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1945 John Deere H Project

21524 Views 52 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  gordon1121
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Dad bought this tractor about 2 years ago in La Valle, WI. My wife and I made the trip up there to get it for him (I volunteered ;) ). About 1250 miles later we brought this little girl home. Here's a pic of the way she was when we got her.


All in all she didn't look that bad from a distance but I knew he didn't buy a "restored" tractor. This guy had bought this thing in MN at an auction. The tractor had been sitting in a barn for 20+ years. He took it home and got it running. He then layed down 1 really thick, run filled layer of paint over whatever was in the way. No prep work or body work was done at all. There was more runs on it than the New York City Marathon! :roll:

Taking it apart, we found where one of the fuel lines had a hole (thankfully) in the top side of it. He had taken masking tape and covered it and then painted that :shock: .

The tires are badly weather cracked but Dad hasn't decided whether to replace the rears or fill in the cracks and use tire paint. It won't ever be used on a farm again, just shows and parades.








As of right now, everything that has been taken off of the tractor has been prepped and primered. We have over 50 hours tied up in the hood alone. (Note: We are not proffessional body workers) Some of the stuff in the pics have had some stuff done to it (frame rail, left rear wheel, etc...) but we now need to tie into the bulk part and get it ready for the green stuff.

Hopefully, more pics to come. ;)
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G
Lotsa work so far Jamie. Gonna turn out real nice when you get it done. Keep the progress pics rollin. Do you have any pics of the work you've done on the hood??
petra79 said:
Lotsa work so far Jamie. Gonna turn out real nice when you get it done. Keep the progress pics rollin. Do you have any pics of the work you've done on the hood??
I had some on my old phone of the hood and body work but the phone crashed and lost a lot of pics before I got them switched over. :( I'll get some more pics of the individual pieces next time I'm in the shop.
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these little H's.. Good luck fixing it up the right way!! I wish people would just leave things alone instead of doing shotty work. Now the next person has twice the amount to do
Jamie J Good to see you and Dad working on that John Deere together . Be watching for more pics.
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Here's a few pics of the parts that has been taken off. Some were taken off today so they haven't been worked on yet. We pulled it out of the garage and pressure washed where some of the grease and leaks had been. Dad had sprayed it down with oven cleaner last night so with 3800 psi of water, she came pretty clean! ;)





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Came out nice n clean. I use the dollar store oven cleaner. Buck a can is my kind of price. Works great.
Thanks for the pics Jamie, ya got a good start on 'er :D
If you'll notice in the last picture, the right hand side of that upper water pipe is a different color. It was actually rusted through right there and a little J.B. Weld fixed it right up. I don't use the stuff very often but sometimes it's what saves the day. ;)
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JamieJ said:
If you'll notice in the last picture, the right hand side of that upper water pipe is a different color. It was actually rusted through right there and a little J.B. Weld fixed it right up. I don't use the stuff very often but sometimes it's what saves the day. ;)
BTDT. Never tried it on a heated item though. Never had to. Good luck with it...................
petra79 said:
JamieJ said:
If you'll notice in the last picture, the right hand side of that upper water pipe is a different color. It was actually rusted through right there and a little J.B. Weld fixed it right up. I don't use the stuff very often but sometimes it's what saves the day. ;)
BTDT. Never tried it on a heated item though. Never had to. Good luck with it...................
I figured the hose covered it anyway and didn't leak to begin with. It couldn't hurt nothing so we went with it. See what happens :?
Looks good and you can its gonna look real good when you'all get done. JB Weld has saved the day for me several times. Good stuff.
G
JamieJ said:
petra79 said:
JamieJ said:
If you'll notice in the last picture, the right hand side of that upper water pipe is a different color. It was actually rusted through right there and a little J.B. Weld fixed it right up. I don't use the stuff very often but sometimes it's what saves the day. ;)
BTDT. Never tried it on a heated item though. Never had to. Good luck with it...................
I figured the hose covered it anyway and didn't leak to begin with. It couldn't hurt nothing so we went with it. See what happens :?
I'm sure it will be fine. Water pipes are pretty easy going.
Maybe someone will chime in if they've tried it on say a manifold or not. Would be nice to learn some more.
The H is looking mighty fine, Jamie. I bet MissBetty would look good driving that at next years show in Cynthiana... :D :D
You have 25 days to get it back together JamieJ!
johndeerefan said:
You have 25 days to get it back together JamieJ!
Dad is the one putting in the hours. Since he retired, I think he was looking for something to do. Him and the dog spend all day in the garage "playing."

I've got some time logged in on it last year but now he's turned loose on it. He says it won't be ready for the big show but at the rate he's going, it may just make it! ;)
Ok... ran into a problem. There is a bearing that we will have to replace. Problem is, I don't really know what it is called :oops: . Here's a pic of where the bearing is located at. It seats inside this cover. Is it the governor bearing? Fanshaft bearing? Any help please :?

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That wouild be a bearing in the governor. The fan shaft goes into the same unit. For a parts list, go to http://jdpc.deere.com/jdpc/servlet/com. ... ervlet_Alt
Thanks! I won that little bet with Dad. ;)

Found an aftermarket one for about $75. The originals were 3 piece and from what I understand... pretty hard to find.
Spent the afternoon playing with the little H. Started out taking off one of the back wheels. Got the tire off of the wheel which turned out to be no easy task. We need to do some straightening around the edge of the wheel so it had to be done.

Since nothing except a few bolts was keeping the tractor together, we decided to go ahead and split it. We'll be able to clean it up better and properly paint it that way.

We then tried to get the pivot bolt out of the hand clutch. Spent a lot of time on it but it didn't get very far. Followed Steiner's advise from a video about using another bolt in the other hole beneath it trying to force it out. Even applied a little heat to it with no success. Didn't really want to heat it but it wouldn't budge. Any suggestions? :? :?:

Dad had removed the bottom out of the toolbox since the old one was crinkled up so I grabbed some scrap expanded metal and made us a new one. In the meantime, I moved the bench grinder from the little garage to the big garage so that I could smooth up the edges on the expanded metal.

Really enjoyed spending time with Dad. With my schedule we don't get to "have fun" like that very often.
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