You know, more than once I have questioned my judgment on whether this thing should have just been scrapped. But the corner has been turned. Latest was one of the augers fatigued at the end.

Broken part. Then wire wheel to clean it up a bit, then something vaguely resembling a weld.

I have a long list of excuses on why that weld looks so crappy, including the fact that its my first experience with non gas mig (most of my experience has been TIG, or stick welding). All excuses aside, I basically suck at welding (at this point in time at least, give me some and it will improve). But net net, I believe it will hold together.

Next phase is blasting and painting. Snow is coming!

Looks darn good to me, its not easy to fill a gap like that on thin material.

Ya. It pulled up when clamped so the gap was nothing like the picture. I clamped it to mate up as close as possible, a smaller gap. But all around the edges was thin metal so it kept wanting to blow through.

A heavy coat of paint, it will look just fine. :cool:

(beat to fit, paint to match.....)

Agreed. I have a flux core lincoln mig and they can be a bugger. When my spool runs out i'm adding gas to it. I've heard once you weld with gas, you'll never go back. Of course......I have a 10 lb spool :angry:

What he said. Ya Done Good Son!. If it breaks something more important is coming with it. :beerchug:

Time to get the housing sandblasted. Too big for my equipment, would take all day. Then heck, while I am at it why dont I throw some other projects in at the same time.

I may regret doing too much at once.

Parts are being picked up from the blaster later today. Im excited to see them all, and start going in the 'back together' direction.

So next will be paint decisions: The blade is going on a RED 782, and the blower is going on the yellow/white 1811.

Both tractors will have the wheels painted with the 935 color. (not bright white)

I originally thought the implements would get 901 color (slightly lighter) - dont ask me why I thought this. But now thinking the implements should get the same color as the other tractor 'white' pieces - the 935.

The 1811 - when I get to it - will have the 935 hood and sides. For now its a nice 'rust' patina... ;)

I dont see a clear consensus on whether there should be a single 'white' color, or different shades. Anyone have opinions on what the different 'white' colors should be?

Deck:
Wheels:
Implements (blade, blower, #2 trailer):

I agree with painting them the 935, using a different white on the implements will look weird.

After welding in a new spline, picked up parts from the sandblaster last week, so was able to start going in a forward direction (am sure there will be plenty more backwards steps). After sandblasting, this got an epoxy based zinc primer powder coat (the gray color coming out of the oven), followed by color - IH red of course and the color match is pretty nice.

I did this in part because it should take a lot of abuse, and I want to see how this epoxy primer/polyester powder coat combo holds up.

Im declaring this one piece ready for reassembly. (one out of ????). Im slow, but I will get there....

Next will be the housing/auger assy but its getting sprayed.

Oh and heck while I am at it cleaned up the wheels. The older one next to it is in much better shape than these were originally, they were pretty rusty but still fairly solid.

Same process (epoxy zinc primer powder followed by polyester top coat).

Then switch over the tires. Had to let the fluid out and then reload them. All it took to mount them was some soapy water and jumping up and down. To break the bead, since they had been mounted for only about a year now, I just clamped them in a vice.