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Nathans tractor


flyingbrick

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hi all.

Bought a jigsaw blade and cut out the holes for my spotlights.20180629_164238-756x1008.jpg.959fe9840c7b56c867ebb618c30b8697.jpg

Then i threw the reproduction (but still old) lower panel onto the original side panels. Aside from the obvious rust- for some reason they just do not fit as must have been hit more than once on that corner.

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Conundrum. The tractor came with one new panel.

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however this one new panel is actually for a petrol MF35 rather than a diesel so is a bit shorter than is required. The plan is to  cut the bottom section off the new panel and weld it onto the bottom of the old panel... then buy another good side panel for the other side so that I can do the same. Seems weird using perfectly good panels as the donors but reality is that they just dont fit as good as old (and have a lot less caracter)

Then i took my grille and sanded all of the etch primer off the face.

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Then I sprayed it black.

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Then i sanded the black off the face and coated in penetrol.

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The photo honestly doesn't show how damn cool it looks and it was quick and easy as hell.

Main purpose of only sanding high spots was because I couldn't be assed sanding the whole thing. it would have taken me hours to get all the primer off.

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As mentioned many times- the tractor came with new new(ish) presumably chinese replacement panels. It is actually unbelievable how poorly they fit and how much extra work they added.

I bolted the old sides to the underside of the hood and took my time to get everything aligned properly (lots of bending and hammer work)

Slotting the new panel into place shows just how bent the old stuff is! 

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Easy fix.

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Next I clamped the lower panel into place to check fitment with what remains of the sides.

The left side was good. The right side was formed 5mm wider (in the new panel) so had a terrible overhang inward into where the grille sits.

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The new panel also poorly replicated the factory attachment method- the heads of these welded bolts are too thick so the nut and washer never actually has a chance to clamp it into place.

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Paused for a bit and decided to clamp /hammer everything together in exactly the right place and drill/screw the pieces together through the 4 layers of metal in this seam which worked bloody well- and now nothing can wiggle apart or move.

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Test fitting the grille showed how poorly this lower panel was made. the corners on both sides both completely different and too large of a radius.

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So used grille as a template.

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And heated/hammered the corners out until everything fit together (Seeing it all fit together for the first time was a cool moment- all i got from the farmer was a pile of bits!)

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Check out how consistent the quality of this stuff is.20180630_125406-756x1008.jpg.213c2edb859a4d0838577bb11b152e46.jpg

Now this bolt here is supposed to hold the bottom of the side panel down...

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test fit showed that it was just plain wrong.

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So holes will be slotted to hold it in the correct position:

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I do believe that its a combination of both the reproduction side panel and the front panel being poorly made- I do see complete sets of parts being sold (for like 2k!) sides, hood, grille and lower panel- they must all be made in the same factory and essentially be a matched set designed to work with one another...

Thats enough for today. 

 

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i guess on the positive side we all get lots of bodywork experience. I'm getting heaps better at hammering out dents and general smoothing of bodywork. Helps that the tractor stuff has access to the back.

Also- have discovered that removing paint with a wire cup wheel is 5x faster if you heat the paint with a torch first. Holy shit.

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3 hours ago, rustisize said:

Those are made in Pakistan i believe.  Some super abusive old racist cunt used to drink vodka while swearing at me for hours while making me fit those repro' panels, the fit is terrible and i had to do many similar things to make them fit. 

 

Is that that place on the side of the main highway heading west?

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2 hours ago, tortron said:

Paint strip disks far out perform wire cup brushes (and stripper)

 

Can you go ahead and nickle or copper plate this please

I've done stuff like that in a bath with a big bag of copper sulfate.  Oxidizes pretty quick though.

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55 minutes ago, flyingbrick said:

copper is an amazing idea.... hmmmmmn. I do like the silver though.

 

If you're serious i have used a copper plate faced with a kitchen sponge soaked in copper sulfate and connected to a battery charger to wipe copper plating on things.

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Looking good man, you know yer maturing with age when you can appreciate fine agricultural equipments. 

You looking to do some work with this or just work towards immaculate patina? 

I need a tractor and want something vintage but at the same time want to be able to do tractor stuff with it. Any advice for a tractor noob given the above? 

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