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Project 9880
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20-10-2024 10:30pm#1
I made a couple of threats previously in the gunthering thread about posting a build thread of my long running "tidy up" of my Landini 9880. So I've decided now is the time to make good on that threat 😁
The backstory: Way back in the year 2021 I noticed my trusty Landini was starting to let in water somewhere around the top of the cab, so would need a bit of patching and just a general tidy up, nothing too drastic! (HA!) Decided late September of that year would be the ideal time to get started on it… work on it over the next few months and get it finished up before the end of the following January. Needed to try and get it done by then as it's the only of the tractors that will fit into the sheep shed.
Little did I know what a can of worms I was opening! The rust problems were a bit more widespread that I first thought, but not horrendously so. I'd never done a project like this before so it was a bit of a learning curve and a real eye-opener on certain jobs. Before I'd have considered myself a reasonably decent welder, but never did much sheet/ panel welding, but thought it would be handy enough to get up to speed on it. By God, I have a new found appreciation for people who do it for a living! It's an absolute art form. Painting as well took a bit of learning and practice to get consistently good finishes.
So between all this new skill learning taking longer than I thought, the rust being worse than first thought and a few other hurdles (mostly of my own making) I missed the January deadline to get it finished. Got the loan of a neighbours tractor once a week or so to put a bale in for the sheep which got me out of that spot of bother. Then calving came around, then lambing and then every other job in spring took priority, so tractor got put on the back shelf for a while.
Getting certain parts for it was also a bit of a headache. Lots of stuff no longer available, so would end up having to try and make up my own replacement if possible, get something similar from another tractor and modify to suit, or spend days trawling the internet looking at parts supply places all over Europe to find what I'm after. Then if genuine parts were actually available they were often an eye-watering price.
But anyway! After 3 long and frustrating years there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. She's not quite finished yet, but it's very nearly there. I know I definitely won't be dragging this thread out for years anyway 😁 It might take a few weeks of posts to catch up to where I'm at now. I'm just going to organise the posts/ photos into single jobs/part of the tractor as I think it will make more sense that way, even if some things might be out of order chronologically. There was usually 2 or 3 half finished jobs going on at the same time!
Sorry about the essay! Enough yapping and time to get to the good stuff. I'll start with what was the root of all this hardship in the first place.. the cab…
Well rusted around the cab air filter box
From the inside:
Time to start cutting:
Test fitting up 3 new formed pieces:
Welded the 3 pieces to make one patch:
Tacked in:
Repeated for the other side and both fully welded up:
Putting the panel lid catches back on using a jig made up before they were taken off:
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Next up was the bottom of the cab pillars. The right hand side especially was in bad shape from the water leaking down…
Time to start cutting out: (This will be a regular theme!)
Some angle and 40mm box had the right profile to match:
Sandblasted and Epoxy primered:
New pieces in place:
and grinded flush:
Welded up some of the deep pitting on the flat part
ground flat(ish):
Made up new holders for the interior trim:
It's time for the leaba, so that will have to do for now. I'll add more photos when I can. Hopefully in the next few days, but could well be next Sunday again before I get a chance to
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Ah yeah, definitely get a great kick out of it when things work out well. Especially when it's a tricky job and you get it to work first time like you said.
But yep, there were plenty of times things didn't work out so well too, and I felt like packing it all in. Would be there in the shed on a cold January night, and made a balls of something I just spent 3 or 4 hours working on and have to seriously resist the urge to take a sledgehammer to the lot! 😂
Your mention of dealing with a wiring problem is giving me traumatic flashbacks of trying to fault find this mess of wiring…
Are you working on a tractor at the minute yourself?
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Next photo dump is of chassis related work. These are the first jobs I actually did on it. I figured as I had to take the cab off I'm as well replace the clutch while there was ideal access.
Slightly crude rail system, but it did the job.
Fairly manky bell housing:
After a bit of a clean:
Next job was replacing the king pin bearings. The old ones were non-existent:
The fact that for some inexplicable reason there was no grease nipples on either the top or bottom probably didn't help matters. So I decided to add some.
An "Ahhhh F**k it!!" moment:
Also replaced all front axle seals, but mustn't have taken any photos of that job.
Next was getting chassis ready for repainting. An awkward b@$tard of a job trying to sand/ scuff up the old paintwork by hand.
As this was being done during early winter in a fairly big open shed with no insulation, condensation was a major issue. There was some mornings I'd come over and the chassis would be dripping wet. Not really ideal for painting. Also just the cold as well wouldn't help, so I bought a cheap 6mx4m gazebo/ "party tent" and that coupled with a diesel space heater was a massive help to get some heat into the chassis and keep the humidity down
Ready for paint:
After:
That's all for now. Will try and get sorting through the next batch in the next few days
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Time for another quick blast of photos. This time it's the bonnet and side panels. The welding of the bonnet turned out a bit of a disaster. Really made me realise my limitations and lack of mastery of the dark arts of sheet welding. But if I was to put a positive spin on it, it made me learn how use a hammer and dolly and a few different methods to straighten out warped sheets. Every cloud and all that 😅
A few before pictures:
Rust spots where there's gussets/internal supports where the two skins are joined.
Inside both skins. Plenty of surface rust.
Tin worm eaten through the channels on the side too.
Time to start patching up. Front section first.
Then either side
So far so good…
Could have used more clamps!
Looks good from here
Ah feck! 😩
It's at this point it was just best to walk away and go for a cup of tea! Started researching/ watching videos on how to get straighten this out. A combination of hammer and dolly, flame straightening and good old-fashioned brute force bending got it back to being almost straight and ready for epoxy primer
After sanding it was clear there was going to be too many hollows, ripples and imperfections for high build primer to cover
I wanted to avoid using filler if at all possible, but unfortunately there was just no other choice for it. Annoying to say the least, but had to be done to get the surface right.
I don't know why, but I can't find any photo of the finished bonnet. My old phone wasn't in the best of shape around that time, I think a few photos have been lost somewhere along the way. I'll try and get one tomorrow and edit it in here.
Had hoped to get the side panels up tonight too, but it's getting past my bedtime, so they'll have to wait for another time
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Yes, connectors are awful things, I can see them being a problem.
the screwdriver of truth isn’t required to know what’s here. Oddly, the worst of the cab is right here at this point, there is a bit of fabrication needed here and there, but this mudguards is poor. Not sure if my welding skills are on par with the op… I have been a cut out the rot, weld in a plate and drive on with the isopon person. The last tractor I did up (Deere 6506) had zero rust, and in fairness was an amazingly well designed machine, came apart like LEGO.
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Ha, well spotted on the welder… nothing much escapes the keen eyes on here 😂 It's actually the MTS255 multi-process version, but virtually the same welder alright. With the sheet bender and all you're well set up there, should be no bother to ya! 👍️
Didn't get a chance to edit in a photo of finished bonnet to my previous post above, so here it is.
There's still a couple of blemishes in it, but at least it's looking less banana shaped than it did before.
Next up was the side panels. Didn't look too bad at first glance, just the odd patch of surface rust on the outside, but there was plenty more lurking behind the bracing strips.
Made up replacement pieces for the worst bits of bracing and outer panel welded back into place.
For whatever reason I can't explain, the paint finish came out very flat with no gloss to it at all. Not happy, but it'll be redone at at later stage. I'll save that for another time as it's done much later on in the build, don't want to skip passed too much of the other stuff
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Sorry for not replying sooner, don't get a lot of time online during the week.
Thanks! My memory is actually failing me on those bits. I can't find any photos of the actual process, so I'm just going to guess a couple of possibilities… I have a homemade sheet bender, so it was probably partially done on that at least, but wouldn't have been able to do those tight double bends on it, so there was probably some second operation as well. Likely an MDF/ plywood mould to bend around, and a piece of 40x5 flat bar clamped down to hold in place. Here's a drawing to make a bit more sense.
Now it mightn't have been done that way at all, but I've done other bits in a similar fashion, so it's the most likely method. How's the dismantling coming along for you @maidhc? Find any more surprise rust?
While I have a bit of time now and on the subject of the bender I'll do another photo dump of things that were definitely made with it!
It's on to the wings now. The light boxes front and rear were starting to disintegrate. The front ones were especially bad…
Made up a cardboard template, then transferred on to new sheet
cut and drilled
then bend into shape for the finished articles
the rear light/ mudguard boxes weren't quite as bad, but still needed replacing
Yet again don't have any photos of the process, but it was just 2 bends and a few holes to be drilled. Finished one in place:
Some more patchwork needed elsewhere on the wing. Rusty bit cut out
and new bit in
Rusty section down at the front near the toolbox
So out with the old…
and in with the new
There was a few other less serious rust patches
A bit of sandblasting and a few coats of epoxy primer will cure them.
Then seam sealed the panel gaps on the outer wing.
Little touch of filler needed here and there
Finished job
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While on the subject thought I'd get up a job that involved both the bender and hammer forming.
The base of the radiator frame had seen better days…
So a bit of fixing up needed.
It'd be a pretty straightforward part to make if not for the circular rise in the middle, which likely would have been done with a hydraulic press and mould. Don't have access to either, so I'll have to get a bit creative with that and make it seperately.
Will start with the easy bit first though. Much the same as the light boxes, make a cardboard template, marking bend lines and hole locations and then transfer to the sheet of steel.
Fold up the two outer sides in the bender
Now comes the tricky part. Bent the rough shape around a piece of pipe and made up a 2 piece forming clamp out of heavy ply. The longer piece of ply radiused to match the bend radius of the main steel part.
Then clamped tight in the vise, start to bend the edges over slowly bit by bit
Once it's bent most of the way down, can start working it down the rest of the way with a hammer until it matches the form.
Then cut off excess steel around the edges and cut a matching shape out of the main part and clamp into place
Weld up, and after liberal use of the grinder and sander leaves it looking fairly decent
Old vs New. (The new one is on the right 😁)
Lower mounting brackets back on
Painted up inside and neoprene rubber strips to stop metal on metal contact. Not sure if it'll be of any benefit, but we'll see.
Reassembling the frame
And paint to finish
I was to mention these before but these two YouTube channels are world of information with it comes to sheet metal welding and forming. Absolute masters of their craft…
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Just a quick few photos tonight, I'll move away from the glamourous welding and fabrication work and focus on the more dull and tedious (but just as essential) job of cataloguing parts.
I wanted to get all nuts, bolts and any other parts that had been zinc plated redone, which meant having to take apart absolutely everything down to single components.
Seeing as this is the level of detail the parts manual has…
… I thought it would be better to take every assembly apart on the bench in an exploded diagram style and label everything, like so…
etc etc. I'll save you all the boredom of looking at every photo… there's over 150 of them like that! Any nuts, bolts or washers that were rusty got binned and replaced with new, everything else got cleaned up, then bagged and boxed up and sent off to RTC Engineering in Cookstown, Tyrone to be replated.
Then 4-6 weeks later everything comes back looking nice and shiney and new!
followed by the tedious task of having to sort through and organise everything again…
Worth it though
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On this week's episode…
The bulkhead thermal barrier was a bit tattered and oil-soaked, so went about making a new one.
First thing as always, started with CAD (cardboard aided design) to make a template..
Used sheets of thermal felt and sound deadening mats from http://inshop.ie
Sandwiched all together
Put in place
Next job was making a rubber seal/gasket that goes between the wings and the cab pillars.
As usual CAD template first
I used a sheet of 1.5mm neoprene rubber sponge from RS Online
Cutting mat, scalpel, ruler and various sizes of sockets needed to cut everything out.
in position
The diesel tank had some nasty scratches in it. It was like that before it arrived here, but I assume the upper pin of the lift arm came loose and wasn't spotted for a while.
So out with the hot air gun, soldering iron, old cable ties and some steel wool to try and patch it up again.
Just a matter of doing layer after layer until all the scratches were filled up
Once it's cooled and hardened then sanding it down with 400 and 600 grit paper to get it fairly smooth
Then finish off with black plastic restorer. Not perfect, but a big improvement on what it was
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I'll get another quick blast of photos up tonight. Some cab reassembly, work light brackets and brake lines…
I wired in a new relay (black one) to give intermittent wipers instead of slow. First world problem I know, but it was a pain the arse turning on and off the wipers every 10 seconds when it was just light rain or drizzle, which is pretty much every day here in the north west!
I wanted to put 2 pairs of work lights front and rear, and mount each pair off a new bracket attached to the original light mounting points. Rear bracket:
On the front there's a black plastic stand-off the lights are bolted to. This bolts into the cab roof and the nuts are almost impossible to get at once the roof is on, so to leave life a bit easier in case I needed to take off the brackets in future I wanted to put rivnuts on the inside of the cab. Had to drill out a bit of the plastic standoff to accommodate the flange of the rivnut. Used a bolt to make up a centering pin for the annular cutter
Testing lights
Old brake lines were getting a bit crusty in spots so replaced all
Sin é for tonight
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It's an evening for inside, so I've a bit of time to get another batch of photos up.
A bit of fairly straightforward fabrication to start. New securing strap needed for the diesel tank:
Next up was a bit more fiddly job. There's 2 banks of cable adjusters on the spool valves. The bottom row changes the valves between single and double acting and the top row are just for locking the valves. A couple of the cables on the top row and one on the bottom was broken. The lower cable was available for around €40, which was grand, but the upper two were over €150 a piece! Not a chance
Now… I could have just let it go. They're only to lock the valves and they never really get used at all, so they wouldn't be missed, but I think we all know by now I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night if it wasn't done 😁
Spent ages looking for a suitable cable for the job, but was coming up short. I thought something like this flexible bit holder would do the trick, but the diameter was too big and couldn't find anything else the right size.
https://www.screwfix.ie/p/titan-1-4-hex-flexi-bit-holder-300mm/655pr
Then was walking through the shed one day and spotted something poking out of the scrap bin that looked like it might do the job… a cable housing from a car window regulator. Measured it up and exact same diameter as what I needed!
To make up the steel ends I just used some M8 bolts cut to size
Drilled out the centres to be able to accept the cable
The spool valve end needed an M6 thread. Rather than taking ages threading a 30mm length by hand I just tapped into the bolt around 10mm and then fixed a length of M6 threaded rod in place with some stud lock. Much quicker
Finished steel ends
Then crimped them onto the cable and job done
Next was a non-working Diff lock. The foot pedal in the cab screws down onto the diff lock unit on the chassis, but the threaded portion on the unit side was broken off, so the lock would engage but couldn't disengage it from inside the cab. Similar fix as above… drill down into the pin, tap an M10 thread and fix threaded rod in place
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Getting to the home stretch now! This lot of photos will see the cab on and interior put back together.
Ready for lifting off the dolly for the last time.
Starting to look a bit more tractor shaped again
And now begins the the very tedious job of interior trimming. Started with the easier bits. Sunroof and roof liner.
Cleaned up sunroof upholstery
Added new acoustic foam sound deadening from inshop.ie
Back onto the panel
And new protective edge trim from https://www.carbuilder.com/
New acoustic foam sound deadening for the rest of the roof liner
Next I wanted to add a bit of sound deadening for the rest of the cab. I went with these butyl rubber deadening mats
They stick onto the steel panels and help prevent resonance. Well that's the theory anyway. How effective they'll be inside a tractor will remains to be seen! Plenty of carboard templates needed for this job.
The knock test definitely gives a different tone anyway…
On top of this I put a layer of 3mm "ST Mat", sound and thermal insulation -
Next up was the top layer of upholstery. Lots of up and down into the cab, cutting the pattern, check the fit, cut a bit more, check the fit. Cut too fecking much, start again! Repeat until it's right.
More sound deadening for the seat panels
Then on to the floor mats
Measuring up the seat panel mat. I must have been up and down from the cab at least 100 times making these mats to make sure they fit properly. Tedious tedious job
These coin top rubber mats were just 4mm thick. The original floor mat would have been closer to 20mm I'd say. There was none of it remaining for me to check. I put a 10mm sheet of closed cell neoprene rubber as a base to bring up the thickness and to add a bit of "squidgy-ness" to it under foot.
Glued the two layers together with Wurth profile rubber adhesive
Finished mats
That's all for now. There's maybe another two batches of photos to go now. There's a couple of small jobs left to do yet and I'm waiting for a replacement set of decals to arrive for the doors, which should be here Tuesday or Wednesday and then she's done! I hope!
So all going well the final episode will be this time next week.
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