Our Tractor Story

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June, 1999

6-4-99:  Carolyn told me the first annual Homer Township parade, which will be on the 3rd of July, was looking for participants, and asked if we could enter the tractor.  I said, sure!  She called them up, and we are now entry #46 in the parade.  They are looking for tires for their hay wagon, and if they can get it fixed up, we will pull it.  I put the platform and seat on the tractor.

6-5-99:  Carolyn and I drove to Waterloo, Illinois to the Saint Louis Two Cylinder Club's Seventh annual get together at the American Legion Hall.

We stopped in at Timmermann Implements, the John Deere dealer in Litchfield, Illinois, and visited with Bill Timmermann, who's dad, Mel Timmermann, owned this tractor before Jeff Bergman owned it.  Bill said that Mel had the tractor for several years at the dealership, and was going to restore it.  He was not able to do it, and sold the tractor to Jeff about ten years ago.

6-6-99:  The Saint Louis Two Cylinder Club's event was on Sunday, the 6th.  They had a hundred or so tractors, including a model G hi-crop, a model 820 Industrial, a pair of 420C's and a model BO crawler, a few GP's, A's, B's, D's, H's one LA and quite a few LP powered tractors.  There were Farmalls, MM's, one Oliver 77, some Fords and Fordsons, and an Earthworks, made in Burbank, California!  We met a fellow with a 1944 model B, who just got his tractor finished, and we talked some about restoring old tractors.  He said he has been working on his for four years.

Click here to see the Waterloo Illinois meet.

6-8-99:  Started it up to make sure all is well.  It is.  I need to clean the dirt off and put the final paint and decals on.

6-13-99:  Carolyn and I went to Builder's Square and Home Depot to pick up supplies.  We bought 4 belt sander belts and six plastic drop cloths.

6-15-99:  Dan's buddy John came over tonight with the paint.  We went with Dupont color 262, John Deere Classic Green, with Dupont Centari acrylic enamel.  We will also use Dupont 8022S reducer and Cumberland Wet Look acrylic enamel catalyst 600 hardener.  The paint came to $157.01, from a local auto paint store.  We have to final sand the paint on the tractor with 320, and prime it one more time.  I also bought 4 cans of Kmart brand oven cleaner at $1.99 each for the rear wheels, as I found it works as well as Easy Off, and costs a dollar a can less.  I also tried the Auto Stripper, and it does only a little better than oven cleaner.

6-16-99:  Carolyn ordered the decals from Travis and Shirley Jorde, and a bunch of square head bolts and nuts for the drawbar, which has hex bolts and nuts, some of which are square head, but badly worn, and some are hex head and have to be replaced with square head.  I started taking the wheels off, and could not get the clamps loose from the hubs, even with a 3/4 inch breaker bar and all my weight on the bar.  I decide it may be best to unbolt the wheels from the hubs.  I centered the tractor in the garage, and jacked it up a few inches and put it on jack stands.  I took the wheels off, and stared spraying the hubs and wheels with oven cleaner.  I let it set overnight.

6-17-99:  Carolyn went to Ace to get the 320 sandpaper and some masking tape.  When I got home from work, I sprayed more oven cleaner on the wheels, and started taking the old paint off.  The wheel on the left is a John Deere wheel, part number JD1260R, right on the plate.  The wheel on the right side is RED under the yellow paint, and it doesn't want to come off.  Someone at the Waterloo tractor club event said the wheel may not be a Deere wheel, as it is a full plate, with no slots at the rim.  I will look for a new wheel that matches the wheel on the left side.  Carolyn and I went to Wal-Mart to buy some rust converter and auto paint stripper for the red paint on the right wheel.

Click here to see the mystery wheel.

6-18-99:  I used the power wire brush to get all the paint off the wheels, and then switched to the grinder wheel to smooth the repair welds on the left wheel, and then I applied two coats of rust converter to the wheels and hubs.  The decals arrived today, and they are NICE.  ($65.00 including a 10% trademark fee to John Deere and $5.00 shipping.)

6-19-99:  I spent the whole day sanding the hood with 320 wet sandpaper, to get it as smooth as I can.  I also sanded the steering shaft, post, shifters, air cleaner, tappet cover, brake drums, clutch and flywheel.  I am bushed.  I feel like I just did the "Karate Kid" movie with the "wax on-wax off" scene repeated all day.  I picked up the High Volume Low Pressure spray equipment at Rental Max.  I covered and masked the wheels, front and rear, the gauges and glass fuel bowl, number plate, cylinder release valves, spark plugs, wires and magneto cap.  I spray painted the wheels with John Deere Yellow.  Pat Noonan stopped by, and I told him that we will paint the tractor green tomorrow.

6-20-99:  Pat arrived at 10:00, with John a few minutes later.  We set the gun up, mixed the paint, and John got to work.  We put a total of three coats on waiting 10 minutes between each coat, and let it set a half hour.  The four of us looked it over, finding where a little more paint would help, and John hit it where necessary. Pizza and ice cold tea for lunch.  Finished painting in 3 hours, and Pat and I took the spray rig back.  Pat and I put the wheels back on, and Dan and John took the masking material off.

Click here to see John paint the tractor.

6-23-99:  The square head bolts arrived from Correct Connection.  I changed the bolts on the drawbar, and found that the front bolt on the drawbar was a 5/8" bolt, and it should be a 3/4" one.  The drawbar has about one inch of forward/backward free play, so that explains part of it.  The parts book shows a spacer for the bolt that connects the swivel to the support frames, and it is missing, which adds explains the rest of the free-play.

6-26-99:  I picked up a 5/8" X 4" hitch pin at Ace hardware, along with a 3/4" X 1" X 2" bushing for the drawbar, and a can of J.D. Green touchup paint.  I put the bushing in the drawbar swivel, and the free-play is now about 1/4".

6-27-99:  Decal day, and I am ready to put them on.  Pat Noonan, Dan and John all came over to help.  The paint has set for a week, and we used 1600 wet/dry to color sand the hood, then rubbed it down with Dupont #7 rubbing compound, and finished with Turtle Wax.  The decals went on without any fuss, and look real pretty.  I am not going to put the seat decal or the crankcase breather decal on, as I will get the correct style seat (this one doesn't have any holes) and the hand start crank case cover and breather to replace the electric start breather that came with the tractor.  Carolyn, Pat and I took the tractor over to the park and took some pictures.

Click here to see photos of the finished tractor.

Clickhereto go to July.