As most of you know, the Kubota M-series tractors come with a lovely plastic roof secured by rivnuts. Over the twenty years before I acquired this machine, those rivnuts had definitely seen better days from being repeatedly removed and overtightened. The breaking point came last spring: while trailering the tractor home, we drove straight into a brutal wall of wind, and the factory roof completely left the building.
Faced with a $2,200 price tag for an OEM replacement which would just come with the exact same design flaws, I decided to take matters into my own hands and build a custom steel roof instead.
Here are some photos of the fabrication process and the final result. To finish it out right, I lined the inside with reflective foil and spray-foamed it for solid insulation. I also took the opportunity to upgrade to a larger light bar to tie the whole build together.
Faced with a $2,200 price tag for an OEM replacement which would just come with the exact same design flaws, I decided to take matters into my own hands and build a custom steel roof instead.
Here are some photos of the fabrication process and the final result. To finish it out right, I lined the inside with reflective foil and spray-foamed it for solid insulation. I also took the opportunity to upgrade to a larger light bar to tie the whole build together.
