"It's Got A Dent In The Hood..."

[CaveCreekRay]

Grab a cup of coffee. This will take awhile…

Last year, I bought a 24 year-old 5-acre horse ranch. The place needed kaboodles of remodeling. For starters, we had to rip out 20,000 lbs of Saltillo tile from the house floor and get that tile up, into the dumpster. We had to have a tractor just for the tile. With it projected to take six to eight days of jackhammering, renting a tractor was out of the question.

Getting my wife to swing for a new tractor was easy because of the tasks ahead. And the “sell” would go a lot easier if my wife could operate the tractor while I spotted her loads.

We had owned an ancient Ford F-1700 with a loader twenty years ago and found the utility of a tractor to be most handy during landscaping. Only problem was, my wife is “allergic” to manual transmissions so she ended up “rassling” with the 500 lb boulder coming out of the bucket I was lowering. No surprise, that wasn’t a popular idea this time around.

We spent a bunch of time looking for a L 3800 like my best friend has out in Ohio. Used Kubota’s are hard to come by! Plus, we were now limited to HST (hydrostatic) so my wife could drive it. That narrowed the field even more. (See my “HYDROSTATIC STORY” for good info if you are deciding to go hydro or manual…)

My wife found a Craigslist ad for a tractor about two hours north of Phoenix. The guy mentioned the tractor had a “little dent on the hood” but he would never send me any pictures of the damage. After a month, he still had the tractor and I needed one, so I headed up to see it. When I got out of the truck, I couldn’t help laughing out loud. It was horrible…

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/Kubotahood.jpg.html][/URL]

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/KubotaHood-4.jpg.html][/URL]

This L 3800 had 126 hours on the clock. During a lifting operation, he accidentally lifted a mobile home axle to the top limits of the loader height and, as you might imagine, the axle came over the back of the bucket, striking the hood and then the roof. Had the roof not been installed, it is very likely he would have been seriously injured –or worse.

Fortunately, the damage was limited to the hood and the fiberglass roof. In parts alone, he said the damage came to a little over a grand, so we worked out a deal and I drove away with a 8 month old Kubota with a serious dent in its nose, and three implements.

With a remodel underway I didn’t have time to fiddle with the “cosmetics” of the damage. I pulled the hood and we christened our new orange helper the “Ghetto Kubota.” After months of use, I found that engine access was pretty handy without the hood. But, I longed to get the hood done, every time I saw it sitting in the barn.

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/Kubota-Lou-3.jpg.html][/URL]

My wife took to the hydrostatic transmission like a duck to water. When I would fill up the bucket with shattered floor tile, she would gleefully drive out and dump the load in the dumpster. After the first couple tries, I never had to ask twice to get her on the tractor. She loves this thing. And, this is a woman who took years to get the confidence necessary to ride a motorcycle. This tractor was easy!

When it came time to set new manhole covers over our new septic system, the contractor wanted $1000 to set two covers and the concrete collars. Instead, we bought some chain and a couple bags of mortar and set them both in 30 minutes. My wife did all the heavy lifting and delivering. I put her in low range and about 1500 rpm so she could make a mistake and not go far. She didn’t make many after the first couple. She liked being on the driving end of “heavy lifting” for a change. (I think I am the permanent spotter from now on… )

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/EchoCanyon-SepticTank-4.jpg.html][/URL]

Ten months later, with the remodel winding down, I finally got around to fixing up our crunched machine.

Right after purchasing the tractor, I contacted the local dealer about parts. A new hood, minus stickers was $770. The lights housings were $150 apiece. Stickers ran about $60. Paint, in rattle cans, ran me $10.80 apiece. I gulped hard on the new hood and then got an idea: Could an auto body expert do the sheet metal repair? I took it down to my local guy and he said they’d give it a try. Boy, was I lucky!

The awesome Hispanic body guy beat and hammered and welded and sanded over and over for four days and got it back into shape. He was a true craftsman. The dent was so bad it had stretched the upper hood surface. If you’ll look, there was also a seam that was bent pretty bad. This guy was a true artist and the whole job ran me $350 to get to here. I am totally proud of this guys workmanship on my tractor. He saved it.

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/Kubotahood-3-2.jpg.html][/URL]

It only took a little more sanding on my part and I was ready for primer. My Ohio Kubota buddy is an experienced car restorer and he advised me the proper primer paint color under orange needed to be very light gray or white. Mine was not quite “light gray” so I just sprayed on more Kubota II Orange.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

The factory spray cans shot a pretty bad spray pattern, fogging lots of orange peel out on the periphery of each spray pass. I had to violate the normal 12" distance I held the can from the hood to get a wet coat on, spraying about 6 inches away. By linking those wet passes, I got a pretty nice coat on the last two applications. Never had a run. All in all, the hood has six coats of orange paint on it, on top of three coats of primer. With the rain we get here in Arizona, rust will not be an issue.

On the inside of the hood, the hammer marks were obvious. To cover those up without more Bondo, I resorted to plastic undercoating, or “stone chip” to hide the damage. It took a whole can (Home Depot $4) to get three coats under the hood but I figured it might help a tad with noise even in the areas with no damage. The orange took a couple coats to cover the black stone chip but, it looks “tractor fine.” Definitely mo-better than before.

After repair... looked like the moon

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/Kubotahood-2-2.jpg.html][/URL]

After stone chip and paint...

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/TractorHood.jpg.html][/URL]

The light housings went back in with only a few adjustments. I had the lights in the body shop so the body guy could get the seam lines right –and he nailed them.

So, here is the finished job. Hard to believe it’s the same tractor.

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/TractorRoof-3.jpg.html][/URL]

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/Kubota-Fixed.jpg.html][/URL]

Oh… and then there was the roof…

We drove the tractor all winter and noticed the roof was flexing pretty badly towards the end due to the smashed leading edge of the roof tub. Only when I unbolted the roof for repair did I realize how much damage resulted from all that flexing: The hairline cracks in the gel coat stretched almost to the back of the cover. This top was a mess. Sadly, I don't have any close-up pictures of the damage.

Having never done much in fiberglass repair, I got most of my “edjumication” on the topic from watching “Wheeler Dealer” and YouTube videos. It turned out to be a pretty fun job.

The damage on the front edge of the roof vertical portion had cracked the roof completely in half about 12 inches back from the front lip, ending in a one-inch hole. Without this front “beam” of structure, the integrity of the roof was totally compromised. To even start the repair, I had to use straps to lash the roof back in shape to where the two sides of the crack actually touched again. This took a few tries. Once I finally got it “jam-boed” back together, the repair was easy.

Fiberglass resin comes in several flavors. Somehow, the first batch I picked up was a gooey paste that was great for doing holes in the side of boats but absolutely not good for doing flat stuff. It ended up making a huge crusty mess on the roof of the tractor. But, that repair was strong enough to allow me to do a really nice repair with three layers of fiberglass on the inside after I removed the straps.

Once that hardened, I ground off the crusty outside repair and did it over with liquid resin and three more layers of fiberglass. Nice thing about fiberglass: If you totally dork it up, just sand it off and do it over. Given the original top was laid up by a chopper gun and rolled flat, my lay-up repair should be far stronger than the original. And while I didn’t fill in the divots with Bondo, the result is pretty nice, considering the original damage.

With only two coats of paint over the resin. I reinforced most of the leading edge of the roof as well as the left water channel where the crack extended back a foot, ending in a hole the size of a dime.

http://[URL=http://s307.photobucket.com/user/CaptStark/media/TractorRoof-5.jpg.html][/URL]

If you do this type repair, make sure you stretch each layer of glass cloth out to a farther distance than the previous layer of cloth, to spread out the stress. Otherwise, you may see new cracks form and your repair may fail.

DO IT YOUR-SELFERS NOTE: As it turns out, one of the manufacturers of the Kubota roof kits is here in Phoenix. They get bashed and dented roofs in all the time and they repair them and turn around and sell them. A repaired roof, with a partial and probably not matching paint job would run about $220. I already had the resin and cloth (about $50 for a gallon of resin and $6 for the cloth at WallyMart) so I thought I’d give it a try first. Glad I did. It looks great and I may blow off ordering the plastic combing that goes around the edge. It’s only $.40 a foot and this cover requires 19 feet.

ANOTHER SUBJECT -POTENTIAL USED KUBOTA BUYERS NOTE:

My nice little tractor had obvious damage. The guy I bought it from was nice enough. Hey, accidents happen. The one thing is, you always want to trust what information the seller tells you, especially regarding routine service.

In my case, before I used my tractor, I did a quick service on it, cleaning out a pretty dusty air filter, draining out some pretty dark oil, and greased the loader hinges as well as the 3-point swivel balls. Nearly all of the 126 hours on the clock of this tractor were before the accident. After the hood accident, the tractor sat for nearly five months, outside, uncovered. I have the faded loader arm paint to prove it.

The nice folks down at my local Bingham Kubota told me that, even if the previous owner had not changed the oil per the service schedule, the chances of any damage was basically zero under 150 hours. Kubota filters and oil quality are top notch so stick with them and try to honor the service intervals and you’ll get a lot of life out of your tractor. If a seller has a service history, with receipts for service, you can sleep easy after the purchase. I took his word but did a service immediately after getting the tractor home, just to be sure.

HYDROSTATIC STORY (When will this ever end?)

My buddy in Ohio chose manual as a path to avoid possible pitfalls with the hydrostatic transmission. But, I had seen these in operation at work and let me tell you, Kubota hydrostatic transmissions are stout.

During my first ten years at Southwest Airlines, I watched rampers literally trying to destroy Kubota baggage tugs on a daily basis. These were, as memory serves me, mid-80’s L-class tractors set us as baggage tugs –no loader and no 3-point hitch, just a pintle hitch –and painted a yellowish tan color. I’d watch guys peel away as the rear tires smoked only to go full reverse at top speed, smoking the tires to a stop -all on concrete. It was bizarre to watch. Often times they were pulling two or three carts full of bags or maybe as many as five or six.

What finally destroyed the Kubota fleet was when a few brainiacs decided that if expensive 5 wt jet engine oil was good for the jets, it must be good for the tractors too. NOT. After a rash of motor replacements, the Kubota tractors went away. The hydrostatic trannys were awesome. Hope they still are. If you are trying to get your wife to run your tractor, even occasionally, the hydrostatic is the way to go.

Sorry for running long… Hope this helps somebody.

Big THANKS to my friend Bob who graciously hooked up his pick-up and trailer to haul this "rescue tractor" home for me.

 

[85Hokie]

Great story,

Here is what I learned, 1st - you have a lovely wife that "likes" to drive YOUR tractor, 2nd - you got great use of the "ghetto tractor" and 3rd - you did a great job getting her back into shape!! Well done. There aint nuttin wrong with long posts, better that they tell a great story. And great pictures.

Only one comment, and it is just a note on safety, when picking those concrete collars up, choke the chain a couple of feet shorter, try to keep the bucket as low as possible when lifting something like that. I know the vision might be blocked at a lower bucket angle, but as the bucket gets higher, you gain a high center of gravity and danger lurks, especially with you wife at the helm

Nice JOB!

o yeah, welcome to ORANGE COUNTRY

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Great story,
Only one comment, and it is just a note on safety, when picking those concrete collars up, choke the chain a couple of feet shorter, try to keep the bucket as low as possible when lifting something like that.

Yes indeed, we now have adjustable chain sets! This was a 20' tow rig that we shortened by draping over the bucket with two strands. Fortunately, these concrete collars only weighed about 125lb. The cast iron flange mount was 200+ as were the dadgum sewer lids. Sure made it easy with the tractor.

I have water in my rear tires so that helped with stability a little bit.

Speaking of stability, my old neighbor has run his Kubota all over the hillsides of his property, scrubbing brush before every fire season. He rolled that thing halfway down the hill and narrowly avoided being crushed by it as it tumbled down the hill behind him. He didn't have his seatbelt on and was tossed overboard as the ROPS tried to keep the tractor from going over but the hill was too steep. The tractor hesitated a few seconds before tumbling after him and came to rest at the bottom of the hill right where Howard ended up. Howard saw the tractor coming and moved out of the way.

PHEW!

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE ON HILLS!

 

[TripleR]

Very nicely done and an interesting story.

 

[ipz2222]

You let your wife drive your tractor!!! NO way here, I let her shoot my ruger, she took it, I let her drive the bass boat, I have to sit in the back.. She ain't driveing my tractor!! I noticed you didn't say anything about her sanding anything. (G)

 

[CaveCreekRay]

I noticed you didn't say anything about her sanding anything. (G)

Funny how you mention that... she always had an EXCUSE!!!

Truth is... she would come over and watch quite often... Once she got some seat time, she got really interested in the needs of our tractor. "Make sure you have all the filters and fluids for the tractor and service it when it needs it!"

Chrome rims, 3-point and floor plating, and LED lighting, that falls under service doesn't it? -JUST KIDDING!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Being a former PHX,AZ resident of 21 years, a cab with A/C falls under service!

 

[Lil Foot]

Great looking tractor! (now) Might have to get your body man's name…. I have some blowout damage on my F350.

 

[Stubbyie]

Good story and well worth reading. Thanks for telling the tale.

One thing to add to 85Hokie's observation about chains draped over bucket...

1. Certainly keep loader as low as possible.

2. Use a 'snatch-hook' to take the slack out of your chain. Make your own using two clevis-type grab-hooks bolted end-to-end with a Gr-8 bolt.

3. It bugs me to hang a chain over the 'sharp' lip of the bucket. Try getting a piece of pipe--I use 2.875-in OD oilfield production tubing-- and slitting it lenghways, making a slot to fit the bucket lip. When using chain slip the pipe onto the lip and the chain has a rounded edge to ride on. Had one loader different color that I had to weld flaps (looked like duck bill) on both ends of pipe on top of and below bucket lip so pipe would stay in place.

Thanks again for passing your story along.

An aside: my spouse too loves hydrostatic and takes care of most of our 'yard' bushhogging were care is needed (rose bushes, fountain, yard cats), leaving the pasture dressing to me. She hated an earlier much larger gear machine.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

One thing we bought is a couple 13,000 lb ratchet straps from Homey 'Po. Those are great because you can vary them from 6" to fifteen feet. I have to move a cast concrete fountain and the base will pick up with those ratcheted tight.

We also have to move landscape boulders. I couldn't find any scissor tongs for picking up medium-sized boulders so I bought two 6' 6000lb hoist straps from Harbor Freight. From a common metal ring, these will fit easily over the ends of the boulder for relocation. They are well made and covered in a scuff-cuff.

 

[skeets]

Ray ya done good,, if I may as to be so bold,, what did you give for the DENT in the hood tractor?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Umm.. Ray,
Vixen would like to know more about the Pup / Lobo / Wolf, in the picture!

Vixen, AKA The Timber Wolf

 

[skeets]

Good Lord she looks like Moms Belgium Shepard . Enough in fact to one of his pups

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Skeets-

I mentioned the whole "used" issue in another thread. The seller told me the parts were right around a grand. Turns out he was about 30% off.

He had $27K in the 8 month old tractor/loader with a roof, rototiller, box scraper, and rake. The last two items had never been used. I gave him $19,200 for the lot.

The hood "beat out" ran around $350, lights $150 each, and stickers about $60. A new hood sans stickers was over $700 from Kubota. It took 9 cans of Kubota orange II at 10.80 per can. That about half of what the body shop would have charged for a paint job.

Wolfman-

That there is a 135 lb, 2.5 year-old male Timberwolf in a wolf refuge in Divide, CO. Can't even spell his Indian name. He was a absolute gentleman, except for trying to stick his tongue down my wife's throat during some "wolf kisses." (Great video!) He was about the size of a small import car, as viewed from the side. Yours looks to be the same in size, smarts, and sweetness. This guy's female partner would not come near us and was not happy we were in her 1/4 acre run.

If anyone passes through Colorado Springs, I highly recommend the "private tour" in the sanctuary in Divide. What an experience.