I put on Jim's, it's also in his topic in this section.  

 

These pics are from last month on Feb 19, it finally got warm enough to do some steam cleaning.  

The list is very long of what's bent or damaged, it's a short list for what is still good or doesn't need to be fixed...   

 

This work is from Feb this year as well.  Some pics of the good and the bad after blasting.  They offer rebuild kits for the steering cylinders but both shafts are bent and there's damage in other places.

 

Last pics of the work on this project for a bit.  I finished up welding a bracket made for the left rear steering arm so it wouldn't get lost, and fixed the tube for the brass bushing while it was already near the welder.

Depending on Andres this may be the last post for awhile.  Some of you have asked why this is taking so long, or I'm not getting serious about finishing it.  If it were up to me like every other restore ever done here it would have been done and gone long ago.  Technically this mess was not even worth fixing because of the extreme cost.  I am thousands of dollars into this mess and may just end up with it, in which case it will be sold.  The answer to more questions is below.

This arrived on Dec 8, 2025 and as you can see by the dates in this post I started on it the day it arrived.  Andres said he would be flying up here in 3-4 days to go over it all with me and bring a cash deposit.  Like most peeps and even gas stations I don't take out of State checks.  This was all agreed upon before it was even shipped here.  Later in the game the amount allowed to be spent on this project reduced significantly, supposedly because someone in the family found out about what the budget was and would not allow it.  There have been numerous talks and dates discussed about the deposit but it has never happened so it is getting put away today.  

It has been 3 months, 11 days as of today, or 15 weeks since this arrangement was made.  Everything was put on a pallet and carts this morning and will be put up in storage.

This will serve as public notice that in 10 more days from today if a cash deposit is not received for the agreed upon amount before it was even shipped that it will start getting $28.00 per day for inside storage and will become my property in 30 days and sold unless the deposit is made, plus all storage charges at that time.  This is according to KY State Law and it already has a mechanics lien on it.  A message was also left on the phone number we've been talking on at 1:48PM today.  I feel this is more than gracious on my part.

I've had to do this with vehicles a few times over the past 32 years and sell them so the law and how this works is nothing new to me, I just thought it would never happen in the Wheel Horse world.  From now on work on bigger jobs like this will not even begin until a deposit is made and inside storage will start after 10 days (according to KY State Law) after something arrives until it is made.  It's sad one person has made it possibly a little more legal for everyone but it is what it is.  I have a business to run and business is business.