Picture update of BD rebuild

[mikeinnh]

I saw the video of this crawler awhile ago on you tube, its amazing how decent it ran with all the broken parts you mentioned! how did you find that so far back in the woods? whats the story behind it? It really looks great, not sure if even looked that good outta the showroom, great job, cant wait to see it when its done!

[dadjon]

Here's a couple pictures of the broken piston and thrust washers.    [attachment=2:3sylt184]broken piston.JPG[/attachment:3sylt184][attachment=1:3sylt184]thrust washer.JPG[/attachment:3sylt184]




Here's the inside of differential housing after we drained it. It was filled mostly with water, dirt and rust.
All the bearings were good but did have to replace steering drum bushings and rebuild oil pump. The steering drums wobbled back and forth about 3/4" and the bushings were wore almost completely through.[attachment=0:3sylt184]dirty diff.JPG[/attachment:3sylt184]

[dadjon]

how did you find that so far back in the woods? whats the story behind it? It really looks great, not sure if even looked that good outta the showroom, great job, cant wait to see it when its done!

My sons and I like restoring garden tractors, motorcycles, jeeps, trucks and old rototillers. We've also been going to the Brownsville steam show since the early 80's. My youngest son goes to the steam show grounds in the summer months and helps pick up sticks and cut grass. He is also crazy about anything with tracks. So during the May 09 show I told some people that I was looking for a small crawler that I could work on with my sons. About a month later I got a call about a Caterpillar D4 that had been sitting at a saw mill for the past 17 years buried in sawdust. It was only used to drive the saw mill so the undercarriage was very good.I really wanted to get this Cat but I could not find anyone with a truck large enough to load and haul it in the next few days so the dozer was scrapped   . One week after this I was picking my son up from the show grounds and there was a couple of the guys that told me about the d4, working on a Farmall . As I was telling them the sad fate of the D4 one of them said; Hey what about the old dozer sitting in the woods on the property next to the show grounds. The other guy says; Yea, I think its still there. So they pointed my sons and I in the general direction of where they thought it was and we walked back and forth for about 35 min. Then we saw some yellow through the trees and sure enough there it was buried in trees and brush, we walked right past it at least 4 times before one of us saw it. I then tracked the owner down , asked him if he would sell it and he said yes. He told me that he bought it at an estate auction when the original owner died and that the original owner was one of the guys that started the steam show. He used it to drag logs to the saw mill on the show grounds before the show was even there. He also said that it had a loader on it but it was sold separately at the auction and the person that bought it cut it up for scrap.  
I would eventually like to get a Heil blade for it or build my own blade we'll see.

[mikeinnh]

thats a pretty good story/history on your rig, too bad about the cat, atleast something good came out of it. and you were able to drive it out too!

[Bob]

I've got a complete blade setup with your name on it! I'd make you a deal on it and may be able to deliver it to the show.

Did you sandblast or just wirewheel the crud off? I prefer sandblasting, but hate, no despise doing it.

[dadjon]

Bob,
Cool!!  I'm looking forward to working out a deal.  Let me know how you want to get in touch.

Pressure washer, wire brushes, lots of grinding.  And did I mention wire brushes and grinding??
I did burn up two 4 1/2" grinders in the process.

[Bob]

I'll PM you my email.

[dadjon]

OK Bob i'll watch for your pm. Or i'll just pm you my e-mail.
thanks
John

[dadjon]

I still have some pictures to put on here. But for now i posted a link to a video of us starting it last week.
The link is in the video clip sharing forum on this site.

John

[dadjon]

Here's some pictures of the hood before, during and after. For some reason someone cut a hole in the hood right above the voltage regulator   . Easy access I guess. other than that the hood was in pretty good shape.

John[attachment=2:1245lt8f]032.JPG[/attachment:1245lt8f][attachment=1:1245lt8f]042.JPG[/attachment:1245lt8f][attachment=0:1245lt8f]002.JPG[/attachment:1245lt8f]

[hotratz]

That's the stuff I like to see. Funny you posted this. My hood is one of the last pieces I have left to do. As a matter of fact it's in the bare metal stage right now and I'm banging it back into shape. Very inspiring!

[dadjon]

Hotratz
I'm glad to be an inspiration to someone , I made my wife read this. On a serious note though, the work you did on the dash of your OC is much better than my hood. The pictures make the hood look flawless but it still has many imperfections in it. I do appreciate the comments though. Isn't it amazing what some cleaning and paint can do?

John

[hotratz]

Well, I'm sure my hood isn't going to be show room quality when I get done with it, It was just way too wrinkled when I started and I'm not a body man by any means. Isn't it amazing how many hours of unnoticed progress it takes before you actually see results. Stuff that needs to be done that nobody will ever see. I wish it was as simple as clean and paint. I've probably got at least 60-80+ hours in that dash alone.  

[dadjon]

Yeah, I know what you mean about unseen hours.  I probably have 25 hours restoring the original viscometer back to original operating condition.  I even recruited 2 hours of my wife's time to design and print the guage face.  The clean and paint comment wasn't enough of a comment.  :roll: .   But it's all good when you love doing it .

John

[Bob]

I've got a Viscometer you can fix up too! I've never seen a Viscometer in good shape. I do have one that you can still see a little.