Ten Foot Restoration

[Homesteader]

I'm in love with my gray market Kubota L2000. She needs a little cleaning up, straightening and polishing, but that's all going well. I have recovered the seat, welded and repaired the fenders and seat pan, painted the seat pan, fenders and dash (hood is next), and torched the steering wheel (like Vic showed in his video) to make it shine like new. It's not perfect, but it looks great from Ten Feet, so I'm referring to it as a Ten Foot Restoration.

I will need to replace all the labels soon (opting for English instead of Japanese just because My Japanese is nonexistent and even worse while bumpy), but I decided to make the big Kubota L2000 and cut them with my wife's vinyl cutting machine. The hard part there was that I had no copy of the logo file. Instead I took some photos of my tractor, made some adjustments for image distortion, then re-created the shapes in Adobe Illustrator. I think it turned out ok! Oh, and I found that the Rust-Oleum Orange #214084 is a very close match to the original and way cheaper.

One other note. Removing the steering wheel wasn't easy. I watched a video showing how to do it with a "harmonic puller", so I fabricated a simple one using an old steel plate and some J hooks with a bolt and nut. Worked like a charm!

 

[Tomcat]

Sounds like you're off to a good start! Keep posting pics as you go along with the restoration.

 

[Daren Todd]

Looks great !!!! I'm jealous of the seat

 

[res]

Great looking project!! I would be interested in seeing an overall picture. Great work!!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Looking good. I really want decals for my little machine. Hood is near perfect so clean sand and paint. Looking forward to seeing your finished project.

 

[Homesteader]

I made some more progress on the body today. Got the hood sanded down, re-welded the cracked joints, removed the rust and labels, and got a first coat of paint on. An interesting find: removing the large Kubota L2000 labels I found that the metal had rusted to the point of pitting along the letters. Not sure why, but I applied a couple coats of Vapo-Rust (awesome product!!!) to kill the rust there, along the seams and anywhere I found rust, then cleaned it all off with some paint thinner.

The first coat of paint went on well. I mentioned this as a ten-foot paint job, right? I'm quantifying that by measuring the DPSF (drips per square foot). Since this is the hood, I'll probably fine sand the couple drips I got before a final coat.

 

[Tomcat]

Anything new to show?

 

[D2Cat]

Homesteader, please quit teasing us with this report. Picture are required to confirm activity is actually in progress.

 

[Homesteader]

Haha! It's a work in progress! The cold and other "homesteading" tasks have made it hard to make progress. Notetheless, I have gotten the hood painted and will be applying the custom vinyl labels in the next few days. As opposed to replacing the chrome headlight frame, I am opting for flat black and painint the grill the same color to make it pop. I know a new headlight frame is only $75, but I think this will work/look better. Also got the front wheels wire brished, sanded and painted. It looks very nice!

I'm also including a pic of the new toys (I mean tools) I'll be using starting next week!

Oh, and I was changing the oil and hydraulic fluids last night. Talk about Molassas in the winter! Got it all drained. Found that the hydraulic fluid was low, but pretty clean with the exception of some microscopic shavings (grrr - how common or big of a concern is this?). The oil was fine (but black of course).

I'll update in the next few days when I get the hood re-mounted and the labels on.

 

[skeets]

AHHUMMMM let me see green grass, trees have leaves on them,,, hmmm the little beasty is commin along though good on ya

 

[Homesteader]

You're just jealous of our "moderate" weather here in Alabama, Skeet. LoL.

 

[Corney]

Cool riggin, what's in that pile on the trailer?

 

[Homesteader]

In that one load I got a one bottom plow, a 6 foot disc harrow and a hiller/bedder. All getting ready to break ground and start my garden next week (if timing and weather works).

My only concern is that the disc harrow is a one-point hitch, so will cut in while being towed from place to place and at the end of each row. I'm working on a mock-up that will allow me to use my hydraulic lift arms with chains connected to the far corners of the disc frame to at least lighten the load. Of that won't work, I think I'll put some 12" wheels on the disc frame with cam arms so I can lock them up or down for use.

I'm also drawing up plans to put auxiliary hydraulics on the tractor, thinking the main shaft that extends from the front of the engine would be the best place to drive a hydraulic pump. I want versatility from the hydraulics so I'm looking at a 6 GPM unit and a control valve for two functions. My question is: is the hydraulic universal fluid in the transmission sufficient for supplying this auxiliary system, or do I need to add an auxiliary storage tank?