Carson's C-121

The pieces added to my painting kit for the 1-1/8" axles and front frame rods, and the pieces added to the motor painting setup, plus the fact of painting outside with the motor and transmission lifting setup could not have been any better.  No paint at all where it does not belong anywhere.  No unwrapping tape, no tape used, a ton less time, and 2 minutes in the blaster and everything is ready for the next one.  

The excitement started after the paint cleanup, starting to put things together.  Everywhere yellow zinc bolts are seen are grade 9 as always around here. 

The 6th pic shows a bag of carriage bolt spacers.  I bought them about 5 years ago because the OD is so small, but the sole purpose I use them for is to keep from marking up the new paint when putting things really nice like this together, especially in tight spaces.  They are just big enough to keep the sockets off of the paint.  When using impact tools this is important because I think all of this nice work getting marred up everywhere there's a bolt is terrible...  If you see bolts without them they were tightened from the other side, or somewhere where they were not needed.  They aren't needed on the wrench side, only on the socket side, the wrench doesn't move and make marks.

A lot of bolts are changed and correctly sized unlike the factory bolts, like in the transmission and other places.  The exposed threads just create a place for rust and make things harder to get apart later.  Plus it makes for a truly finished and OCD look lol...   

Once the motor and transmission were on the frame it was balanced enough to go on the forklift to get to both sides easier and keep going.  7PM again and time to go.  

 

Hi Gene it’s Carson, I saw your post o few pages ago Whalen you first started painting with that rust proof red paint, and saw that you said it wasn’t the right color wheel horse red but it would be covered up. So my question is, are you going to go back over it again in that same rust proof red, or with the wheel horse red?
 

Hey Carson.  

The rust proof paint goes only between things like the frame + rearend, front Tach-a-Matic bracket, etc, and places that were never painted at all from the factory, nowhere else.  The tractors were painted after a lot of things were already put together causing more rust.

The final Wheel Horse red (not an exact mix but close) goes on everything last, like in the last 4 posts when the final painting began.  

Sorry so late, got tied up on the phone with Terry talking about decals...  He doesn't make the round ones for the front of the magnum air filter covers so I sent him a pic and he will be making those as of next week.  1st one will be for Carson's tractor.         I have some other custom stuff I need from him as well but we'll talk about that later.  


Anyway,,, here's some more of the progress on Carson's.  Like with a very few others done here the underside of a tractor has never looked so nice.  You may have to do like some car shows and put mirrors under the tractor lol.  

It's way late so more to come tomorrow. 

 

2 posts today, I need to get caught up with where I'm really at but the days go so fast sometimes.  These pics are from this past Tuesday...  

The rear hubs and axles are so slick you can push them all the way back by hand even with the keys in, super nice.  A few more rearend pics and the front axles going in.

 

Here is the 2nd post for today.  These pics are from this past Tuesday as well.  

Terry and I finished up getting the Magnum breather cover decal that he had never made finalized this morning.  The Corel file looks really good and matches the original really really close.  He has already made some for me to look at for real and they were shipped today.  

I lengthened the oil drain with a 304 Stainless Steel nipple to keep oil from running down the engine + frame like it usually does when changing the oil.  There's also a solid brass cap on the end so a regular socket can be used to drain the oil.  The nipple is in much tighter than the cap so it will stay in there no problem.

The hundreds of original nylon washers I brought in the beginning of this year are going back on both sides of all of the rods to make them really slick and quiet (no squeaks later on).  Some places had them from the factory for the same reason but I put them everywhere I can.  The bigger washers next to them in the 4th pic are not plain washers.  They are actually machinery bushings that are really tough and will keep parts from rubbing the frame or each other pretty much forever.

The dash cover turned out nice as well considering what it was.  

 

These pics are from Wed + Thurs.  A lot more blasting was done and I found a few parts that need to be changed out.  Mainly the battery tray and front tower plate.  PTO lever is different for the new tower (the one on the right), and as you saw when you were here the brake band is shot.  

The new tower support looks great minus some discoloration that paint will take care of.  It's the hardest part to get completely blasted and even harder to paint...  It was put on the frame to check it out and start making sure all of the parts that go in it were blasted.  Concentration on the tower and a few other little things that work with it will be the next phase of things.    

 

I ordered in some heat shrink about a month ago to see how it would work out on the new tie rods and other things.  It's marine grade and everything compliant, really nice stuff that seals and does what all you see in the pic.  I did one tie rod to see what it looks like.  It did shrink and seal good, you can see the sealer on the outside edge.  What do you think Carson?  It looks nice but it's not a darker red like the tractor so I wanted to get your opinion and anyone else that wants to offer one.  

The pics here are from last Thursday.

Grandpas bent up PTO plate straightened out good and I got rid of most of the rust pits with a flap disc.  It wasn't too bad.  Grandpas lift handle also came out good.  It's amazing what some good bodywork tools and finer sanding can do.  The front plate is off of another tractor, the original was too rough.  The PTO clutch rod is different (longer) where we did away with the cradle engine mount but I have plenty of them and the bracket needed to put it on that bolts up on 2 of the mid Tach-a-Matic bolts.

The bracket for the belt guard was pretty rough too so it was changed.  While the new front plate was off I went on and welded 2 nuts to the back for the starter relay.  They are usually just bolts + nuts but it's a real pain to get to the nuts on the backside.  I do this whenever a plate is off to make things easy to assemble or change the relay if need be.  

The front plate and belt guard plate are easily seen and would draw attention to the rust pits is why they were changed.  Like we talked about if it's a little rough and more hidden we'll keep it.