General freshen up of 1967 Ford 4100

[mopardude318]

WOW. I just read this thread from start to finish. You have some awesome skills, great talent! Very nice work you've done here.

 

[Pete O]

I've had to put the tractor restoration aside for the past couple of months due to some more pressing jobs, this week I finally got back to doing some more stuff on the tractor so thought I'd resurrect this thread.
The instrument cluster was in a sad state

I found a clip on youtube
Instrument Panel Renovation - YouTube
where the guy reconditions the same cluster, got in touch with the very nice chap from Missouri and he sent me a copy of the photoshopped repaired fascia he has created. I did essentially the same process Jim shows in his video, plus repairing the broken needle. Before reassembling the cluster I tested the voltage stabiliser and it was shot, I replaced it with a DC to DC converter from eBay, by pure chance the eBay component mounted to the same holes on the cluster casting that the original bimetal stabiliser was screwed to.

I used a modern silicon sealant to seal the two halves of the casing rather than the strip of cellophane tape originally used. I also made up a sachet of silica gel by emptying a teabag and refilling it with silica cat litter, glued it into a void inside the cluster to absorb moisture out of the assembly and hopefully avoid condensation.

The cluster came up pretty well with the photoshopped fascia, repaired needle and fresh enamel on the surround.

 

[Dave M7040]

I've had to put the tractor restoration aside for the past couple of months due to some more pressing jobs, this week I finally got back to doing some more stuff on the tractor so thought I'd resurrect this thread.
The instrument cluster was in a sad state
View attachment 547709
I found a clip on youtube
Instrument Panel Renovation - YouTube
where the guy reconditions the same cluster, got in touch with the very nice chap from Missouri and he sent me a copy of the photoshopped repaired fascia he has created. I did essentially the same process Jim shows in his video, plus repairing the broken needle. Before reassembling the cluster I tested the voltage stabiliser and it was shot, I replaced it with a DC to DC converter from eBay, by pure chance the eBay component mounted to the same holes on the cluster casting that the original bimetal stabiliser was screwed to.
View attachment 547710
I used a modern silicon sealant to seal the two halves of the casing rather than the strip of cellophane tape originally used. I also made up a sachet of silica gel by emptying a teabag and refilling it with silica cat litter, glued it into a void inside the cluster to absorb moisture out of the assembly and hopefully avoid condensation.
View attachment 547714
The cluster came up pretty well with the photoshopped fascia, repaired needle and fresh enamel on the surround.
View attachment 547711

Great work.......

Do you plan on calibrating the tach?

For the next one you do, I have learned that home depot sells various sizes of silica gel packets cheap. A. friend was saving old ones from electronics purchased and used them in their luggage when traveling. They did not realize the silica absorbed so much moisture and then needed a regen by heating in a microwave to dry out any moisture.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DampRid-42-oz-Fragrance-Free-Moisture-Absorber-Refill-FG30K/100390413

When I look at a photo of an old tractor I had, I just gave upon the instrument panel, put a piece of plywood in the hole and installed the basic oil pressure and temp gauges. Looked really bad.
You will motivate a lot of owners there is a new life possible!
Dave M7040

 

[Pete O]

Thanks for the comments Dave. I couldn't think of anywhere close to me where they might sell silica gel sachets, I had about a gallon of the stuff sitting around from making sodium silicate for metal casting so the teabag solution semed reasonable. I was tempted to make an instrument panel with some generic gauges but when I saw Jim's video I changed my mind. Nice to keep it mostly original after doing so much work on it, and this task was quite a simple one compared with a lot of the hydraulic stuff. I'll compare the tacho against an analogue rev counter that I have, whether I decide to calibrate it might depend on how far out it is.

 

[TSO]

I just stumbled across this thread and have enjoyed the last hour of reading. Excellent work. I don't have 5% of your skills but would love to tackle something like this down the road. Looking forward to the finished product when it's all back together.

 

[3Lfarms]

Great work! I love to see these old work horses brought back. I keep wanting to acquire a John Deere model G like my dad had when I was a kid as a restoration project.

 

[Pete O]

I've got the tractor back in the shed to continue the 'freshen up' that has turned into almost a complete restoration. Fitted up the reconditioned instrument cluster, here it is insitu- I decided to zero the hour meter, given the fact that it had not been working for an unknown period, the numbers displayed were meaningless. At least now it will reflect a known starting point.


Made a start on stripping and painting the wheels, one rear wheel done so far. Wore out one wire cup wheel on the angle grinder cleaning this up.

That wheel centre casting is incredibly heavy, I had water ballast in the tyres but I suspect it may not be necessary with those wheel centres.



A bit of contrast was in order for the retainers


The end result is certainly an improvement. Who needs mag wheels.


I should get the other rear wheel done this week, then both the front rims.

 

[banjodunn]

G'day Pete looking the goods would prob recommend water in the tyres still it helps alot with traction and stability

Jon

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I've got the tractor back in the shed to continue the 'freshen up' that has turned into almost a complete restoration. Fitted up the reconditioned instrument cluster, here it is insitu- I decided to zero the hour meter, given the fact that it had not been working for an unknown period, the numbers displayed were meaningless. At least now it will reflect a known starting point.
View attachment 552786

Made a start on stripping and painting the wheels, one rear wheel done so far. Wore out one wire cup wheel on the angle grinder cleaning this up.
View attachment 552787 View attachment 552788
That wheel centre casting is incredibly heavy, I had water ballast in the tyres but I suspect it may not be necessary with those wheel centres.

View attachment 552789 View attachment 552790

A bit of contrast was in order for the retainers
View attachment 552791

The end result is certainly an improvement. Who needs mag wheels.
View attachment 552792

I should get the other rear wheel done this week, then both the front rims.

Pete your project results are looking awesome and I expect 50 years from now it may still have a lot of life left in it.

 

[Pete O]

G'day Pete looking the goods would prob recommend water in the tyres still it helps alot with traction and stability

Jon

Yes, on reflection, with the loader and my hilly property I don't want it less stable than it was, so water will go back in.

 

[Pete O]

Managed to get a little more work done on the tractor this week. Frustratingly, part of it was re-doing something that had already been attacked; the shaft that I built up with epoxy way back in post #2 of this thread was leaking hydraulic oil. i did a little firewood carting with the tractor a few weeks ago and when it got warmed up, it was marking it's territory.
This shaft runs through the bottom of the rear axle casing, the three pedals pivot on it. The problem was nothing to do with the epoxy repair- which was outboard of the axle casing- but the area that the seals run on was very finely pitted. I tried polishing it in the lathe but could not get the pitting cleaned up enough to risk putting it back together a second time. The following picture shows the pitting at the seal area.

I made up a new shaft. The small end, which is where the right-hand brake pedal pivots, is 1" diameter, the rest of the shaft is 1 1/8". There's a woodruff key that takes the torque from the left-hand brake pedal- the keyway is facing down in the photo- had to use a friend's milling machine to cut the keyway as mine is out of action. I re-used the lever arm off the end of the old shaft.

After re-assembling and refilling the 38litres of hydraulic oil, I got her warmed up again today and there's no leak. Hope it stays that way, I hate doing a job twice. Three times would be a real pain.

The old mudguards were rusted out beyond repair (beyond my panelwork skills that is) so I ordered a replacement pair, they are slightly smaller than the originals so I had to fabricate a pair of brackets to raise them 75mm. Painted them up:

and made a trial fitment today, needed to confirm the brackets work before I paint those.


Next task is to remove, strip and paint the front wheels. I'll paint the mudguard mounting brackets whilst I've got the white paint going. If my calculations are correct, I'll then be able to move on to reconditioning the loader.

 

[Pete O]

I've had a few family crises preventing much progress on the tractor refurb over the last little while, but I finally got a few things painted, got the tractor back on her feet and officially in a useable state, although there are still a few details to sort out. Also finally got it out of my workshop so that some other projects can get some attention. The FEL overhaul will have to wait until the weather warms up a bit here.

 

[ovrszd]

Very nice!!! This is the first 4100 I've saw. Thanks for the update.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Awesome restore job and a very nice tractor. We have a 1966 Ford 3000 in nice condition and a 1980 3600 that we picked up this last spring. It seems to be a good tractor but has set outside and uncovered for nearly 40 years so it looks weathered.

 

[greggyy]

G'day looking good there Pete, it is a shame the quality of some of the Bare co products have slipped in the last twelve months or so, what part of vic are you in?

Nice VH....Hey Charger ! (only Aussies will know about this I suspect)

 

[greggyy]

Well, Pete....you killed it....lol.....my head hurts thinking about what you have done along with the things that most properties need doing, I have fully stripped and built a few things, but what annoys me most now is all the other things I have to do, needing glasses, and actually forgetting where I put some things down after a week or so, but I have CCTV in my shed, I might put a few more cams in

Well done, I know I would have put up with leaks, my hat is off to you.

 

[slim357]

I needed the little turnbuckle assembly on the draft contro arm but it isn稚 made anymore so I had to make one.

 

[slim357]

so, you were able to get your selector valve apart? Were there any press type covers on the valve or could you unscrew a cover to get to the Valve? Did your valve look anything like mine?

 

[sixdogs]

What a fine restoration and rebuild job. Excellent workmanship and sense of pride in your work. Very humbling to those of us not as capable.

 

[Pete O]

so, you were able to get your selector valve apart? Were there any press type covers on the valve or could you unscrew a cover to get to the Valve? DView attachment 587021id your valve look anything like mine?

Hi Slim, haven't looked in here for a while so I was surprised to see this thread back on page 1. My diverter valve is the same as yours, I thought I had posted some details of when I dismantled it but I just looked back over the thread and there's nothing on this. It was a pain to dismantle, only because all the moving parts were gunked up and seized just like the rest of the machine. There's a plug / cap in one of the openings at the top left of your photo that has to be prised off, I don't recall what was behind that particular cap but there's a shuttle valve that is supposed to move freely in one of the bores. Mine was stuck solid and I had to make a small expanding mandrel for a slide hammer to get it out. Once it was all cleaned up, the parts slide freely so you may be lucky and be able to dismantle it without having to make any special tools. If I can find any photos of mine dismantled I'll post them here.