View Full Version : My project for this winter
I always wanted to learn to run a grader so I bought this one. First I beleave one should know a piece of equipment inside/out befor they become a good operator so I thought I would go through this one and repair anything I could find wrong. also I would strip all the old paint (3 different colors) off it and repaint it my co. colors. This is the first picture of it I have after steam cleaning.
That picture was taken in Dec. when I got it to the shop.
This is ware it is at today Feb 21.
Some is in primer. I have replaced a few seals in 2 rams also replaced one ram and did some welding repair to it. Found a operators manual on e-bay also a parts manual.
Motor runs good but will need a few gaskets and cleaned up a bit. Also the wireing was shot/
, cutup by who ever had it before the last guy, and all needs replaced.
Boy this looks like a lot of work. These controls all need rebuilt. Hope 2 months is long enough. I would like it running by May.
I am also redoing a 975 bobcat which I also picked up this winter to replace one that I have been using for 23 years.
I figure I will have about $7,000 invested in it when done. I can make that back in 10 days of plowing with it.
Cab removed and paint stripped.
This is an acid eching epoxy primer. works great aginst rust. The black is for the border around the red to fallow.
Here it is with the red and white. Next I will install the cab with the heater and glass. The wheels will be red when I shoot some more on the grader.
Lawngodfather
02-21-2005, 09:25 PM
Looked like my shop...LOL
Plow and spreader, then trailer, now skid loader
on the other side of the grader all covered up is a 69 Z/28 waiting for paint. been there waiting for 3 years now. Maybe next fall. and there is another one at home also waiting for paint and to be put back together.
Pickering Snow
02-22-2005, 03:59 AM
Dwan'
Nice resto work nobody but you knows how much sweat time goes into doing what your doing but you and when its all done thes a sense of pride that cant be purchased nice work bud
grasshopper
02-22-2005, 08:37 AM
Wow that Bobcats going to look great, cant wait to see the rest of your progress on these machines in the next couple months!
snowplowjay
02-22-2005, 08:56 AM
Boy you've got some interesting work going on there :D
I too cannot wait to see the progress that you make as the year goes by :D
NICE WORK SO FAR!!!
Jay
Lawngodfather
02-22-2005, 06:47 PM
How about some pics of the Camero?
Also how much longer is it winter by you?
I'll dig out some older ones of the camaros. For now just look at the piece of plastic and imagen one under it. LOL
winter should last for another month here. Back in 1974 we had 4' fall on April 1st. March average is 28" if I remember right.
Mark F
02-22-2005, 09:17 PM
Holy Cow You've been busy!
Your wife must think you have A girl friend.
I know I can't be in my garage for a hour and mines like " what are you doing, when will you be done, aren't you finished yet, can't you do that tommerow when Im at work. Keep up the good work!
Hi Mark woundering when you would find me here.
Sometimes I think she would like me to move in over at the shop, Then she wouldn't have to cleanup after me.
Although latley she has been making dinner to get me to come home.
Mark F
02-22-2005, 09:30 PM
I found this place the other day, signed up, nice zone.
I think if I had A shop that far from my house my wife would bail on me. Keep those pictures coming everyboby sounds like they love them.
WI Winterman
02-22-2005, 09:52 PM
:) well done Dwan! great pictures, and I'm sure it will sparkle plenty soon! congrats!
those wheels on the Bobcat look pretty mean...were those standard on the early models?
Camero pics!!! pleeeze!!!
and I sure hope you've got the 302 cleaned up and ready for it as well :cool:
do you have a pic of that? (maybe start another thread for it)
:)
No those are just 9x20 bud weels same I have on one of my old dump trucks. To tell the trouth I never knew they would fit til I bought that machine and they came on it. I am glad they do fit because I can now try any recap tire on it I want. They are 100/20s I have an extra set of the original 1500/19.5 tires and wheels that came on that size machine. and yes the 302 is almost finished also.
Todays work was drilling out the holes in the steering linkage that were wore oblong (they were out of round by 1/4") from use to make them round again. Then making bushings to resize them back to 1" to fit the pins. also painting a small area of the main frame in front red and the front axle in primer.
Well I had red paint in the gun I shot the wheels on the bobcat so that part is finished.
The bobcat wheels are now red. Next will be some tuchup on the white then I will do the logo and lettering.
This shot is looking forward under the main beam.
TechEdFireman
02-24-2005, 05:13 AM
Doing an excellent job!
crashz
02-24-2005, 08:29 AM
Dwan,
How did you strip the machines of the old paint and rust? Did you sand blast? From the painting pics, they look really clean. They reason I ask is that sand blasting usually leaves a dull finish and surface roughness. There is also a lot of debate on the fact that it work hardens the surface of the metal. The Bobcat looks almost like you cleaned it by hand, as the lift arms are shiny. Just curious, because they are coming out real nice. Keep up the good work! :D
I use an enviormently frendly paint striper. let it set over night then use a 3000lb steam cleaner. I then sweep up the paint chips and turn them in at our hazordus waste clean up day.
on the stubern areas I hit them with a wire brush on a 4" Makita grinder, and scrape some by hand. Then wash with soap and water, steam again. then wipe it all down with lacure thinner. Then use martin-Senior Trio prime ( it is an acid eching epoxi primer). bad stuff to breath! Then topcoat with your favorite paint. on these I am also using Martin-Senior acrilic enamal with a catalic hardner. This is not my favorite paint but works great for this application. verry hard when dry and impervious to most cemicals including acid. Just it does not hold its gloss after 5 years or so.
Primer with activator costs about $150 per gallon but goes a long way as it is only the base coat of primer. If you need to fill ao any other work ues a cheeper primer over the Trio Prime. The top coat should be real heavy so to seal your work real good.
the wire brush abd lacure wash takes care of any rus that is there.
I don't have the luxery of a sand blaster here but if I did I would use walnut shell for a blasting material as it cleans better and leaves a smother finish. The shiney finish on the steal you see is because of the wire brush, it burnishes the steal to give it that look.
Nobody said it was easy work. I figure I will have over 2 months in just paint removal on the grader as I am removing every nut and bolt to clean around them 1 at a time.
Today I painted the front axle assembly and 3 of the 5 drive shafts gray. Will have pictures tomarrow maybe.
OldFord
02-24-2005, 05:34 PM
the skid steer is looking real nice. good job!
crashz
02-25-2005, 08:09 AM
Thanks Dwan!
We've always sandbasted our equipment because it seems the easiest and cheapest way to prep for paint on large steel parts. Sort of. I've done 4 dump bodies, 3 speaders ranging from 2 to 10 yds, a couple truck frames and a handfull of driveline parts. I built a portable booth to contain the "sandstorm" that occurs while blasting outdoors. It works well enough, but makes setup time even longer.
The problem is that most things don't require such a drastic cleaning, or they can't handle the blasting media (like anything sealed, or anything with machined parts). I'd like to get a steam cleaner, but we have to upgrade our well system for that.
Thanks for the tips. If you get the chance, could you tell me the name of the paint stripper you use?
it is some type of orange stuff i will get the name today, about $38 a gal. here should be much cheeper in the real world. I also use a turbo nozel on the preasure washer.
They call it "Citristrip" Paint & Varnish stripping gel. Get this it says it has a "fresh orange scent" Just what I want my grader to smell like, a giant orange.
mdb landscaping
02-25-2005, 01:48 PM
if you want another good rust encapsilator try this stuff. it works wicked good. we use it to coat the inside of our hydroseeder and when we repaint machines. i highly recommend it. it comes in a few colors too
http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&itemID=1130&keyword=16043Z
Lawngodfather
02-25-2005, 09:02 PM
I used airplane paint stripper.
Needed something powerful enough to eat the powdercoat off.
Steam cleaned
Then sandblasted and sanded with paper.
They make a cleaner you put your parts into and it cleans them pretty well and filteres the reclaimed water.
Costs about $3500.
I have a buddy with one, so I just pop on over and use his.
LGF, I use to use aircraft stripper but wanted to switch to something more enviormentaly frendly and found this stuff. cost a little more but seems to do just as good of a job and unlike aircraft stripper this stays active without drying out for 24 hours.
also there are no sand blasters large enough to do the job here in Juneau. The small one I have takes 4 hours just to do 1 wheel.
Do you think your buddy would mind if I put my grader in his cleaner? LOL
Here is some more progress. This piping is a bugger to clean under, Most of it I can move but some is under a part thet the previous owned welded on and untill I can fabracate new parts to replace what he did I will just have to clean this area as I go along.
More of the same mess but it is comming along.
I had to quit for a day as My waste oil heater needed cleaning and that is almost a full day job, which includes a shower when one is finished.
Lawngodfather
03-02-2005, 08:05 PM
Oh man, I feel for you on those........
The Z/28 next to the grader someone was asking about. next winters project.
I have redun this car 3 times over the last 30 years. some day maybe I wil get it right.
Here is progress on the Bobcat. The cab will be next unless I can find something else to break and repair.
dapgar
03-07-2005, 12:54 PM
Everything looks great Dwan! A lot of hard work, but in the end, you'll know everything about that grader and when it comes time to repair it later, you won't have to hire someone to do the work.
I can't wait to see that thing all painted up shiney red.
those skidsteer tires are awesome. I bet they go better in the snow than those wide ones that come on them.
Heron Cove PM
09-01-2005, 06:52 PM
So how are you making out?
Project "grader" got put on the back burner for the construction season. It is getting close to time to turn on that burner again. Front 1/2 is 90% finished. Next step is getting in the cab. Found a cloth seat that fits with power slide under it. (wrong color so may have to re due the cover).
Bobcat is up and running, still need to correct some of the wireing.
Both 69 Z/28 are still in the same condition as they were last winter.
Picked up a 55 t-bird and 2, 57 t-birds, Left to my wife after here father died. Shees more work.
Also bought a motorhome. I am going to have to retire just so I can work on my projects.
here is a rundown on some more of the grader work.
it set outside for 6 months then was moved back into the shop to ocupy space till I had time to work on it again.
more striping, more sanding, more priming. more inspecting, but not to many more repairs were needed.
more
This is a circle motor that had a broken ear which the last owner tried to repair and did not do it right. I found a used one and just replaced it. the fun part was in the timing of the valves to make it work right. 1 of the rams push well the other one pulls then they have to change operation at the end of the stroke by them self. Kind of like peddeling a bike. cleaned the replacement and primered it then 3 coats of urathine paint.
sorry for how dark the first picture is.
Moving on up the grader you can see there was a lot to do. The striping and wirebrushing was the dirty part. after the wire brushing I would acid ech the steel then wash it then apply a 2 part eching epoxi primer, after the primer then I had to scuf it then spray a sealer, next came 3 coats of Dupont urathine paint. the samd color as my F350's and L9000, plut most of my other equipment is painted.
more red with some of the black areas finished. I wanted to paint everything that would reflect light black and the main body/frame red like it was when new.The running gear, axles, drive shafts, (5 of them) transfer case, transmition and motor gray.
Next came an lod seat out of an SUV as the origional was not to my liking, it will be reapolstered before it is finaly mounted. also a shot of the motor area with the hood removed
Here I had a few days off so I did some work on my logo for the beast. There is not as much room on the grader to put my co's name as I would like, so I had to resize everything to make it fit.
JGresko
11-26-2006, 02:16 PM
Nice work on the machines,looks great. My father runs a 93 Kumotosu(sp?) Grader not sure on the size ,but it has a 5.9 Cummins with a 8spd trans(6 forward,2 reverse). He operates it for the the town he works for. We have to bring it to our house so we can trip it a repaint it,since they won't let the town manager do it behind the firehouse :scramble ,but I get paid to work on it so I am not complaining.
Well keep up the good work.
Thanks Korn
Some more of the hood. I could remove it and strating it out a bit. seems someone thought it was a good place to walk and bent the h%$$ out of it.
Here is the back axle ass in primer and finish gray.
Here is the cab in primer and a shot of the new lights. What do you think? a good place for thoes old plow lights that came from my Meyers plows I am replacing.
snowplowjay
11-26-2006, 05:29 PM
Looking great Dwan... Can't wait to see more pics :)
Jay
Pickering Snow
11-27-2006, 02:57 AM
Looks great Dwan thats a big project having done no resto that large before i would be curious on quanitys of paint at this point i can only image the cost you have in just primer and sealer and most people dont relize red is one of the most costly colors do to pigmets.
Again real nice work its very pain staking i know and my hats off to you on such a large resto project.
Well lets say our only local paint store doubbles the price of paint plus freight. So when I am done I will have more in the cost of paint then I paid for the grader. The last gal. of red I got was over $600 without hardner.
Pickering Snow
11-27-2006, 03:51 AM
Well lets say our only local paint store doubbles the price of paint plus freight. So when I am done I will have more in the cost of paint then I paid for the grader. The last gal. of red I got was over $600 without hardner.
LOL i hear ya on paint materials and again red is costly what are you using for paint? Dupont, ppg, Martain ? . We use to beable to get implement red up here in two stage and single for about 175 a gal , but its all custom mix now. The last gals of Red i bought in quanity was for the 60 resto and it was Duponts Hot hues and was 675 a gal and thats lower 48 pricing probley double for you i bet.
I know theres a ton of coverage area there in the pics and if you cutting in its double the app so i have no question your paint and materials are high.
People have no clue all these new colors the Big three are running with high peral contents are averaging 45 dollars for a pint or more .
I use to use Martin S but found it faided after about 3 to 5 years. It was also easy to get because we had 2 NAPA stores in town. I was forced to convert to Dupont because 1 of the NAPA stores closed and the other quit handling paint except dor a few factory premix colors, they got rid of there bulk paint because shelving was needed for more profitable items. I have found the Dupont polyurathine holds its gloss a lot longer but costs twice as much.
It has been a few years sence I have done any custom work but am looking forward to my next 2 projects. Both are 69 Z/28's one is a RS which will be yellow and black the other will eather be red and black or red and white. Both will have vinyl tops.
Work on the wheels. There are some tight spots here, wish there was a sand blaster avalable in this town, but there isn't so it all has to be done by hand.
Strip, etch, prime, seal, paint.
Notice in the second picture the ring. about 1 1/2" high layed around the tire on the edge of the rim protects the tire from over spray. Wish the last owner had of done something like that as I have to clean off his overspray from 6 years ago.
Then there are all the little parts like lugnuts etc.
The finished wheel. oops Looks like I am mising a lugnut and stud.
Do you know how hard it would be to get parts for this thing if it wernt for the internet?
Pickering Snow
11-27-2006, 03:56 PM
Here ya go to get you motivated on the Cameros i did this one this past spring Coddington Yellow with D-15 black about 40 hrs in the booth lol.
Project was a ground up took 17 months total with body and powertrain.
cat320
11-27-2006, 04:18 PM
Fred I know of a few guys here that wood drool over that car.
Dawn that grader is looking good. I can see you doing alot of prep time to make it last .
Fred you should be comended for what you did to that Z. I read about it earler this year.
When I get done I am going to give both of mine to a Vet. ME.
more on the grader
This is the way it sat in the shop when I was unable to work on it. Keept the dust and overspray off it or at least most of it.
A little red here and a little red there.
Then we mask a bit or is that a lot? Looks like I put a skirt on the old gal.
MDsnowPRO
04-04-2007, 05:57 PM
Getting close!
RibbleConstruction
04-04-2007, 10:58 PM
Cant wait to see this one done. Keep the pics coming as you work on it.
SIPLOWGUY
04-13-2007, 07:59 PM
Nice work!
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