Carson's C-121

Group 4 - 

The small pile of dirt is all that was under this tractor after the complete disassemble.  I'll talk to you next week and have a good weekend.  

Drained the rearend this morning and took a few more things off of the engine before some parts go out for the 2nd steam cleaning this week sometime.  The more I look in that engine the more like new I find.  The intake runner looks like new cast iron and the valve and guide look brand new.  The inside of the flywheel cover was wiped off with a shop towel and looked new, and the exhaust adapter came right out with little effort. 

The bad news is the dash housing I have to have looks really bad after blasting.  It had also been primed and painted before.  You can see in the last pic the newer paint, the gray around the edge in the bottom of the pic is primer, and the original paint is the dull red.  You find a lot of things when you steam clean and start blasting, good and bad...     I don't know if I can modify and make one like this from an older model or not, will check in the morning.

 

I quickly blasted some of the original sheet metal and it's way too rough for what you want this tractor to be.  You can see where I spent a little more time in places to see what was really there (the cleaner non rusty looking spots) but there are tons of little pits all over.  The rustier it looks like in the 1st pic the worse it will be when blasted and ready for paint.

I put a few pics of some nice blasted parts up.  What you see on them is the slag on top of the metal, it's a normal appearance on hot rolled stock and mostly disappears when painted. It can be seen but since it's normal no one pays any attention to it. The slag will be gone near anything like punched holes or sheared ends, this is normal as well because the stress from shearing and punching distorts the metal enough to remove the slag.  The slag can be removed but it is very time consuming.  Rust pits on the other hand show up more and look far worse when painted because of the shine in all of the pits.

The bushing is stuck in the dash piece like the steering shaft was and I've tried to get it out but I've put enough force on it that it was close to something breaking.  I can try splitting the bushing to remove it but I'd want to blast the old dash completely first to make sure there's no pitting on it like there is on the bottom. The older model dash pieces will work if the bottom bolt extrusions are removed. This isn't too big of a deal because it's all underneath where you can't see.

There are 2 other variations in what used to be the holder for the fuel tank, they are in a pic below.  We usually don't worry about pits or damage there because they are covered by the fuel tank.  They are completely different and the taper toward the rear is gone on your model so modification of those won't work.  Sorry to be the bearer of so much bad news but I didn't suspect this tractor had been painted before until I got a little deeper into it.  Judging by all the other parts it's no use in blasting any more parts because we already know the result, unless you want to use parts like that.    

 

The dash was blasted this morning and looked pretty good so the bushing that was severely stuck was split, caved in a little, then driven out.  You can see the rust in the hole on the aluminum tower and on the bushing, she was really stuck.  When it got here the entire shaft was so stuck the steering wheel had been broken off.  I did a little deburring, then a little reprofiling with the blaster.  It will get a DA run over it later to make it really slick before it's painted.  

After that it was round 2 of the steam cleaning.  

 

Some more pics from yesterday.  I took the lift handle apart but the pin was really rusted so the center rod had to be bent to move it out of the holder to make more room on top to get to the roll pin to cut it off.  Originally the center rod was so rusted it was stuck in the handle.  There's a lot of wear on the center rod so I have to see if the outer handle can be saved but the inner rod is worn and solid rust.  

Everything on the cart is from the original tractor minus the frame.  I think I may have also saved the fuel tank.  I was steam cleaning at over 200 degrees so I kept filling the tank halfway then let it sit for awhile, then sloshing the hot water around and emptying it out.  That was done for a few hours on and off while cleaning up the other parts.  It looks pretty good inside now.  

Last 4 pics are just the engine after round 2 of steam cleaning it.  It had the covers on last time and was bolted to the frame of the 314.  Now it's clean and dirt free everywhere.  

 

I went on and partially blasted more of the sheet metal to put it away, and some other parts to talk about later as we get to assembly of those parts. and get the small welding bench ready for reassembly parts and work.  

Instead of disassembly, time to get started concentrating on building.  We already know we need a motor, transmission, and frame.  It's far cheaper and will come out nicer to use known nice parts and assemblies.  

The frame was blasted yesterday and it looks great, even under neath, and under the motor (last pic) and tower (2nd to last pic).  

 

These are some things I need to talk to you about, will call after I get this posted.  

 

I talked to Carson today and got a clearer idea of what this tractor will be.  It's not possible as most looking at this post know to make this tractor "show quality" without throwing away most of the tractor.  Carson wants to keep all parts possible of grandpa's tractor and I completely understand that, so we will be using what we can of the original parts while still making it look nice in the end.  There are several things that can be done to hide, cover, or use certain colors in different places (like satin black instead of a high gloss color) to achieve this.  This isn't my first rodeo and this tractor will still be very nice when done.  

Now the fun begins, starting on fixing and assy of what will be the final product.  

We are starting from the ground up and the first thing saved is the steering support.  There was so much wear that only about 1/32" total (1/64" per side) could be removed to fit the the 13/16" bushing size so the repair had to be perfect.  You can see how much that is in the 2nd pic with the support in the mill and the cut edge at the very top.  Next the damage from I have no idea what was surface milled to smooth it up.  The support under Carson's in the pic is from the 314, it is a perfect 3/4" like new.  The top edge is rounded to keep it away from the steering fan gear.  Next was checking depth with the gauge made here, then putting the bushing in to make sure it is snug.  After that the rounded top damage was removed and new bushings put in the top and bottom making it better and longer lasting than new.

In the last pic you can see the finished support, and where it was starting to cut through the original lower bushing but there was no damage to the lower support hole so that was good.  

 

Some of the steering is deburred and fitted to the frame, and the front axle is smoothed up, cleaned up, and blasted.  Other things got done today but the pics are still on the camera and it's about quitting time.  I'll put them up tomorrow.  

These pics are from yesterday as well.  The original front pin was broken so it was welded back up.  It wasn't welded right and most of it was missed from the factory as you can see in the pics.  The welded part goes in from the frame side and is hard to see when put in but will still look good when painted.

The original rear hubs were turned in the lathe and came out really nice.  It takes awhile to do these because cast iron can't be cut at high speed like steel can.  You can see some discoloration in the one that was the worst but it will not show when painted, my main concern was what was seen from the wheel side and those surfaces look brand new.