Carson's C-121

Getting close to caught up on pics.  These are the last ones from last Thursday.  

The lower tower had a few small cracks beginning like all of them do so some 1/4" thick plates were made and welded in.  The cracks were also welded from the top into the 1/4" plates then smoothed back up.  There will be no cracking with those in there...    

The top sides of the tower that show when done also got a nicer sanded finish on them.  There is some discoloration in the tower but everything will look great when painted.  

 

Last Friday morning parts were separated by what color they would be.  I wanted to get the PTO housing done that day too but it needed some work first.  It was cleaned up and blasted to get a better look at things. The pin on the end had a lot of rust pits, the outer bearing was bad, the inner seal was shot, and the clutch disc was wore out.  The main inner bearing and main housing was still good.  Not a problem, I have everything here to fix up what it needs.  Before being painted the housing was resurfaced, outer bearing and parts removed and it was ready.  

It was another perfect painting day outside last Friday, 75 degrees and 27% humidity.  Plus another round of painting with no mess in the shop to clean up.  

 

There are 2 posts today.  This one is good news, next one is bad news.  This one has pics from last Friday when things were painted.  Everything looks great.   

Don't ask how I paint things like the tower is done.  The black was painted then the red right after with no taping because the black is not dry.  All I can say is ancient Geno secret...      



 

This is post #2 for today that has the bad news.  These pics are from today.  I figured this morning since I was all caught up I would get the rims ready since the blaster is still down.  The part for it was supposed to be here today but it didn't show up either.  Now they say tomorrow, we'll see...  

I was concerned about the little bit of rust on the front wheels because peoples eyes are usually drawn to nice looking wheels.  Sort of like the car in primer that has nice wheels and everyone thinks it looks awesome.  

The problem with these are actually something I did not expect and don't run into much.  You can see what I mean in the pics.  The worst one to get off is in the 3rd - 6th pics.  It was stuck so bad even my Bend Pak Ranger Racing tire changer had a hard time breaking it down.  It finally got it but ripped the steel in the bead along with it it was so stuck, something I thought was impossible.  That was a first for me.    

The last 2 pics of the other rim are I have no idea what.  I do wish I had broken them down before spending all the time removing the bearings and cleaning up the insides but oh well.  

Putting tubes in them is really not a good idea either.  There's so much damage it will get worse over time and has already become a possible structural integrity issue.  Now would be the time to play it safe and deal with it instead of having more trouble later...