A Story About "Allie", The 1953 WD

I am Back! a few months of working on tractors without actually updating the forum.. Time to update! 

Got the fuel tank, grille and air cleaner primed and painted 

As well as installed onto the tractor. didn't take long to install that is for sure! 

I had repaired the original hood, Purchased new fenders from DJS as well as a toolbox. Took apart the snap coupler setup and painted all of it orange. Lots and lots of bodywork went into those fenders to make them smooth.. I could have hammered steel into a fender smoother than that! pretty disappointed with the fenders. First tin purchased online and it was almost worthy of repairing the old ones with the amount of work i had into them.. 

Here the tractor sits after all the pieces were painted about a day earlier. 

I was able to get some decals on about 1 week after all the items were painted. They turned out pretty good. After researching for hours on the decal placement.

Rim repair was next. Man was I dreading this!!  I was able to get the tires removed by the local tire shop, about 600lbs of calcium was removed.. I then started with repairs using my donor 24" rim. After about 8 hours i had the rims repaired and ready for paint. pretty tight timeline on tire installation (12 hours after painting) but I was already booked in and had to make things work. The rims were painted with Rustoleum Hammered silver finish paint. That is the closest thing to galvanized i could find. 3 coats did me well. 

While i was getting these tires taken care of, Allie was looking a bit upset to be back on blocks... but hey! at least the jack matches! 

Here is the tires while i was at the tire shop, I went with BKT tires all around, 5.50-16 up front and 14.9x28 bias ply in the rear 

Once the tires were taken care of, It was onto the rim centers, Front rim paint and power shift guides. These powershift guides were so seized, I had to smash them apart and heat the snot out of them while impacting to get them loose. took about 5 hours for 8 pieces. Thankfully they all came free. Upon installation i gobbed them with antiseize so we wouldn't run into this issue again! 

I went with silver outsides, orange insides on the front rims. I really like the look of them matching the rears, So.. I just went with it! this was the rustoleum hammered silver and Persian #1 orange. 

And, After the rear rims were installed and powershift was locked, I was able to tour around the yard with Allie. Here are some "finished" photos of the tractor. I still have a few items outstanding that i will get to another day, But for now, The tractor is pretty much Pulling ready for our first event this weekend. 

Allie did take a bit of a trailer ride yesterday to get weighted, came in at 3880lbs with myself on the tractor. I have an appointment tomorrow to get the tires filled with about 520 lbs of ballast. bringing the total weight to just around 4400 lbs finished. 

Also.. Almost forgot! The cherry on top for pulling season here. A D17 gas governor spring. after some adjustments to the governor and throttle rod, We should be all set to go for this weekend. 

Stay tuned for some more updates here and there after we get some use out of Allie. 

You are 150% right on that one. Not sure how i skipped that. I will switch that over ASAP. 

I used the following: 

Primer: Proform 2K grey epoxy primer/sealer

Paint: PPG MTX Omni single stage 60080 paint code with proform reducers and hardeners

What would be fun for us on here would be if you take a video of the tractor running and showing us the power steering working by using just one finger. You could either post it on this thread or the thread about the power steering, thanks. Again, thank you for taking the time to post all the pictures of your progress and giving us details to go along.  Eric.

I am running Calcium. I debated running rim guard but where i am, Rimguard is about 3 times the price and was roughly $950 to add 500lbs to the tractor. suitcase weights were actually cheaper.. I figured since it took them 60 years to rot out the first time, I will revisit this rim repair in the next 60 years or in 2080... 

Awesome job on your WD! I sure hope it pulls as good as it looks too.

Thanks for the updates.

 Regards,

 Chris