Thanks. I think it's a 77 or 78. Maybe 1980. Somewhere in there. Your project makes me want to move to Fla.!

I got the exhaust more together. Looks very subtle. Tractor aesthetics are VERY important! ;) From the front, almost invisible. I had to splay the rear out a little more than what I wanted to get plenty of clearance for the 3 point rocker shaft arms/pins, but this should work. Once I paint the u-clamps and rear muffler mount, will be even more invisible. Also changed oil/ hydrostatic fluid, and switched out a leaking hydraulic ram. Mowed lawn. Once again- that's enough of a project for a day. Time for a beer.

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Nice work. Getting any heat soak in the floor boards?

Best
Les

^thanks. Not too bad. I mowed the lawn and was relieved nothing burst into flames. The rear fenders get a little warm, but even if I purposely reached around and put my hand near the exhaust, it wasn't searing hot.

I might go ahead and get the heat tape anyway to keep the heat from the bottom of the tractor. The cold air intake is down there. I don't want it to suffocate itself!

I love that Ford tractor, Leaky! Such a cool retro look! Thanks for sharing your project with us. This is a fantastic thread just to see some of the cool stuff everyone is working on!

Well, one thing lead to another for me and I figured out a way to get all my deck boards down. Granted most only have 2 fasteners holding them in place right now, but I will go back and screw the rest of them in after a trip to my supplier to get more. I had a limited supply which is why I only use 2 per board, but also really wanted to get them all in place today.

There's more to do but the main part is done now and it's remarkably sturdy considering my seat of the pants engineering skills. :p

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1617581286.JPG

In case anyone is wondering what those white pipe things are....I bought some LED lights from Amazon and made my own housings out of PVC pipe. I also sealed them up really good with a tube of clear silicon sealant. Before the deck went in they shined up into the bamboo at night. These are colour changing and I've had them on green lately. I disconnected all but the first one as now I will re-configure my lighting to conform with the new layout.

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Thanks Baz!!

Got some teak oil on it yesterday and today it rained! Water was beading up super nice!

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Wow - gorgeous! You do beautiful work, Ayles!

I had help!

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Wheels off the new to me travel trailer.
Switching out the 6 Y/O tires and getting them back on today.

Need to pick up a bottle jack. Had to borrow one to get in close to the hubs to lift each axle.

New shoes! :)

I love bottle jacks. I keep a small one in the truck even.

They are not very expensive either. Well worth the price.

Post some pics later if you can, Bill!

That's awesome - nothing like the experience of helping Dad....something he'll remember for the rest of his life and will help his self-esteem. SmileWavy

Baz,

Here's a little detail I do when using 5/4 PT deck boards; After cross cutting the boards I take my belt sander and round off the cut edge to somewhat match the radius of the front edges of the boards. Gives it a finished look and takes care of the splinters too.

2 axles? I used to carry some wood cut as a ramp, so I could drive up on 1 axle and use a regular jack on the other axle.

Like this (Not my picture):
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BYfXBNk3NVM/maxresdefault.jpg

Not just today, but the past couple of weekends on my E46:

Apex wheels
Kuhmo PS91 tires
Shocks, rear
Rear upper shock mounts
Struts, front. (Waiting on Vorshlag camber plates).
Springs, front and rear, 500/600
Urethane ushings, front and rear
Control arms, front
Camber arms, rear
Brake lines
Brake fluid flush
Racing seat with custom mount
Center console delete
Modified shifter
Momo steering wheel and adapter
Oil change
Spark plugs
COPS
Fuel filter
Air filter
Cabin filter
Windshield wipers
Modified the exhaust system
M3 front sway bar


F150
Running boards
Front and rear cameras
Installed new license plate

Garage
Built new shelving and organized it

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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1617678931.jpg


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Tires are on the trailer today but not without a bit of a ***** show.
Dropped wheels and tires and went to pick up some furnace parts. Proving switches and a hot surface ignitor. Furnace air proving switch has twitched twice and I was able to get it to work again for a short time. The HSI to have on hand because if I don't have one on hand, the damn thing will fail when it is minus 30 on a long weekend...
Back to get the tires. Guy gets the bead broken and the top one off the rim but his machine cannot get the bottom one off the wheel. They are short handed today and I can see the guy is pretty frustrated so I take the wheels and tires home and cut the bead still on the rim with my sawzall.
Peeled the old tires off and took the wheels back and got the new tires mounted without further issue.
Drove out and got them back on the trailer. Why does everything seem to take longer than it should?

The ramps are a great idea. Going to pick up some of the curved levelers here pretty quick. I did have the trailer in the air on jackstands overnight with all 4 wheels/tires off.

Man, you guys are slacking off!

Swapped two sets of winters to all seasons on the Toyota and the Honda. Tires were a little harder to get off and on the racks in the garage because of the darn topper on the truck. Never thought about that...

Power raked and cleaned up the front yard. Still have ice in the back yard and will wait on that.

Still have some tenderloin steaks to go on the BGE. That is if I don't fall asleep first!

Gotta do some braggin' on my brother. He's been working his butt off lately, by himself since I've been recovering from my heart problems.
He took this old shed apart and repurposed a lot of it. Trying to make a work place that is out of the sun and easy to clean as it will be a 'dirty' job site.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618193392.jpg

Here's what he's come up with so far. He plans on some sliding doors but for now is just happy to be out of the dirt floor stage.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618193468.jpg

Phase II of securing the border. 55 more holes to drill...

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I had a few useless tecumsehs in the shed taking up space so i decided to fix them up. For a minibike most likely. Well the one 3.5hp was a side exhaust so kind of unwanted and it was seized up like crazy. So the 5.5hp i put the early rounded shroud on it but i had to make a spacer to bring it out to fit the bigger flywheel. Also the shaft was 7/8 and thats no good so i lathed it down to 3/4 and cut the keyway deeper. Made the tank work from the 3.5 and put a filter on it and it runs sweet.
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Picked up a new Hackzall......upgraded to the FUEL!

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Replaced the solar light on my flagpole today. I will check the batteries on the old one tomorrow. That's probably the issue but I wanted a get new unit anyway. Couldn't believe how easy the securing nut came off. I guess I must have greased it good when I first installed it. I laid some more grease on it today...lol....

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Re-roofing the back patio now that I have that nice extra width. Long time coming and want to get this done before it gets too hot.

I picked up the gavalume today along with some 1x4x12' purlins. 15 sheets of 3'x13' metal and 15 purlins. I learned something new today. Pressure treated wood is not good to use with metal roof panels because of a chemical reaction. So the ones I got from the roofing supply house were untreated.

Anyway.....on the way home after stopping at a light I get on the gas a little after the light turns back green and I'm looking back and the materials are further back than they should be so I hit the brakes and it doesn't help so I slowly pull off the road and as I do everything comes out and is laying on the ground.

No biggie, I pull out my lopping shears and cut the bands and hand load everything back in and then head home very carefully. Got home just fine.

So here's what happened. Last week I picked up a half pallet of sod. A little trick I do when I pick up sod on a pallet is spray the bedliner with spray lubricant, so the pallet glides in and out as needed.

Obviously that is probably why my load slid out today. My bed is 8' long and with the tail gate down that adds another 2' so the 13' long panels were laying on 10' flat bed and shouldn't have slipped anywhere.

I'm just glad it didn't land in the road...lol....

I'm making good progress on the job and post pics later. Here I am at the supply house all loaded up.....

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And back at my place with some 2x4's I picked up at HD......

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Today I pull the photon torpedo of a roof carrier (The ACTUAL photon torpedo they Shot Spock down to Genesis Planet on in Star Trek II) out of the garage to put some shinola on it. Trivia- If you watch the blueray edition of "The Wrath of Kahn" director's cut- you can even see the Yakima sticker on the photon as it shoots from the Enterpise.

On the car it will go for this summer's beach trip. Will see how it fits on the new wagon.

Dead Spock not included.

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Your Azaleas are in bloom, too, Ron! ;)

My rear patio re-roof project is going great! I only have 2 more panels to put up. Taking a break right now. This is a progress pic showing 10 panels which equals 30' in length.

I think I've gone up and down my step ladders about a million times so far!

I have a small piece of the gavalume I use for preinstall measuring - really helps!

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Building a dual battery box for the new to me travel trailer.
Will post some photos when I am sure that it is going to work! :)
Had picked up a kijiji find checker plate aluminum tool box for $50. Should have lots of material left over for another project after.
Was out at the trailer yesterday doing some maintenance and it was warm and sunny enough to test the A/C. All good so far.
Next will be the water system. It was 20 deg C yesterday and snowing today so the water system will have to wait for another week or two...

Aww..shucks.... Those things are anemic and need some love! :)

(nice progress on the roof today- I would have sliced my hands off on the corrugated metal by now)

Out here, Redbuds are the 20 foot high Azalea. They like the soil, and grow like weeds. Here is one of the lessor "weeds" I decided not to cut 5 years ago. It is going to consume the garage. I would like to quit my day job and harvest these suckers. Give it a week and it will be in full bloom.



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For the "what are you fixin' today" I replaced the steering wheel on my old xc.
Dirty/worn as sin. $30 on eBay and a new wheel later- "look, mom, no blown airbags!" in the transplant.

before
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after

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618785177.JPG


Not perfect, but definitely $30 better!
I've got a new volvo blue steering wheel emblem coming in from Russia!
Maybe I didn't need a new car. Perhaps I just needed a new steering wheel.
I thinking I've got dirty hands!

Got an Eastwood shipment yesterday and washed/waxed a couple cars with Meguiars ceramic car wax

Today I spent four hours rust-treating the underside of a 80k mile 17yo Michigan Toyota which was in surprisingly good shape overall. The old Subaru stayed still and the jack kept going up. Actually the clunky and binding NAPA Performer struts installed last summer had more rust. Most of that time was spent trying to get my HF HPLV touch up sprayer to work with the chemical. There is no thinning or cleanup instructions and I did try a little acetone which didn't make much difference. Ideally you want a small spray gun to get into the tight crevices of the suspension system without wasting product and making a drippy mess on rubber/brakes/etc. The car was parked on a piece of plastic.

Glasses and chemical mask for me, although it did not burn the skin or smell.

The Eastwood treatment liquid in the bottle is way too gelatinous and dried too quickly to work in a spray gun, even though the package suggested it. Drove me nuts. The spray bottle puts out way too much product by itself. The important thing to remember is that the rust is not sealed until it's covered on all sides of the pores. This gelatin stays where it lands and I wish it was slightly thinner. That would have been better when coating the hidden tops of objects. I ended up using a 3" chip brush to work it all in from a small container although a 2" or 1" would have been more precise in some spots.

The end result seems a bit like a hard lacquer coating. It needs 48hr curing before topcoat. I also bought 2 cans of chassis black, 1 can chassis primer, some 'encapsulator' direct paint, 2 cans 360 inner-rail paint, 2 cans high temp exhaust silver, 6 cans undercoat. I will wrap the sides.

And then I am done...except for the Fluid Film inner 360 inner chassis injection after that just to be sure. Plus touch-up on some paint boogers.
Hah. I stepped in it this time.

Getting ready for irrigation season
 

Lawn mowers must be like boat......put one away in the fall running perfectly and the next spring all sorts of issues.

Coded the new LCM (high tech naw for the light switch) to the BMW. Now the tamper dot is gone.

Still trying to figure out how to code the LED taillights to the LCM.

Vorshlag camber plates will be here Tuesday. I’ll install them and get the BMW aligned and corner weighted. Track day is memorial day weekend.

Second day of rust treatment:
The Eastwood liquid converter applied yesterday looks chalky blue in places. Not black. Probably applied too thick, not shaken enough, and it's been cold at nights here. Operator error is usually the cause. I will give it extra time before topcoat.

Used 3 cans of rubberized under-coater which covered 80% of the large surfaces with at least a thin layer. 6 cans should be plenty for the car. I did the deep corners first and then the flats with extra at the corners where leaves/dirt/water will collect. One section at a time. The cans sprayed perfectly and precisely.

Unlike the too-gelatinous imo rust converter, the inner frame rail paint sprayed fast and was dripping everywhere. There was definitely a strong chemical smell. The hose assembly is tiny, snakes into small holes, and sprays well under very high pressure. I blew it out afterwards and hopefully will be able to use it for other projects. Just like the movie title this can was gone in under 30 seconds so you have to be fast and move it around to all the corners. Two cans will not be enough for the A-arms, front sub frame, and rockers. I'm going to follow up with Fluid Film for full coverage. The hose needs to be preconditioned or it will curl up inside the frame. It is also only 24" and not long enough for long pieces.

I've been cutting, trimming, whacking, dragging, & clearing an area about 100 yds. long on the slope above my house. Almost finished except for the dragging/landscape raking and burning later on. Hadn't done that for some time, so the job wasn't small, but had to be done (not required though) because of the coming fire season. I'm learning my age. A couple of years ago, I could do this all day, day after day until it was finished. I may have to get some help in years to come. My wife says some neighbors have seen rattlers, but I haven't so far. Looking forward to finishing.

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My collection so far for burning.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618871835.jpg

Two of my helpers.
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I'm really glad to have my big weed whacker/trimmer, chain saw, and tractor - though I have to rake & drag it all downslope to push it around with the tractor.

Marv, I'm similarly colour coordinated. I've got a Husqvarna Rancher 455 and a Husqvarna weed whacker too.

Bill, they work great. My other weed whacker is a heavy duty electric, that I use for most of the regular stuff. I also have an ancient brush mower that does a great job but is real work to manuever around. We're supposed to have a high probability of a bad fire season, plus we're in a drought, so I'm tryiing to hit it soon enough to maybe get a head start.

Got the LED taillights working tonight. Now I can drive at night.

Oh good luck with that. How frightening. Yes, I guess all you can do is prep' up by removing long grass and anything that will burn and migrate the fire.

Not my house, but my daily grind.

Double the size of the kitchen, remodeled the entire first floor. Still the house isn't done, we go upstairs next year. Its almost done just need a few more finishing touches and paint. Thank goodness home owner is doing this himself.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618947134.JPG

When I not out riding my bike or working on someone's house. I am a slave to my family. Tore out the upstairs deck about 6-7 years ago when I remodeled the family room and talked about building a new one. Wife put her foot down, (happy wife, happy life) now my 13 and 15 year olds are strong enough to hump lumber, we started our spring time Covid project. Get the asses out of the house 2-3 hours daily from playing games. Here they are working together tightening the bolts on the metal framing bracket hanging over 25 feet in the air. They pretty much bolted the whole thing together themselves (I rented a lift to get a giant 6x16' girder in place). Couple pics of the on going project.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618948289.JPG
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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1618948289.jpg

Strange, I can't seem to load one more pic? Its taken with the same cell phone around the same time. Weird. It didn't load the other day neither.

Fix fail. Karcher 4000psi pressure washer has no pressure. I took it apart half a dozen times and couldnt find any problems with it all looks good inside. Gave up and put it back in the shed. Then made a couple upper door hinges for early jeep cj-5 for a customer

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