Paint question and lower radiator tank repair help

[John Niekamp]

I have my 55 Loboy split apart to put in a new clutch and so forth.

FIRST:

Now that I have everything torn down, I am thinking of going a little further and give it a quick paint job and new wiring. HOWEVER, I don't really have the extra money to spend on the "correct" IH paint at this time. The tractor really isn't rusted any, just had about three coats of different reds on it. I am thinking of using some chemical strpper that I have on the self and then painting it with my left over red 8N Ford paint. Sorry got about 3/4 of a gallon left over from the 8N. How close to a match is this paint to the original IH paint? I'm thinking the IH or Farmall was somewhat darker, but really can't tell from all these other coats that has benn applied over the years.

I sandlablsted my 8N when I redone it a few years ago and swore that I would never do it again, darn sand got into everything, no matter what I tried to keep it from happening, it still found it's way into things.


SECOND:

I noticed the the very front of the bottom radiator tank, there is water seeping coolant. My first assumption was water was left in the radiator at one time and froze and cracked. I took a power wire brush and it looks more like the casting fusion line where they were casted together, more so than a crack, if so it cracked around the casting line. Best thing I could see to fix this problem is tear down the front end and braze it up, UNLESS. someone has a better idea. I't not a real bad leak at all, but the point is, is still seeps. I fugure, now would be a good time to repair it, since it's this far down. one can barely see this molding line. another thought was to scarf out the crack and use some of that JB weld that I have so often heard about. Don't know if that would work or not. Just hate to think of heating that big casting up to braze it. I guess one could try some nickel welding rod too. I don't really think I want to use any stop leak, with this type of radiator sytem.

Thanks for any help,
John

[Michael Az]

I use the Dupont Centari line of paint and the color on my 8N's are very close to the Farmall red so I wouldn't worry about it if I were doing it. Glad you learned about sandblasting a tractor. With the radiator casting, I would get down to it and see just what it is that is the problem. I remember buying some ceramic coating for cast iron.
Michael

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

John, I always prefer to do as much myself as possible, but unless you are experienced at welding cast iron I would take it to a welding shop and let them do it. If that casting cracks worse or breaks, it can get real serious.

[John Niekamp]

Well after great thought and going to bed with this leaking problem on my mind, I dicided the first thing when I got home from work today was to go ahead and take the whole cast iron lower radiator tank assembly off and give it a good look over.

Wow, was I glad that I took it off, there was so much sludge in there it's hard to beleive there could ever have been any cooling action at all.

I then took the whole housing down to my workplace and sandblasted the heck out of it. Inside and out, then spot checked it ot for any additional cracks. Well there was definitly water left in the radiator at one time.

Tomorrow I will show it to our welding shop foreman and let him decided on the best way to repair this crack. I am no welder at all, I am a machinist, so I will leave this to the pros. I do know this much that we always heat up cast iron to some set temperature and then braze it then completely wrap it in insulation to let it cool down slow and so forth.

On the paint question I called our local IH dealer and they told me that the Farmall Red was only about 15 bucks per quart, that was a lot less than what I was thinking it was going to be, especially for expensive as everything else has been for this little Cub. that I have been pricing. I know my Ford red from New Holland was a LOT more than that.

Yes, I learned the hard way on sandblasing from the 8N, but I almost had to sandblast it for there wasn't any paint left on it, it was all rust, LOL!

Unless there are brackets or somthing that I can get in our blasting cabinet, I plan on using this 3M chemical stripper on the rest of the castings. I just wanted to see how it worked, so I took a small area and it takes that 50 year old paint right off and it's neutralized by hot water. Blow it off fast so it doesn't rust and I'll be ready to paint the little red beast.

I just need to find out what is to be painted black and what is to be painted red, but I will post that in another post.

John

[Jim Becker]

I you are trying to match the original paint scheme, you can leave the black paint at the paint store.

[Bruce Sanford]

I have been away for a couple of days.So just checked the site.Re lower rad tank,I had one brazed which was pre-heated another was stick welded .Ifound one with no crackes.when you are checking yours make sure the top where the rad bolts on is completely flat.If the rad was ever frozenthe tops seem to expand upwards making the front higher than the back of the top.Makind it hard to seal even if the repair works

[John Niekamp]

Bruce,

I bet that is one thing people don't give a thought to, then like you said it won't be flat.

I got a couple bolts to drill out that has been broken off in the casting for many years. I also have a couple of side bolts that holds on the small side panels on that are broken off. I bet when I put it all back it all back together, I will use stainless steel bolts and some antiseize on the threads.

I will put it up on the mill table and clean up that mounting area, that way I won't have any leaks. (hopefully)

John

[daveland]

Hi
I just put on a new radiator and found 1" of sludge in the bottom of the lower radiator unit. The radiator had more than 1/2 the tubes plugged with calcium deposits. no wonder it boiled over all the time!!

Only distilled waterr for this baby anymore!!

I cleaned the threads in the lower housing with a tap and replaced the bolts on the lower radiator with stainless and used antisieze. The old ones were getting "necked down " with corrosion. The shinny stainless bolts look out of place on my faded rusty cub. But they will be easy to remove when I rebuild it in 10 years or so .. For now it is a working cub and I have to get it going.. The grass is growing quickly!!

dave