MASSEY FERGUSON 135 ( MF 20 INDUSTRIAL ) FULL RESTO

greendragon3

so the bonnet is coming along nicely guys , he chopped the top section out as well because on closer inspection she had got a good wrap at some stage and was well buttered up with plenty of filler so he cut it out and spent a good while heating and battering the dents out of it ( a lot easier to do than when it was all one piece ) he has it tacked back in now and it should be on good shape tomorrow .

greendragon3

now we do have a new bottom piece for the grill but the owner wants it to replicate the old original one so we will cut the hole from the old one and stick it into the new one to leave her right on the eye .

mickdw

You need one of those Acme single use instant holes as used on project binky episode 14 - worth a watch if you have not seen it - from about 6 mins in.

greendragon3

morning all , we had a very productive day yesterday but we didn't get finished till late so im only getting to load the photos now
i started off by making new plates for inside the tool boxes and went ahead and mocked up the wings and brackets again .

greendragon3

i decide to put on the cab then to see how everything would line up .

greendragon3

its hard to see in the bloody pictures ( need daylight really ) but it is sitting really well , especially where the cab lines up with the mudguards which is where we were most concerned about because a lot of lads have had a nightmare trying to retro fit these cabs especially using spurious wings so we were very happy with the way they were lining up , the owner arrived while we were at it and he was well pleased with every thing so its all good , he brought down a load more goodies with him too ,mostly switches for the binnacle up in the roof , wiper indicators and a socket for the beacon and two new headlamp surrounds .

greendragon3

now the brother was flat out at the bonnet and he has her in good shape now but the ears are blown off me with all the battering and beating and grinding that was going on all day , anyway she is starting to look like a proper bonnet now , it took some straightening but i think everything is lining up well now .

greendragon3

meanwhile i was making a strap to go around the back axle that holds the outer support bracket which is bolted through the wing to the inner bracket making everything really rigid and tight .

greendragon3

and finally the brother cut out the " starting handle " hole from the old chin piece ready to go into the new one to make her more authentic looking !

greendragon3

update time again lads and lassies , i didn't have a very productive week due to the winter vomiting bug in the house and plenty of sick children and trips to the doctor , it didn't escape the adults either and my missus is still very much under the weather with it ,
anyway we have to soldier on and today i finished up making the outside mounting brackets that sit under the mudguards , turned out the old one we had to work from was too long and the one we got engineered was too short so a bit of " adapting " had to be done but they are both done and fitted now and they really stiffen up the wings ,
we mocked everything up again and i changed the centers on the wheels to tuck the tyre in under the wing a bit so as not to throw too much muck up on to the wing when driving , these might have to be fine fettled again before paint when we confer with the owner and see what configuration he is happy with ,

anyway some pictures .

greendragon3

we also mocked up the bonnet and front grille and stuck it on to see how it is sitting , now the seasoned Massey men out there that know these things inside and out will laugh at me when i say we only found out this week that there are two different depths of grills according to if you have a mk1 or mk2 bonnet !! , turns out we have a mk1 bonnet with a mk2 grille and bits and pieces so we have had to make do for now but i have the proper side pieces order because the ones we had to use for the mock up are too shook to use . bit of head scratching later and it looks to be sitting nice and level , needs a bit of fine adjustment but that will be all sorted before she gets paint .

greendragon3

and finally for today i cut out a bit of 2mm steel to make the " surround " that goes inside the cab and around the dash , there will be a weather strip of rubber to go on as well when shes painted .

greendragon3

hi again guys and gals , so first thing yesterday i got some washing soda and dissolved it onto a bucket of hot water and filled the radiator to the top and left it to soak overnight , it should shift most of the crud that's inside it .

greendragon3

so then it was time for more cleaning and wire brushing on the wheels .

greendragon3

in the mean time the brother was refurbishing and refitting the door locks and making new pieces for the frame where the locks close on to , they are a nice smooth but tight fit now which is what we were trying to achieve . .

greendragon3

then we decided to mock up some more parts in the cab to make sure everything is lining up properly .

greendragon3

greendragon3

now there were no floor panels of any type with the cab when we got it so we went ahead and started to make some out of 2mm steel , bit tricky trying to get the shapes and bend exactly right so there was a good bit of toing and froing to the the bench trimming a bit here and there to get it just right , slight problem that the new foot plates are slightly lower by about 10mm than the new plate which is flush with the bottom of the cab but also lines up with the mounting brackets at the front of the cab and still leaves clearance for the clutch pedal and brake rods !!!!! i hope the pictures are a bit more explanatory ,

greendragon3

there is a good bit of fettling to be done on it yet but we nearly pulled an all nighter just doing this side so next time i hope to have it tidied up a bit and the other side done as well , slow work but very rewarding when its all done . thanks for looking .

mickdw

It's been a while since I've seen an intact floor in one of the original tractors but I don't believe they were shaped to fit in such a manner at all. It just doesn't ring a bell.
Is it possible that the cab floor just extended under the footboards?
Will look excellent the way you are doing it though.

greendragon3

mickdw wrote: »

It's been a while since I've seen an intact floor in one of the original tractors but I don't believe they were shaped to fit in such a manner at all. It just doesn't ring a bell.
Is it possible that the cab floor just extended under the footboards?
Will look excellent the way you are doing it though.

thanks for the comments mick , ive been trying to source some photos of a cab floor myself today but they are scarce to say the least ,
the problem is the new footplates sit lower than the " cab floor " that we are constructing ,
we are working flush from the bottom of the cab as an anchor point , now we looked at raising the footplates by the desired amount to make it all one flat floor so to speak but this created another problem with the pedal travel distance , the clutch pedal would bottom out on the floor plate and not activate the second p.t.o. clutch !!

another problem is that the cab is independently mounted on four rubber bushing ( hence the use of rubber cladding between the mudguards and the side of the cab at the doors ) and fixing it rigid to say the floor plates ( steps ) could create some kind of vibrations or higher noise levels or something so we have to take these aspects into play as well .

from what we are finding out these Duncan cabs are a real nightmare to retro fit and everyone that has tackled one has had a tough job getting it right , bit of a head scratcher i know but we think we have the gist of it now so stay tuned for more developments soon .:D

emaherx

greendragon3 wrote: »

thanks for the comments mick , ive been trying to source some photos of a cab floor myself today but they are scarce to say the least ,
the problem is the new footplates sit lower than the " cab floor " that we are constructing ,
we are working flush from the bottom of the cab as an anchor point , now we looked at raising the footplates by the desired amount to make it all one flat floor so to speak but this created another problem with the pedal travel distance , the clutch pedal would bottom out on the floor plate and not activate the second p.t.o. clutch !!

another problem is that the cab is independently mounted on four rubber bushing ( hence the use of rubber cladding between the mudguards and the side of the cab at the doors ) and fixing it rigid to say the floor plates ( steps ) could create some kind of vibrations or higher noise levels or something so we have to take these aspects into play as well .

from what we are finding out these Duncan cabs are a real nightmare to retro fit and everyone that has tackled one has had a tough job getting it right , bit of a head scratcher i know but we think we have the gist of it now so stay tuned for more developments soon .:D

From memory the cab floor on ours ran on top of the tractor footplates. Which was a bad idea as muck sat between the floor and footplate which rotted the footplate. Your design here is better than the original.

mickdw

There is one on donedeal with that arrangement but it's far from what left the factory.

greendragon3

thanks for the comments guys , ive had a quick look at that one on done deal and it seems to be the full plate the same as emaherx was talking about , we have made the other side this morning and its lining up quite well , it should work well and not cause any fouling with the fixed elements of the cab ( fingers crossed ) .

few pics from this mornings work .

greendragon3

we also made and shaped two wing extensions to tie the bottom of the wings to the foot plates , i had got new ones from mackeys but they turned out to be too short so we made our own heavier ones .

greendragon3

got another bit of work done this morning guys and also got in some more parts as well .

greendragon3

i rinsed out the radiator as well .

greendragon3

and i fashioned a wee step out of some box and angle iron to ease access for the side thats mainly used . meanwhile the brother put the new side bits on the grille to see how they looked .

mickdw

Are you keeping the 13 inch grill?

greendragon3

morning all , so we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel regarding the grinding and wire brushing !! needless to say we had a good bit to do yesterday , while the brother was finishing off the bonnet i took the cab off the tractor and got both steps welded on plus the new corner sections that we made for the top of the cab .