Kind of a Setback

Went in and checked on the old tractor today.

All the sheet metal except the hood has to be completely sanded down again and repainted because the precleaner solution interacted with the hardner somehow and the paint "shrunk" and cracked.

Feel sorry for that young lad who is doing the painting. He was really blue and down in the mouth this morning. :>(

Otherwise, she is starting to look like an IH tractor again, tho.

Allan

Did you get your wrist pin problem figured out? Ya seemed a tad down in the mouth this morning. :>(

Allan

They are solely underpaid on the paint jobs, in my opinion.

I say this because they are so darned picky, which I really like. They treat these old tractors just like their own as long as they are in their posession.

After all the oil leaks are found and repaired, they manually take the tractor clear down to the metal with scrapers and wire brushes. They charge me $1600 and say they are losing money.

I've watched 'em work and I believe it. Probably why they've got a line of tractors around the block just waiting to be done too.

Allan

They use 2150 with a hardner as far as I know. That's what they charged me for on the last one anyway.

I've never watched 'em do the rims, but I do know that they are the very last thing that is done (even after they scrape the tires) and I'm almost sure that they leave 'em on the rim somehow.

Dunno,

Allan

Would have been worse if it happened after you got it home. :<(

The next time he will have it looking better than new! :>)

I'm old and set in my ways. Gotta stay with the straight old 966 look that I'm used to. :>(

Yes Sir, this painter is just an absolute perfectionist and even if a little tiny run shows up, down she comes again.

But this is a lot of metal to redo. No rhyme nor reason to it either. Some items came out perfectly, others shriveled. He said he thinks the cleaner had not finished evaporating or something before he started shootin' it.

Dunno, poor guy.

Allan

casey

Ya don't understand. When this tractor came out, the boneheads were running IH. They simply 'spilled' all that black stripe paint on some of 'em. :>)

Allan

scotty

Come to think of it, it was painted on Saturday night. To much of the spirt in the thinner, ya 'spose? :>)

Allan

Don't let these guys know she'll be a worker...they might send the nuthouse out with a straight-jacket fer ya.

Looks great! Please enlighten us as to what part they are taping off in the grill area?

That is the oil cooler.

Allan

Yeah, I know about the straightjacket thing; lots of folks think I'm completely nuts doing things this way.

But, I figure if I can get away with having them put the tractor back in 'like new' condition, it is still going to end up being just a very small fraction of the cost of a new one nowadays.

I just cannot see dropping $80K on a silly tractor because the neighbor has one. Doesn't make sense to me. If it costs $4500 to put an engine in a tractor, that sure seems cheap to me, comparatively speaking.

Allan