In need of the small pillow-block bearing you see holding the steering shaft/wheel to the dash panel (click images to enlarge), I stopped by Whisler Industrial Supply (aka: Whisler Bearing) today on my way home from work with the the rusty steering shaft in hand. I got the usual "Can I help you?" from the counterman when I walked in.

Well you know as well as I do that you never know if a counter person in a parts place will be more of a help or a hinderance anymore. Like when you walk into the auto parts store and want spark plugs for a 350 Chevy or 302 Ford and the kid needs to know, "Automatic or Manual Transmission?"… You know right then that you know his business better than he does, but you want what you want so you deal with it or go down the road next time, appreciating all that much more when you find a real professional.

The man that I bumped into today, Dieter, Outside Sales; is just such a professional, not only knowledgeable in his business, but also helpful, informative and courteous. The kind of old school approach to Customer Service you don’t find all too often.

Since I have the U-joints from the original PTO shaft, to move the steering from its original "driver’s side" location from when this was a truck to the center more like a tractor, all I needed was the one small part, but Dieter took the time to make sure I was getting exactly what I needed, treating me like a valuable customer. 

Leigh was along-side while I sat on a box on top of the frame (I don’t have a seat yet) telling me how the steering wheel looked as I held it in a couple of comfortable positions. We agreed on a spot and cut the shaft to length. 

Since the panel fits well, centers & adequately holds the steering shaft, all that’s really left is to layout and cut the holes for:

• key & light switches
• choke
• throttle
• PTO Actuation

and I’ll still have room for a couple of gauges. I’ll install the u-joints tomorrow to get the whole steering set-up working again and maybe attack a few other "incidentals".

So if you’re in The Springs and looking for any sort of industrial supply, you may already know that you’ve got a good chance of finding it at Whisler (even if their website doesn’t seem to be built at the time of this writing) but ask for Dieter, he’ll get you what you need and treat you right while doing it. 

Knowing GM, if Chevy made a tractor they would’ve used the same off-the-shelf parts they use for everything else. The only difference between a Chevy truck and a GMC (besides the additional $1500+ for GMC) is the rebadging & trim. Firebird/Camaro. Cavalier/Sunbird/Skylark/or load down the anemic 88hp with heavy accessories and call it a Cadillac Cimarron.
Note: It’s a shame Generic Motors ever got their grubby little hands on “Cadillac”.

So if Chevrolet went into the tractor business, building four-wheeled work-horses from their already existing pile of schtock – unlike the two-wheeled tractors made by Harley – they might’ve looked something like this:

Okay. Maybe not. But it’s what it’d look like if I built it from my GM parts. ;-)

I had been saving these parts from the donor vehicle when I put the later model running gear under Rex and had started cutting and mounting these leftovers yesterday:

You’ll notice by the time I took this pic, that I had already cut the fenders some & narrowed the grill support.

But the picture in my head just wasn’t making it to “sheetmetal reality”. I walked away from it considering my options and sending them out to a couple of people. Sometimes just “thinking out loud” can help a process and I decided to go back at it today, lowering the “body” as much as I could get away with without incurring major clearance issues.

There’s obviously still a lot left to be done with the sheet-metal (firewall, dash, etc) and I’ve still got to get the 2nd tranny in. One day at a time.

More pics are available in The Tractor Gallery

]]> http://coloradomelons.com/2009/06/13/if-chevy-made-a-tractor/feed/ 0 http://coloradomelons.com/2009/06/10/fuel-tank-brackets/ http://coloradomelons.com/2009/06/10/fuel-tank-brackets/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:01:23 +0000 admin http://coloradomelons.com/?p=699 I showed all the parts I used to make the tractor fuel tank in a previous post and the pieces for the brackets were included in the beginning of that write-up. Today I was able to get around to making those brackets.

I started out by taking the 2″ flat and bending it to match the inside of one of the four ”J” pieces cut from 1/4″ plate, welding it in place as I went along.

Then I took that assembly and welded the other side of the 2″ flat to another one of the “J” pieces. Like so: (notice the persuader)
 

‘ still making brackets. Just a quick time-out to show why the Golf Cart needs to be reupholstered, but I don’t think this is the one doing it. He’s just relaxing.
I know, another post.

 

Now it’s time to add the outer lip. This 1/4″ x 1″ lip not only adds structural support (like it needs more ;-) ), but will also give me a way to bolt the finished product to the tractor frame.

Do the same “welding as you bend” on both sides and you come up with something like this:

Repeat; and if you’re fortunate, your effort will produce something that no one else would give a second glance to.

I’ll get them mounted after drilling two more holes in each bracket (one top & one bottom) for the strap bolts and then painting them.

Thanks for checking in.

Here’s the parts I’ve put together:

• 12″ Pipe 20″ long – it’s every bit of 5/16″ thick O  
• 2 – 12″ circles cut from 1/4″ plate (tank sides)
• 2″ NPT short nipple (filler neck)
• 2″ pipe cap (filler cap)
• 4″ x 1/4″ x 12″ flat (drilled for filler neck, sending unit & vent)
• 1/4″ pipe x 2″ & 1/4″ elbow (tank vent) more in picture than actually used
• and an old Chevy sending unit w/ fuel pick-up tube
  
• Flat stock and “J” shapes cut from 1/4″ plate in top picture are for the mounting brackes

Cut a 12″ x 4″ rectangle hole centered in the side of the pipe for the flat connection plate:

Yes Ken, it would’ve been easier to just drill some holes in the pipe for the filler neck & vent and be done with it. It would’ve been even easier to strap a jerry-can to the side of the tractor; but it wouldn’t have been quite the look I was going for. :-)

What an oily mess, but the plate is a good fit and it’s just like what I had in mind.

Test fit the sending unit and pick-up tube assembly:

It looks like it was made to fit. Oh wait! It was.

View of the same check of the sending unit, from the top:

and making sure I’ll be able to get a flare wrench on the fuel fitting once the vent gets attached to the tank:

All that’s really left now is to weld the end plates on each side:

and you have a tank! (The little pieces of angle iron are not attached. They just stop it from rolling off the saw-horses.)

Next up… The brackets that’ll hold this beast.

Just drove it out of the garage this evening… not anywhere near done, but being under it’s own motivation sure helps mine.