So, I bought one. Now don't know what I'm doing

[docmirror]

Here's the 'fix' on my hood pivot. It's not going to be pretty. The first pic shows a cut piece of sheet on the end of the hood where the pivot hole has been hogged out. Next ic is the other side, plate in place showing the giant hole. Third pic is some weld on the plate. Last pic is the piece of sheet metal. I"m putting one each on both sides of the old hogged hole. I have to fix my welder before going further. I have a jam in the line feed.

 

[docmirror]

Closing out this thread. Today was clean up and finish up all small things left. I had a leak in the water pump inlet and I used a sander to clean off a bunch of rot. Put some form-a-gasket on it, and let it set for a bit. Put the top hose back on and put on new clamps. Filled with more anti-freeze, and it seems to be sealed up.

Not such great luck with the steering gear. I took the plug out and looked pretty dry in there. I added a qt of 90Wt, and after a few hours, noticed the gear lube leaking down the case, coming from the left side steering arm bellcrank shaft. Oh well. Once the level gets below the bellcrank shaft seal, it'll have some lube left in it.

Adjusted the clutch pedal as it had some pre-load on the bearing. Now it's fine. Put the batt hold-down on, and torqued the cables gently. Then, fitted the hood and grill. It was not easy, that thing is awkward to handle. I got it on, and then used the hood latch handle in the back where the panel is located to latch it tight. Then, I propped up the front so it was off the radiator cap, and drilled the side holes in my new plate. I used a pair of 7/16" bolts, and nuts for the pivot action. I have to add a pair of locking nuts on the end of the through pivot bolts later. It pivots fine, and the handle locks down tight. It's still ugly as sin, but it operates correctly. If I find a suitable used hood and grill I would replace it, but most likely the ones I would find will be just as bad.

Spent some quality time with the grease gun, and it was obvious that it's been a long time since the unit had seen any grease. I got all the zerks serviced. Re-checked the hyd fluid and it's right at the top of the setting. The lift works perfect, and picks up my new blade easy. Cleaned up some wiring down under the hood. There was a real slow drip from the sediment bowl screw out fitting. I tightened the gland nut behind the knob just a tiny bit and it's stopped drooling.

Once I got it in fettle, I took it out for some blade work. Lucky, all my gauges are working well. I showed 4-5 amp charge after starting, and then it settled down near zero. Cold oil pressure is almost 30PSI. After 20 min of work, testing all gears, and brakes the temp was stable at 160F, 22PSI pressure and zero on the ammeter. Still looks a bit rough, the hood and grill need plenty of work to make it nice. I'll do some pounding out and sanding, and then red paint. I put it on the trailer and it's heading for CO and doing some dirt work, landscape, driveway smoothing, and likely some snow removal. I might even do my neighbor's driveway if she's nice to me.

Original cost; $200. Total materials ~ $740. I estimate roughly 90 hours off and on, but it was piecemeal work where I had other projects working, and spent casual time on it. Should be good for another 400 hours of service with regular maint. It might be sacrilege, but I'm considering boring a decent size hole at the gas tank filler, and put a flap door on it. I don't like tipping the whole hood up every time I want to put fuel in. That is the only feature of my old Fords that I like. I can put gas in just by flicking open the flap door in the hood.

Overall very satisfied with my investment. I likely could only get $600-800 on the market so no profit, but at least it's not going to be melted down.

 

[Tom H.]

Refresh of this thread. I have a working TO-30 today. Took a lot of this and that, but finally drove it around the hangar and put a half mile on it. List of things done, if I can remember it all, starting from the front to the back:
New front tubes; Radiator rodded, a few small leaks sealed up; new t-stat, upper and lower rad hoses and clamps; 12V alt rebuilt; new plugs; dist and all ignition bits; carb rebuilt; gas tank; fuel petcock; oil pan gasket, filter, filler cap, new solenoid, key start, battery; trans fluid, stick shift boot; both drums lathed smooth, new brake shoes on left(badly worn), paint.

All in with the $200 price tag of the unit I'm at about $930 total investment plus at least 40 hours. The remaining stuff is decorative or trim work. I'm welding new steel into the nose of the hood where it pivots as the old pivot holes could fit my wrist through. Some dings and dents pounded out, wire up the headlights again, and finish my two-tone gold and red paint in some spots.

The lift works flawless with nice new hyd fluid, clutch is tight and both brakes now work well. It's not going to be a full restore, but will soon head for CO and the life of light mowing and winter snow moving. Was a fun project, and I'm happy it didn't get broken up into metal and scrapped completely.

Well done and welcome to our family.

Tom