the owner called today to see the progress first hand and he is delighted so far , he dropped off a load more useful bits and he also dropped the rubber dust boots that seal the handbrake cables to the backing plates , very hard to source these little blighter but a nice addition to the restoration .
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so its update time again guys , we put in a full 12 hour shift in the workshop yesterday , long day but we got plenty done and we are making good progress despite a few minor set backs , anyway first thing was to get the rest of the tractor stripped down ready for another good soaking in jizer and a final wash .
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as you can see in some of the pictures we have pulled the shafts for the brake pedals and i have new brass bushings to go in there along with a new set of pedals should leave her as good as new , you will also see in another picture that the safety start switch has been damaged at some stage , i have a new one to go in as well .
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i had to splash out on a new vice as the " others " made bits of the old one trying to sledge something while it was in the vice !!! not recommended , anyway i got a new 10" Jefferson industrial swivel vice with quick release slide , it is a fair brute of a thing and the biggest , strongest one i could get from mackeys so hopefully they wont manage to smash this one !!!
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the tractor is now split so that we could get access to the shaft that runs to the clutch pedal and activates the release bearing , i could not take any pictures as the battery went on the phone , i will take some tomorrow , one of the shafts is badly worn so i will either get a new one made or order a new one from QTP and again i have a set of new brass bushings to go into her and a new clutch pedal to leave her like new again , we had a close look at the clutch itself and it is in very good condition so it should have plenty of life left in it .
that's it for now guys but i will have another update tomorrow evening , thanks for looking .
we got some new parts delivered up on Saturday evening including an original Lucas horn button and some real nice " proper type " hose clips and the sought after brass bush that holds the elusive rubber boot onto the brake cable on the rear hubs , ive been informed that this has come from America and was the only one in stock anywhere !!!!
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there is some heavy pitting here and there in the areas where the water might lie but overall she is very solid and a great base to work from , i cleaned some of it off with the 9" grinder and wire brush and it came up surprisingly well , you will notice in one of the pictures that she has an original " rod " operated wiper motor , it would be nice to source one of these and keep the thing as original as possible , the owner has been on to someone that still has spares for Duncan cabs so fingers crossed .
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for those that are interested we only use " knotted " wire brushes from Jefferson , we have tried numerous different makes over the years and they all tend to shred themselves after very little use and you end up with a belly full of shards of wire ( got one embedded in my hand one day , such a job to get him out ) , you can work the Jefferson ones right down to the nib with out a bother .
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hello all , im back after a wee hiatus , myself and the wife were ten years married last weekend and she whisked me away for a night to the farnham estate in cavan , the brother has been slaving away on his own while i was absent so i dont have a lot of pictures to share but we have mostly been cleaning flat out and ive tried my hand at a bit of sand blasting yesterday too , this turned out to be a fecking nightmare because i got fairly coarse grit silicone based sand and it wouldn't go through the fecking nozzle on the blaster so i had to modify one from an old air connection , it worked alright but was a bit heavy on the sand so it didn't have the desired effect i was looking for , anyway you live and learn i guess , i will be better prepared the next time ,
anyway the first few pictures show the new clutch pedal/shafts ( we had to get the longer of the two made as it was not available from stock ) and brass bushings fitted and the tractor back together .
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ive ordered a few different size tips to control the sand better and i will have another lash at it soon , i really wanted to get into all the corners and impossible to reach areas on the cab especially where i cant get with the wire brush !
Looks like it's shaping up to be another first class job. Must admit I wouldn't have the patience to restore a Duncan cab though as I always thought they were one of the ugliest things ever made. Still better than getting wet though I suppose and sat inside you're the only one who can't see it.
Out of interest how do you redrill the holes in bits like the stabiliser brackets after you have built them up with weld?