1946 B.F. Avery Model A Tractor Restoration

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

man I really like that red....it looks great...

It's call Tartar Red...and what's prescribed by Avery afiscionados as the correct factor color. Looking at my basement you won't think it, but I'm not big on red. But I like this too. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looking very good!

It is interesting the engine is mounted on rubber bushings as I didn’t think the designers would have been concerned about vibration. The paint / build sequence and discussion is applicable to all our projects...sure helps with a nicer looking end result.

I've thought about this too and don't know the answer. I can think of several reasons that it made sense that aren't vibration. With regard to paint, it's always a catch 22 when you have so many painted surfaces. The ziplock bag on bolt technique works pretty well, but we've still nicked some nuts and bolts. There are some places where I did want clean gaskets and fittings to show, just to convey the type of restoration that was done...but I didn't want it too bejeweled with hardware that took it away from how it left the factory. I mean, they painted the whole thing red and didn't worry about the fact that you were going to skin it up when you changed the oil...or basically every other thing that it was purpose built for. But as you said, paint sequence is the chess game we play on all these builds.

[OLDYELLOW]

Originally Posted by IronCanine

Finally back home on a weekend and just so happens my girls are away, so a perfect time to make some hay. I was very lucky to find 70 year old NOS rubber motor mounts which were surprisingly resilient for their age.

I wonder what they were trying to achieve with rubber bushings, because it is still metal to metal connection to the frame and the bell housing bolts straight to the frame?

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks great!

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks great!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by OLDYELLOW

I wonder what they were trying to achieve with rubber bushings, because it is still metal to metal connection to the frame and the bell housing bolts straight to the frame?

I think they probably killed some vibration even if only on one side of the motor. I know how we set the motor and clutch assembly, I don't know how they did. It does conceivably give you a little play on installation. The mounting points on the front of the engine are kind of wimpy...four small bolts on the timing cover. They might benefit from a forgiving mount. After all this engine was just a power unit and not designed for a specific application. Finally, the core of this design was a crawler...which they turned into a wheel tractor. That's definitely an unforgiving arrangement.

....it's probably vibration. I don't know any engineers and the guys who drew it up are dead. I'm sure there's a solid reason...but at the end of the day I'm just a guy excited about finding septuagenarian rubbers.

[IronCanine]

Eric fabbed this exhaust bracket with nothing to go on except two pics of the complete tractor in the original manual (no close ups or part specific pics). Very difficult to discern. A lot of research and questioning of old timers...but in the end just staring at 1mm of real estate on a 72 year old book. I engaged experts on her cousins (Oliver, Cletrac) to no avail. Maybe someone who stumbles on this thread can offer more info on this part. Even though the exhaust manifold would have been painted red from the factory...I couldn't stand to see the paint burn off, so we ceramic coated it cast gray. Just like the exhaust on the Blazer.

[IronCanine]

She got loaded up and shipped back to Eric's for final paint on the block and other loose end paint work.

[IronCanine]

She's pretty much all red now.

[IronCanine]

Advanced Electrical Rebuilders in Michigan rebuilt our generator, starter and distributor. Almost all NOS Autolite stuff. Stamped new plates and based on internal wear confirmed this was a low hour piece of equipment--of course it was up to Eric to make it red.

[mongocanfly]

Looking good...

[IronCanine]

One more quick shout out to Jason at AER. The restoration of these pieces was over the top. He even powder coated them. It was almost heresy to paint them.

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Looking good...

Thanks.

[plainred65]

First class all around!

[Russell Ashley]

Beautiful. I'm betting that the paint wasn't that nice when the factory got through building it.

[Clyde65]

Very nice! Your paying exceptional mind to detail on this old work horse!

[Advanced Design]

Impressive AER powder coated the components they rebuilt. Looking really nice.

[Ol Blue K20]

I think it's beautiful. A lot nicer than the factory ever did

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by plainred65

First class all around!

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Beautiful. I'm betting that the paint wasn't that nice when the factory got through building it.

Originally Posted by Clyde65

Very nice! Your paying exceptional mind to detail on this old work horse!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Impressive AER powder coated the components they rebuilt. Looking really nice.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I think it's beautiful. A lot nicer than the factory ever did

Thanks guys. Yes the paint is a bit better than factory I think.

[IronCanine]

Ceramic coated manifold.

[IronCanine]

A lot of assembly on Saturday...basically all day. Got to the end and filled her up with fluids, hit the button and nothing. Eric very quickly diagnosed it as a ground problem. A price paid for paint on every surface. We called it a night, Eric added a ground strap on Monday we fired her off last night. It was all that 6V battery wanted...we didn't get too many turns out of it before it went soft. We didn't test it when we got it and I wonder if it had gone weak on the shelf. Though candidly this motor is probably tighter than factory. The best part of the whole thing was, after a few turns with no result, my daughter asked to give it a try. It fired right off when she hit the button. There was no doubt who this horse belongs to.

[Clyde65]

Nice!

[Russell Ashley]

That is beautiful, makes me wish I had been there when it fired up. The generator and starter looked good but were they painted red from factory? I was thinking that usually the starter and generator were black and not painted engine color, like on cars.

[mongocanfly]

Man this thing is so sweet!!

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by Clyde65

Nice!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Man this thing is so sweet!!

Double Thanks.

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

That is beautiful, makes me wish I had been there when it fired up. The generator and starter looked good but were they painted red from factory? I was thinking that usually the starter and generator were black and not painted engine color, like on cars.

This was an original paint tractor. Everything was painted red except for the steering wheel and the rear rims. I don't know if they "roughly" taped off the Autolite tags, or just wiped off the wet paint. We obviously detailed it beyond that. We didn't paint any rubber or wire looms...which was done from the factory.

[Advanced Design]

Looks great! When most of us look at the second picture, we imagine the first picture. Easy to imagine, hard work to get there. Well done!

[IronCanine]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looks great! When most of us look at the second picture, we imagine the first picture. Easy to imagine, hard work to get there. Well done!

It's mostly fun work though. But thank you--I appreciate those kind words.