[jdcrawler]

I'm using 3-inch steel channel to make the rear frame extensions.
The surface of the mounting brackets on the model-T rear axle is a little higher than the top surface of the back of the frame so I cut a notch out of the channel so the top part of it goes up over the back of the frame.

The holes for the bolts for the mounting brackets are drilled and tapped into the channel.

Threaded tabs are added to the underside of the channel so there is twice the thickness for the threads.

I'm marking a strip of 1/4x1/2 inch steel to fit into the gap on the inside of the channel that goes up over the frame.

This gets welded on the inside across the front end and down the side.

Here is the finished frame extension for the right side.

Then I did the same thing for the other side.
There will be a frame piece going across the back but that won't be added until I'm ready to figure out how the rear PTO pulley assembly will be mounted.

There will be a support bar going from the back of the frame extension down to the hub mount but I haven't decided if I want to make it out of angle iron or round tube.

This gives you an idea of how it will look with the chain guard on.

 

[jdcrawler]

I started out referring to this tractor as a model-T tractor conversion because of the model-T frame and rear axle on it.
With the model-A engine being the most recognizable part on it, I think I need to start calling it a model-A tractor conversion.

Keeping in mind what it originally looked like .....

Even though I've changed the front and rear wheels and moved the rear axle so it is behind the rear cross frame, I think people will still be able to easily tell that it is the same tractor as in the first photo.

The front axle is only changed a little so they shouldn't have any trouble recognizing it as the same front axle.

Originally, I had intended to scrap the hood and the front hood support because they are just plane ugly. My intention was to use a model-T radiator and a model-T hood to make the tractor look better.

I got to thinking more about that and realized that the model-T radiator and hood would change the looks of the tractor so much that most people would probably not believe it is the same tractor as in the first photo.
In order to keep the overall looks of the original tractor, I'm going to have to keep that ugly hood and front support ( yuck ).

To start with, I now need a different radiator. I have a few old radiators and I found one that will be perfect.
It is an old Jeep radiator.

I took my powered wire brush to it to clean off what rust that I could, then I sprayed it down with the rust inhibitor.

The front hood support bracket is actually the U-shape radiator mounting bracket off and old car that is mounted upside down on the tractor.

As you can see, the Jeep radiator fits nicely inside the bracket.

After the rust inhibitor has dried on the radiator, it is painted.

 

[KennyP]

Myself, I could care less what the final product looked like, as long as you are happy with it.

 

[jdcrawler]

Myself, I could care less what the final product looked like, as long as you are happy with it.

That's just the thing. I won't be happy with it if people think I'm trying to pass the restored tractor off as the one in the old photo when it's obvious that the shape of it doesn't look anything like the one in the photo.
I have always been very careful with the spectators and not to try to pass anything off for something it isn't.

 

[jdcrawler]

That A-frame hoist that I built really comes in handy as a third hand for helping me hold things.
I'm using it here to hold the radiator so I can make the measurements for the mounting bracket.

Checking to make sure the mounting bracket is level.

The piece I'm using for the mounting bracket is part of the original frame. The two ends were bolted to the rear cross frame and it extended out behind the seat.

Two holes are drilled into it for mounting the radiator. The radiator is fastened to the bracket with springs on the studs to allow for vibration. The nuts will get cotter pins in them so they don't come loose.

I'm checking again to make sure that the radiator is level before I weld the mounting bracket to the frame.

The mounting bracket is welded to the frame.

And the radiator is fastened in place.

 

[jdcrawler]

I'm starting to fit the front support bracket for the hood and as you can see, the radiator cap isn't going to be able to stay where it is.

So off it comes. ...

and a piece of sheet brass is soldered in place to seal up the hole.

The support bracket has been sand blasted and treated with the rust inhibitor. Then the top inside corners are trimmed out to fit around the radiator.

The front hood support bracket is fastened in place.

You can see here how the cut out areas fit around the top corners of the radiator.

The lower ends of the hood support bracket are bolted to the lower radiator mount with two bolts on the side and one on the back.
This makes the bracket very firm.

The upper mount on the radiator is fastened to the back of the support bracket with a piece of rubber hose in between the bracket and the head of the bolt to allow the radiator to flex.

I have to say that this came out looking better than I thought it would.

 

[4getgto]

JD you do impressive work..
And for the life of me I never see your floors durty...or rarely...

 

[jdcrawler]

The gas tank is hanging from the hoist and being lined up for making the mounting brackets.

With the engine sitting a little off center to the right, the tank needs to sit off center also to line up correctly with the radiator.
I'm using 1-1/4 inch angle iron to make the mounting bracket and it lines up nicely for the angle iron to just bolt onto the outside of the frame on this side.

The mounting bracket on the other side is has to sit on top of the frame.
This has a 3/8 inch thick tab welded to it and then the tab is bolted to the outside of the frame.

The gas tank is now mounted in place.

The hood needs to be 32 inches long.
I have part of the hood that came with the gas tank that is 21 inch long and I have the original hood off the tractor that is 28 inch long.

I don't have a piece of sheet steel big enough to form a complete hood so I'm going to have to make it out of these two pieces.

 

[jdcrawler]

Starting on the hood. First thing is to set a piece of wood in between the gas tank and the radiator to support the metal while I fitting it in place.
The wood will be removed once the hood is finished.

The back piece is bolted onto the tank.

Unfortunately, I don't have a piece of sheet metal that is large enough to form the front part of the hood out of.
So I cut a 12 inch wide strip off the metal from the original hood. After sand blasting it, I found some spots that are rusted thru so that will have to be fixed.

Forming the tight curve in the metal to match the curve on the back piece of the hood. ( a little glare from the sun shining in )

Checking the fit of the curve.

I'm using a set of step dies on the bead roller to form a stepped down lip along the back edge.

Here is the formed edge.

Then holes are punched into it for welding thru.

The stepped down lip fits underneath the the edge of the back part of the hood. This makes the surface of the two pieces flush to each other.

The front of the hood is formed around the larger curve of the radiator support. I'm thinking of forming a curved side panel at the front of the hood that would blend with the curve side panel on the gas tank.

 

[jdcrawler]

Using the plastic strip as a guide for drawing a straight line on the inside of the curved hood.

The edge is trimmed off at that line then it is run thru another roller that forms a half radius along the edge.

Here is the finished edge with the half round formed into it.

The front piece is set back in place and tack welded to the back piece of the hood.
I've drawn a line on the side where it will be trimmed off later.

The two pieces are finish welded on the inside.

Forming the front panel and test fitting it.
This piece has the other half of the rounded edge formed into it where it fits up to the hood.

Once I'm satisfied with the fit, I turn it upside down and roll a bead into the center panel.

Here is the finished bead pattern.

This is then tack welded to the front of the hood.

It is finish welded on the inside and here is how it looks so far with the welds ground down and primed.

 

[KennyP]

Lookin' rel good, Ray. That's how I added 4" to the hood on Alice.

 

[jdcrawler]

Working on shaping the sides of the front part of the hood.

Two pieces of steel bar are clamped to either side and the lip is bent over to match the lip on the back part of the hood.

Then I formed two pieces for the lip on the curved area.

These are welded in place and the area is primed.

Here is how it looks back on the tractor.

 

[KennyP]

I like that Ray!

 

[jdcrawler]

Originally, I had intended to use an elbow fitting and solder the radiator fill neck cup onto the back of the upper tank.
However, there isn't very much flat area on the back of the tank to solder the elbow to so that makes it much harder to get a good seal with the solder.
Also, I would be working really close to two other soldered joints. The top of the radiator core and the soldered seam along the top of the fan shroud.

Here are the parts that I have to work with for fitting a radiator fill neck onto this radiator.
There are two 1-1/2 inch, 45 degree fittings. A 2 inch, 45 fitting and a 1-3/8, ' T ' fitting.

The radiator cap that I'm going to use does not have the rubber seal on it.
The model-A did not have a pressurized cooling system and I'm not sure if the water pump seals would hold pressure.
I'm figuring that the metal to metal fit on the radiator cap will hold very little, if any pressure at all.

The water outlet fitting on the cylinder head is 2 inch OD and the fitting in the top of the radiator is only 1-1/2 inch OD so I'm going to have to make an adapter to go between these to fittings.
If I have to make an adapter anyway, why not put the ' T ' fitting in it for the fill neck ?

Lining up the pieces. One end is cut off the 2 inch fitting that will fit on top of the cylinder head.
This end will have to be heated up and hammered down to fit around the ' T ' fitting.

I made up a sleeve to fit inside the 1-1/2 inch fitting so the ' T ' fitting can then fit into it.
These two fittings are soldered together.

Then the top end of the 2 inch fitting is re-shaped to fit the ' T ' fitting and these two are then brazed together.

Here is the finished upper radiator hose and water fill fitting. The radiator cap will set just below the surface of the hood and be accessible thru a hole in the hood.

 

[jdcrawler]

Cutting the hole in the hood for access to the radiator fill.

I hadn't planned on having a hole in this location when I welded in the center support on the inside of the hood and obviously I've had to remove part of that.
The metal on the front part of the hood is thinner than what the back part is so I have welded a second layer of metal with ribs rolled into it to the inside of the front part.
This makes the hood stiffer without actually needing that center support.

Here it is mounted on the tractor.

 

[jdcrawler]

The steering is next. As you can see here, the steering box is located high off the frame and it is mounted in the center of the tractor with a long shaft going out to the steering arm.

I'm going to have the steering mounted over on the left side and the steering arm will then be closer to the steering box.
I've cut the steering arm shaft in two and you can see here that this arm is the same length as the steering arm on the front of the tractor.

The steering wheel will not turn at all so I'm taking apart the whole assembly. The outer housing is removed from the steering shaft.

The steering shaft is removed and you can see what a mess everything is.

It took a brass punch and a 5 pound sledge to finally get the steering column shaft out of the housing.

Now to get the steering wheel off. I've fit the press clamp around the bottom of the wheel.

The outer ring had to be cut off so this could fit into the press to remove the steering wheel from the column shaft.

The column is disassembled.

It looks lie the inner bearing races are machined onto the ends of the worm gear.

These are the parts for the two bearings in the gearbox and I'm going to have to clean them up and reuse them.

 

[jhn9840]

Lots of rust there. Glad you were able to get it all apart.

jhn9840
John

 

[jdcrawler]

The steering column housing is in bad shape. I found a piece of pipe with the same inside diameter to replace it. The pipe is much thicker so that will make the steering column even stronger.

The bearings cleaned up fairly good. They are re-assembled onto the ends of the worm gear on the steering column shaft.

The steering column shaft is then assembled into the steering box.

Then the steering output shaft is bolted in place on the box. This shaft is still the length that I had cut it off at. Once I get the steering arm mounted, then the shaft can be trimmed down.

I'm going to use an old Ford model-T steering wheel on this. The wheel has been welded on in the center so no one is going to want it to put on a car.
With the weld repair, this is exactly the type of used steering wheel that would have been used on a tractor like this. It will be perfect.
However, the hole in the model-T wheel is a straight 3/4 inch diameter hole and the steering shaft takes a wheel with a tapered hole. The model-T wheel just slides down onto the steering shaft.

I'm going to have to take the center hub out of the original steering wheel and fit it into the model-T wheel.

Here is the hub out of the original wheel.

I'm using a counterbore tool with a 3/4 pilot to bore out the center of the steering wheel.

The original hub is pressed into the hole in the model -T wheel. Three 1/4-20 holes are drilled and tapped into the model -T wheel. A piece of threaded rod is screwed into a hole until it is flush with the back of the wheel. This is then cut off flush with the front face. The same thing is done with the other two threaded holes in the hub.

These holes are brazed over on the front and the other three holes are filled with braze. The braze is ground down smooth with the front flange. It is painted and re-assembled onto the steering wheel ring.

 

[tweidman]

Nice work, I like the new wheel.

 

[jdcrawler]

The steering wheel is hanging from the hoist and the steering box is resting on wood blocks for positioning it in place.

Forming the pieces for the steering box mount and tack welding them together.

The mount is all welded up and everything is bolted back in place.

This is the original steering column support bracket. It is made out of pieces of a model-T running board bracket that are welded together.
I'm going to modify it a little and re-use it to support the steering column.

The " U-shape " bottom bracket that the column fits into is actually the upper clamp for the front motor mount off a model-T
They drilled a hole in the center and welded a bolt onto it for attaching it to the support bracket.

Making the upper clamp to go on the steering column by heating a piece of strap steel and forming it around a pipe.

Here is the finished clamp.

The steering column support is finish and mounted in place.