Project Trisickle, maybe...

Everything is filled, blocked, smoothed out and primed. The hood only had 2 small places to work out then it got primed in red, then gray, so I could get the best look at it. Red shows things that gray doesn't and vise versa. All that's left now is to wet sand the hood and fenders then they will be ready for paint. It may even be a tractorghini now *cough* John *cough*...

The plan for tomorrow morning is to mow, then get the sprayer hooked up and filled with 24D and spray the yard, I haven't done it in years but time is being made to do it this year. It's supposed to warm up all night tonight and be 60+ by 8AM tomorrow morning with a high of over 75 tomorrow so it will be a good day for working outside until the winds kick in tomorrow afternoon bringing in the thunderstorms tomorrow night...

If I can get the yard work done by a little after lunch before the winds kick in tomorrow I may come back in the shop and finish the prep, and paint the fenders and hood then the painting will be all done.

:bliss

Hood and fenders are sanded, prepped and ready for paint. Hopefully tomorrow they will shine like the covers and the rest of it.

It was such a nice day today that I ended up doing a lot of outside work so they can be painted tomorrow. I don't think anything is better than being outside in the Spring after being couped up over the Winter.

More shininess if there's such a word lol.

Dad also came up to visit, he's about as much help as GT was organizing the other 4 post rack...

:hemademe

I got a little time on the 653 today and it's getting close to done.

Side + belt guards are on, fenders are on, oil drain pipe was redone and lengthened a bit, oil is changed, a few more decals are on. I ran into an issue with the breather cover being too deep and it hit the hood, it didn't have an original one on it when I got the tractor and when I got one out for it I wasn't thinking lol. I got out a correct one today and it's blasted and I just got through painting it so it will be ready tomorrow.

Won't be in the shop much tomorrow, my friend Kevin is coming here to finish up the heat pump in dad's new barn and go out for pizza.

Dad also came up to visit, he's about as much help as GT was organizing the other 4 post rack...

If your not doing anything later, I can help! :farty :sissy :rolling4

I gotta make sure dad doesn't learn that line...

Spent most of the day doing a little rearranging and fixing things around the shop. I did manage to get the hood decals on and put the shorter air filter + breather cover on.

I've been thinking about a little nicer steering wheel for this one for quite awhile and thought,,, I've got an idea,,, famous last words lol.

The only trick will be making it look like it's professionally done and sorta fits the tractor without being too out of place... I got a good start on it late this afternoon cleaning up and modifying an old adapter so 2 set screws can hold it to the shaft. I'll get more pics of it up hopefully tomorrow.

Well,,, like most of my ideas it took a lot of extra work but it's on there, and looks pretty good.

Hardest thing was finding a wheel that was a little over 13" diameter like the originals for good clearance to the lift arm and this one works well. The horn button I got for the steering wheel had to be modified and that's where most of the time went.

There's a 3 hole to 6 hole adapter on the piece I made up for it a few days ago that the steering wheel bolts to. The horn button was disassembled, then the inside electrical parts were removed from the casing, the bottom of the casing was smoothed down to clear the bolts for the adapter, the ground loop was cut off of the spring, then it was all put back together. The button still moves like it should it just won't work if anyone tries to hook a horn to it lol.

All it needs now is a 1 1/2" or so Wheel Horse emblem in the center then it will look a lot better.

The choke + throttle cables got hooked up today, a new seat cover, and a few other small things. The choke cable that was on it originally didn't do much and was run in a bad spot. It's the newer engine on the older tractor that made a few things hard to do without spending a lot of time and custom work on it to make it right. There was a new choke cable bracket made for it today and put on the front head bolt, it was the only good spot to get it to look and work right.

I'm finally running out of things to do, this one has turned out to be a lot more work than I thought but you never know what you're gonna get into until you get going on one...