2055 White resto modding “White Lightning”

After sitting for a time period roughly equivalent to that of the Jurassic age, a thing happened tonight. Two actually.

More will be coming in the next few weeks.

I like where this is going!

Thinking I’m going back to grey on the rear panels. Tried silver and between clear coat issues and the stripes peeling off in sheets (despite correctly prepping) I think I’m going to just go back to stock color. It’s too much headache.

Sucks about the paint issues. Orange peel with the clearcoat? What also sux is the price of paint going up 100% it seems (at least here) in the past year.

What brand are you using? If rattle can, I always had issues with Krylon coming off in large flakes. It always ran on me too.

Yeah, clear coat seems to chip way too easy. Almost too hard.


I use rust oleum, krylon has never been good for me that much.

I remember when rust oleum was 4.29 a can. Now it’s 8.29.

Still got no clue as to what I’m doing with the paint, I’ve got a cheap sandblaster so I could strip and repaint it if I wanted… this late in the year though might be tough. Alternatively could just do it in the spring. IDK.

Finally got the bearings I need to reassemble the transaxle , was awful trying to track them down but I did. Need to clean the everloving shmoo out and reassemble. But I’ve got all the parts to get this thing running again, so we’ll see.

Tempted as far as the rear panels go to shoot in grey, wet sand with 800 grit, shoot some silver stripes and then clear the whole thing. I dunno though, that’s subject to change.

Any ideas for a paint job on this? Feeling like this is just a headache but it looks like crap the way it is now. I almost want to roll it in blue bedliner. Almost.

How about Black and Gold?


No, honestly... can you shoot us a pic of where it stands and what you were going for last time or want to do?  Give us a little refresher for the build. I know that silver paint is a beast to paint another color over.  I think it has differen properties.

LMAO! One of these days I’m going to have to put my money where my mouth is. I shot all the rear panels in silver, the gun was leaking and splattered paint everywhere so they look kinda rough now except for the one side panel. IDK what I’m doing with it, I’m wanting to try and blow snow with it this winter and I want to get the actual frame parts done so that way I don’t have to take it apart again next spring. Supposed to be warm next three days, maybe I can sneak something in. I’m thinking of shooting the grey stripes, scuffing with 800 wet, taping them off, scuffing the whole thing with 320, shooting silver, then removing the tape and shooting clear. Current hood will stay white for now barring me deciding to redo that too. Might blast and paint it, who knows. Still want to do the new hood up, but that’s a next year project. Need to get some more metal and do some welding on it.

I honestly think that a 2 tone silver would be nice, light on the hood and darker on the fender pan with some white and black to break it up.

That’s got legs. I have everything to do it too.

Sorry for my again disappearance. Haven’t done too much, but looking at sleeve hitch attachments has kinda got my fire going again for this. Need to get the transaxle all sorted out still, but the good thing is that I *may* have found the issue causing the transmission cavitation. So whenever it got cavitated, it would form an intense vacuum in the sump to where you needed a pair of pliers to remove the dipstick. There is no breather in this transaxle, and it’s unclear whether one was even made. Since the dipstick isn’t all that useful being chewed up and the fill plug doesn’t help, I think I’m going to replace the fill tube with a breather cap and use the level port to fill and check fluid levels.I believe the John Deeres use some sort of clear level tube, I may also look into that.

Not something I’d be doing anytime soon, but I’ve also been toying with the idea of a generator drive conversion, like on the big locomotives. I’d be using a pair of 48v alternators and a 10k watt motor. Complete variable speed, constant torque, extra auxiliary functions (E-pto would be super cool for pulling a mini brush hog) and I could set it up for hand and foot throttle. Downside the bill is about 1,000 dollars to do it so I don’t think it will happen soon as I’m a broke college student.

Posted a while back that I was trying to find a stronger battery setup. I got lucky and found that NOCO sells lithium car batteries in a very compact package, in my case a 500 amp one for 100 bucks. Almost twice the Cca and a lot better resilience to cold.

In other words if I can get through the mental roadblocks to turning wrenches again we can get this thing moving forward at a nice little pace. Almost a bittersweet feeling to be honest.

Finally decided with the paint that I’m going to strip it all off and shoot it in grey I think because I’m tired of messing around with the silver.

Well not much is new, but I *did* pull the ol girl’s cover off and start a few odds and ends.

Dunno what it was about seeing the motor again, but I cannot believe how nice it looks. Honestly afraid to use her as a tractor again- might just be a toy that stays outta the mud.

What I’ve done recently has been this:

-Bought a 2 way hydraulic breather for the transaxle

-Inspected the diff carrier and axles, dusty and some very small flash-rusting to clean, but they’re ok.

-Found some rear tires I like, they’re 29s instead of 27s but I’ll put 19s on the front and all will be well.

-Finalized a paint scheme

-Purchased the tools to do the wiring harness right

-Finished some minor quirks on LuAnna so she can be doing tractor stuff while this sweetheart gets the treatment

- Decided to bite the bullet. All the safety switches are going bye-bye, all the old wiring is going out as well.

-Sourced a lithium battery with the appropriate CCA for this tractor.

-Found a lead on a 3 point assembly.

-Was given and repainted a small Cat 0 disc harrow.

-Realized my resistance to working on this tractor: it’s a trigger to my abusive ex. Long story, but I’m working through it now. The project is not going anywhere, I’m not letting my past win.

-Sourced a new Hydro fan.

-Sourced and bought all the hardware for the front axle upgrades.

I’m going to do what “Dig-Drive-DIY” on YouTube did: do one task on this tractor every day, until it’s done. Going to be uncomfortable at times, but I think I can push through!

Rustbucket Garage wrote:

-Realized my resistance to working on this tractor: it’s a trigger to my abusive ex. Long story, but I’m working through it now. The project is not going anywhere, I’m not letting my past win.

I can say, I have been here.  I had a pretty bad 1st marriage of 5 years.  Good the first, second went downhill a bit, to pretty much full on cheating the 3.5-5th year.  I was blind to all but the last year.  Talk about a dark time.  Mental abuse, gaslighting, hiding things, shutting me out, accusing me of things she was doing, she even took off across country to screw around after her son broke his leg. Abandoned her kids all the time. Broke up the neighbor couple.  I could go on and on.  I shut many things out of my life for a period of time.  

I was lucky and found the woman I was destined to be with, and times could not be any better than they are.  I lucked out.  But, back to that period of time, I avoided doing things with my wife because they reminded me of my ex, or she did that.  Took me some time to realize I was just hurting myself, limiting joy with my wife.  Once I got over that baggage, life really turned around and got SO much better.  The ex never crosses my mind anymore now (except to tell this story).

I know this is a big side tract to your topic, but I hope you are able to get over that hurdle and can return to the things YOU ENJOY without the memory of those that hurt you.  Once you get to that other side, life is so much better. I pray that your journey over the hump is quick.


PS: I don't know that I have shared that story with anyone else outside my family.


[adm]We shall return to the regularly scheduled topic!
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Hey, good feeling to know we aren’t alone. And I ain’t worried about a little side chatter here, lol. And I’m really glad to hear you’re doing better!

Mine was always threatening self harm, to the point I had to be up all night talking her out of it. Would also gaslight, and was physical at times- beat up the guy who came before me pretty bad and threatened me to do the same… I got out before it got too bad.

This used to be my “out” when I was having a bad day, so working on her now when I’m not in a good mood already brings that old stuff to the surface. Sucks to have passions stolen like that…

She’s not winning though, WL is my baby and I intend to make this old tractor like new!

Sorry all for the side vent