ploughmyfield.com

I had a great surprise on Saturday. About lunch time there was a knock on the door It was Jim who had driven over to show me how he was progressing with the mudguards on his TE-D20. The first couple of posts on this new site  (if you follow them back or click on the link on the right TE-D20) will take you to the posts all about Jim’s tractor. Roy another friend fixed Jim’s tractor for him after it hadn’t run for 12 years!

Well it was looking great and was running which is more than I can say for mine! He had done a really good job with the mudguards Following Jeff’s instructions from the Holland Brand website on fitting fenders. 

Jeff’s fender article

I will also be following this article when it comes to fitting my mudguard skins. I will me looking for imperial bolts though!

I digress, here are some pictures of Jims tractor outside my house and also a movie of him driving off. The movie would have been longer and shown him starting the tractor but I forgot to press the record button. Oh well. It’s sounding great. I’m really warming to the petrol model.

Th bonnet is blue as this tractor was originally owned by a sports ground and that is the team colours.

.

There is so much going on at the moment and not enough time to do it all. So I’ve got a roundup of a couple of items I’m tinking aboout.

Airfix
The Airfix kit I came across whilst looking through eBay sold for a staggering £598.88 Wow, you really could buy a tractor or two for that money. This quarters classic Massey has an article about a gentleman who bough two TE-D20 tractors for £230 bargain.

Donations
A big thank you to Jim and Jerry who have made large donations to the ploughmyfield website by clicking on the button on the right. Thank you very much. Your donations will pay for the server space for the site for 2 months.

Shot blasting
The mystery blaster turned out to be a man called Darren Willis.  I’m down in Derby this week and he is kindly shot blasting some more items for me. Radius arms, cradle for fromt axle, front axle, fan blade, air intake tube are all having the paint stripped from them. I’m picking them up tomorrow so etch primer tomorrow night then fitting on Thursday! 

Painting
I’ve added a final coat of Ferguson grey to the starter motor before fitting it tomorrow night. I have to say it looks Fab. I can’t wait until it’s all been painted.

I have to say it looks even better in real life. The grey is a lot darker and more shiney. I’ve also sprayed around the back of the block where the starter is positioned as there is no way I will get in once the start has been bolted on.

.

Did you know that Airfix’s first model want’s a spitfire or a hurricane but a tractor! A ferguson TE-20 tractor to be precise.

This one has come up on eBay with 4 days to go it currently stands at £230 ( almost as much as a real one) I wonder how much it will go for? Here is the link so you can keep an eye on it.

eBay Airfix Ferguson Tractor Kit

Here is the sellers information:

• Plastic construction kit of the Ferguson TE tractor made by Airfix. 1/20 Scale.
• This was the very first Airfix kit and made in the 50′s in England.
• The kit offered here, is a true collectors dream. All the components are present, even the tiny box with small parts is still sealed and never opened!
• Complete with original instructions and translation in Swedish!
• NOTE: A version which I’ve never seen before, all the parts are molded in blue plastic and tires are cream colored rubber!

.

The restoration is coming on well. I still don’t get as much time working on the tractor as I’d like, but that’s life. I’m just glad I have a tractor and I can work on it in a garage.

I have fitted the fuel pump after a total strip down clean out and check over. It was very dirty inside. Not all TE-F20′s had  a lift pump. The early models did not, there two fuel filters where also fitted in parallel (fuel passed through one or the other). Then in production the engine block casting was changed to include a couple of mounting screws for the pump and a hole into the engine  to attach a lever from the back of the  pump to the cam shaft on the inside.  I have seen a transitional stage where the hole  and mounting studs for the pump are in place in the block  but there is a  blanking plate over it. The filters are still in parallel. Once the pump was added the filters where changed to series (running through one then the other). I assume the additional pressure from the pump meant there was enough force to pass through one filter then the other. 

Disappointingly I have a rubber tube taking fuel from the main tank to the  pump. There was a secondary fuel tank or Auxiliary tank fitted on TE-F’s I have one but have never used it. I know they get full of a green sludge. With mine it’s down to a lack of correct pipe’s. If anyone out there has a spare solid pipe that goes from the Auxiliary tank to pump I’d be interested. I am also missing the second half of the pipe that goes into the back of the Auxiliary tank from the main one. 

I think I also need to take the rest of the paint off the fuel injector pump and spray it properly. It was my intension to mask it off whilst spraying the rest of the tractor.  I can see it being tricky to do a good job of masking it. It will also look rough when all the rest of the tractor is painted.

The tractor in this picture looks much better then the one in the post “Reference”below. That picture was taken before the strip down. The decompression lever at the front of the engine has now been added and the water pump housing as well as the dynamo the. The inlet and exhaust manifold holes in the block have been masked to stop paint getting in whilst painting.

I’ve started work on the starter motor. I have removed layers of mud and soil before I can clean the surface of the metal. In the picture I’ve removed the switch and solenoid from the top of the starter. I don’t intend to do anything with the internals of the motor just check the brushes are  clean and lots of material on them. The starter has always worked very well so no need to fix it.

 And below the condition of the starter when it was removed from the tractor. I intend to paint it grey the same as all the other parts. I have seen the started and dynamo painted black on some restored tractors as black was the colour Lucas originally supplied them. If you had a replacement then maybe there wasn’t chance to  paint the replacement  when fitted. Hence why some people prefer them in black not grey.

And finally I’ve got the front axle support frame back from a friend who was welding it for me. It looks great. Now it has to be stripped and painted like everything else.

.

Front Dynamo Decompression Assembly

I can’t stress enough how important it is to take loads of photo’s at every stage of the process of restoration. With digital cameras now costing less than £50  (www.ebuyer.com)there is no excuse to not be snapping away. I try to take pictures of everything, you never know when they are going to come in useful. Take the picture above, I’ve dismantled the front decompression assembly and I can’t remember how it goes back together. Now with the aid of the photo I can. I can also see the position of the cover over the dynamo brushes and which side the bracket goes that attaches to the top of the dynamo to adjust tension. Photo’s Priceless!

.

Ploughmyfield is in the news.
Have you got your spring 2009 copy of Classic Massey yet? Mine arrived through the letterbox this morning.

On page 42 as part of the article ” Our Tractors” Scott Lambert mentions this website. I sold him one of my excellent number plate brackets some time ago to complete the restoration of his TE-D20 tractor. Scott wanted to promote the site as he feels the standard of the reproduction number plate bracket should be talked about.  Thanks Scott.

Loads of other great articles in the spring edition including buyers tips for the TE-D20. Roy are you reading this now there is no excuse to delay the buying of your very own TE-20 as the guide gives you all the info on how to find the right tractor.

.

Whilst down in Derby at my office there I saw a sign for shot blasting. The next time I went down I took the Exhaust manifold with me. It is very rusted and I thought it would take ages with the brush on the angle grinder to get down to bare metal. 

Before

The hight temperature paint needs to stick to the bare metal.

So I found a person who loves his job. Unfortunately I forgot to ask the gentleman’s name. He says its great doing the sandblasting as he can escape into his own little world with his ventilated helmet  and a high powered light to see the work by.  I’m sure I’ll be back to get some more stuff done, like the back wheels as they where very reasonable. The room looked big enough to put a hole tractor in.

Unknown

he 

Company Name

The results speak for themselves and the part looks fantastic.

After

.