Thanks Tim,It takes a good bit of sweat, but there's nothing all that difficult (at least so far ;) ) in restoring one of these. I used a combination of a chemical paint stripper and grinding wheel with wire brush to strip the paint and rust (the paint stripper makes quick work of the paint, just be sure to rinse thoroughly afterwards, and the grinding wheel does a good job on rust). Then painted everything with black POR-15 (left the POR-15 bare on the underside of the deck and the frame of the tractor), and painted the tractor (by brush) with some nice blue paint I had mixed up, using a thinner to get it nice and thin to prevent brush strokes. The painting part is fairly quick - it's stripping the parts off and removing the paint/rust that took a while. The black painted parts that are visible from above I just painted with black spray paint, likewise the wheels with white spray paint. Now I'm trying to decide what to do about the dash - the white writing is barely visible now, and the dash "decal" (or whatever it is) is curled and ripped in some spots. So, I'm thinking about removing it and trying to repaint everything, or see if there's some sort of decal-like paper I can get to print on with a laser printer, that has a sticky backside - so I can make a nice replacement for the dash "decal" (it seems to be some sort of plastic or rubber material that's held down with screws).
Mike -- -------------------------------------------------------------- Michael S. Briggs UNH Physics Department (603) 862-2828 --------------------------------------------------------------- On Fri, 14 Jul 2006, Tim Humphrey wrote:
I just visited your website. Good job. I have to say though, I can't decide if it's a testimony to your ambition or my lack thereof.... I have parts tractors in better condition than what you started with. In fact you have made me reconsider the decision to send one of my decks to the recycler... I think I'll try to clean it up first. Good Job Mike!