A Tribute to my Grandparents

The 9N spent ten idle years in a shed before it was given a restoration. This tractor holds a lot of sentimental value. The restoration began in Aug. of '96 and was completed in July of '97.  You need motivation when restoring a tractor. My grandmother was the motivating factor of this project. She's was 92 years young when she passed away on May 15th, 2006. She was the most generous and kindhearted person I have ever known. Making her proud by restoring a part of the family's history meant everything to me.

Let me take you behind the scenes and tell you some of the steps taken in my restoration process.

First-  I had a "plan of attack". I made a list of items that need fixed. I worked on one area of the tractor at a time until I had everything in good working order. I repaired as many seals/gaskets that I thought was necessary. You don't want oil leaking all over your fresh new paint job.

Second- I had my brother power wash the tractor. He owns and operates a power washing business called "Pressure Plus".  This removed all of the years of grease, grim, dirt, and loose paint. It made it easier for the sandblasting process.

Third- I sandblasted the entire tractor. I removed all sheet metal , wheels, and miscellaneous parts and blasted those separate from the chassis of the tractor.  Take caution when sandblasting your tractor. Tape up all areas where sand could get into your drive train.

Fourth-  Involved the two part painting process. I powder coated all of my sheet metal and miscellaneous parts. Only the chassis and rear wheels were wet paint. I used powder from Tiger Drylac, "RAL 7001 series 49-0", for my color choice. It's somewhat lighter than the original "Ford 9N Grey", but it looks good to me. My powder coating man/co-worker/friend, from Metlfab, Inc.,  also applied a "clear coat" type of powder after the regular powder was applied and baked. This added to the already glossy finish. Gives an extra layer of protection as well. This stuff is tough material. I had a powder coat sample made while my parts were powder coated. I used this sample to get a custom color wet paint to match the powder. I used PPG's DCC acrylic urethane paint with DP402 epoxy primer catalyst and DT885 reducer on top of DP40 epoxy primer gray green to complete the job of painting the chassis and rear wheels. I also want to mention that I had the manifold and exhaust system sandblasted and painted with a high temperature paint. This keeps the "rust" factor away from your beautiful paint job.

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