Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Here are a few detailed pic up close too to show what is where.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2556.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2560.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2562.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2567.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2568.jpg

And to show the full interior still in tact.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2566.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2563.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2564.jpg

Hope you guys enjoy the pics to hold you over for a bit. I sure know it's a big relief to finally say it's mechanically complete. I can't wait to get it out and dirty soon and hopefully have a few attachments for the rear.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Wow. It sure cleaned up nicely! The chassis is all powder coated now? Looks like a perfect match. I see you upgraded the axles too. Nice. Do you put the battery behind the grille? That looks like the only place it could go. Great to see a complete engine and cab interior yet!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Hey Nathan the chassis is actually a new model chassis as I couldn't get the origional one powdercoated to match very well so I went back Ertl. Axles are now aluminum and mount up great with only two new holes drilled in the tubes to fit. The battery does sit in front of the radiator and I'm trying to find a better place to hide it so there will be nothing to see whenver it is on display. Space is a major concern now as to fit the rest of the lighting system in there and to stash the battery. If anyone knows where I could find a smaller lipo that would be great.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Tyler, What Batt pack are ya using now?

sdjb

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Video Time!!! Got a few mins while it was nice out this evening to take the tractor out on its maiden voyage. It has a small radio glitch which I'm not sure whats causing it but here is a short clip of what it runs like.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...h_100_2569.jpg

Thanks for looking and watching and hope you enjoy.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Spent a little time this evening working on the tractor. I've started to add some small details that the standard model fell short of. So far I have added step grip strips and soldered up some grab rails and handles. I'll let the pics do the talking of what I have completed thus far.

Before pics:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2571.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2572.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2573.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2580.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2579.jpg

And here are some of the after shots.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2600.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2601.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2582.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2605.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2603.jpg

I have some more finishing touches to do on the bars to clean them up but I'm getting closer to a finished product.

Next on the to do list besides adding the rest of the lights and redoing the rears are as follows.

Add hydraulic connections to the rear

Add extra details to the engine and compartment

Have moving steering wheel

Movable wipers?

Make new intakes out of aluminum for realistic look

Build new exhaust stack and muffler out of metal

Add auxiliary air tanks to the right front frame rail

And eventually hook up electronics and mounts for a front blade.

Hope you guys like the progress and lemme know what you think.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Nice work on the detail touches. The hand rails looks great, as do the anti-skid steps.

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Well it's time for another update for the weekend. I finally got my new led's in the mail and started to wire this big guy up. It took several hours last night and a few today but it is currently all wired and running. Here are some pics of the process and what it looks like now with all the new lights.

Here is my starting point.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2606.jpg

Now for the start of the wiring harnesses for the separate lights.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2607.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2608.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2609.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2610.jpg

Here's the process I started for making the headlights in the grill.
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2612.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2614.jpg

Thats all I took of the process of making them for the night.

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Here are some shots from today with the lights switched on. I have the run directly from the battery and can simply switch them on and off from inside the cab under the seat if I wan't to run them at night or leave them off during the day.

A few shots from inside the garage.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2624.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2622.jpg

And now for the lights!!!

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2620.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2621.jpg

And lastly here are a few shots from its first outside debut with some of the details added to it.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2625.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2627.jpg

Hope you guys enjoy the new pics and I also hope to have some more progress done on it soon.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

P.S. I almost forgot to add a few teasers of what I took a little time on last night.

Hope you enjoy. :)

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2618.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2619.jpg

Thanks for looking and hope to hear feedback on it.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Great conversion! Nice details...

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Gotta luv those led light's!
Cheer's, Neil.

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

that is spectacular awesome job on build and the detail work is perfect. The rims and tires are sick as well as the lighting. i only wish i could be this good at building so for now i gotta just buy when and if there available. that goes in one of the best tractor builds book for me!! the ford is a great pick. the wireing job looks perfect just a great job!!!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Thanks for the compliment. There are still more to come.

Thanks Neil, it took me a bit to find the right color to match what a halogen light looks like but I think these lights do the job.

Thank you for the praise on the build. There's a lot of time in this little guy and a ton of work to get it where it is currently. I'll hopefully have some attachments for it this week that I can get posted up eventually to see how it works.

Hope to have some more updates or you guys soon.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

That's awesome. I'm a huge fan of the working lights. I like that you used warm white LEDs instead of the cool whites. Yeah, cool whites are brighter, but warm white is more accurate for a tractor of this era. Nice work with the wiring. I'm the same way. I try to make things as clean as possible! Pretty fancy air cleaner!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

the grab rails, lights and air cleaner add a great amount of detail - great work!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Your tractor looks great, I had my doubts early on, just not much room for all the stuff that needs to go in there. You did a very nice job for sure!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Hi Tyler

Looks good was thinking of doing a similar thing for my first non kit build so to speak. What make is the model as in the UK i can only find plastic toys form Bruder and would perfere the meatl chasis that you have.


many thanks

Mark

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Mark, the base of this model started out life as an Ertl diecast prestiege edition. You can find them from time to time on ebay anywhere from $70-$100.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Time for a little bit of new progress from this evening. I finally got time again to fiddle with the tractor and so far I've got the rear hydraulic hook ups on the tractor almost buttoned up and got the valve box on the scraper built and the lines to attach to the tractor.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2695.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2692.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2693.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2694.jpg

All that is left on the scraper is cleaning up the styrene work on the front and shooting it with some matching blue paint.

I hope to be able to get the rest of the back hydraulic hook up finished tomorrow and possibly get a video showing the tractor and scraper doing a little work before paint.

A few small things left like mounting the hood for easy battery access and finishing up the air cleaner and making new intake hoses to the turbo on the engine and this little guy will be a roller once again hopefully.

Thanks for looking and plan to have some more shots and details for you guys tomorrow afternoon.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

That is an awesome looking tractor you did a really good job with it and the scrapper is looking sweet!!

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Those tires look very good on that tractor. It's a nice setup you've gotten yourself. I guess you have a lot of pulling power. Are the diffs locked?

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Thank you. It still has a ways to go before it's 100% complete but its slowly getting closer.

Thank you fro the compliments. The tractor has no problem dragging the blade around and filling it with dirt. My biggest enemy is traction. Once I get the hood attached and the battery mounted for final location I will start plating the frame and filling it with lead to add a little more weight to the main chassis so I can get the power to the ground.

Both axles are fully locked and my turning radius isn't sacrificed much but it helps having 300+ OZ. IN. of torque to steer this pig when bound up in the dirt.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Well I'm thinking it may be time for another small update. I'll start off by showing the new attachment hookup and see if you guys can figure out where my next plan of attack is going to be.

Here is the finished up attachment point for the rear assembled and installed.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2708.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2709.jpg

Have a few lines hooked up for operating the rear blade.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2710.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2711.jpg

Here is what the connectors look like underneath the shielding.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2712.jpg

And here is my new hitch pin hiding in the background.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2713.jpg

Hope you guys like the new rear end. Lemme know if you guys have any ideas or questions on how it's done. :D

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Round number two for the nightly updates.

I took some time this evening to make a new tool to start on my next project for the tractor. When you get ideas in your head and don't have the right tool, half the fun is figuring out a way to make a new tool to produce one little part. So here is what I spent a few hours making tonight.

Starting with a small piece of aluminum and making a shouldered bolt.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2703.jpg

The bolt then screws into the piece of aluminum.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2704.jpg

Once the bolt and aluminum are finished it is time to mount up the new work piece.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2705.jpg

Now it the part where you may be asking yourself "what is he up to now"?

Well here is a pretty good hint of what is to come from this next picture.

It takes a bunch of small round discs and a few minutes a piece to start turning parts. Now once you have everything mounted up in the lathe and the wheels are turning it's time to start turning the parts. One by one the start to take shape. Here is a shot of a new part in front of a standard washer.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2707.jpg

And now you have it, your mind is racing, "Is it a new hybrid, belt buckle, miniature frisbee:confused:........NO, I GOT IT, IT'S A FLUX CAPACITOR"!!!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:






Well I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, but I unfortunately can't currently share my rendition of how to build a flux capacitor due to legalities. :D

But I will however tell you that you would be on the right track if you kept your mind towards ground breaking parts. :rolleyes:

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Hmmmm i'm guessing plow discs??? :)

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Well you are correct. I didn't figure it'd be that hard to figure out. Now all I have left is to make a die for them and put a concave in them and start framing out the plow frame.

Tyler

Start Of The Disc
 

Well gentlemen it's time for a quick update. I'm currently waiting on parts for my semi builds so I pulled the old Ford down off the shelf to tinker on it a bit. I have been planning in my head for a while a few ideas about what all the tractor will be pulling and I've started mocking up for a disc behind it. I am still in the early stages but it's getting there slowly. I have the main rollers done all the disc's mounted on their shafts. I need to make the carriers and start on the body of the frame later but for now here are a few updates to hold you over. Hope you guys enjoy. :rolleyes:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2726.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2728.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2734.jpg


http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2732.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2733.jpg

Lemme know what you guys think, I hope the size is ok for this model and I have no fear that the tractor has enough grunt to pull this little guy through the ground and hopefully make some rows. :D

Thanks for looking,
Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

I like it! Looks nice and sturdy! are you going to be able to get enough of a downforce on it though?or will it have plenty of weight to it?

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Aaron that will be the biggest problem I believe I'm gonna have. I am currently debating a steel frame to bring the weight up to between 7-10lbs or leave it aluminum and mainly go for light weight and looks. The tractor is currently 8 lbs without adding any additional weight but I already have about 3 lbs of accessories to add to is with additional lead in some spots to really put the weight and power down on the ground. I am pushing for 15-20lbs on the tractor that way I will have no traction issues when the time comes to pull something heavy or something stuck. :p

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

What if you make it on the lighter side but have a spot (like open channel frame) you can throw extra weight in if needed? IDK just an idea

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Nice Disc! I´m not sure, but somewhre I´ve see such a kind of disc already... ;)
Looking forward for more pics...

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

cool project. looks good. most of the videos i ve seen look like they are running in some looser dirt or sand, i would say the light weight shouldn t be a problem.

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Great work! Your faux hydraulic/electrical hook ups for implements turned out really nice. The tractor sure has come a long ways. It's always nice to see more updates in your thread.

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

That plow setup is going to have to be sturdy with a beast like that pulling it! lol :D
Nice discs, what will you be planting? :D

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Well it's time for a small (heavy) update this evening. I took a little break from the MAN this evening and decided to finish working on the tractor since I started on it again monday. Since the last updates from the disc I've taken a little time to run the tractor and play around with the blade and rippers finally in the hard ground and after some short operating time I came to the conclusion that my biggest problem with this tractor wasn't power, it was traction.

The tractor as seen in all the previous updates weighed in at only a touch over 6 lbs fully built and operational. I got to thinking how I could start rebuilding the tractor already and adding more weight in places then it hit me........ I don't need to rebuild anything, I just need to overbuild everything that I have. I started with very small stuff and to also add details as in the metal air cleaner and I'm making some aluminum accessories that have yet to be installed. I realized that those little aluminum bits weren't going to cut it so I got a wild hair up my....... well you know, and decided to go big (heavy) or just suffer.

Leading into how the tractor currently sits tonight I started adding lead weight in some of the extra spaces that I had in the tractor including behind the step boxes, under the hood, inside the frame rails, under the back half of the frame as well as adding a pound of lead to each set of duals upping my overall weight of the tractor to a boasting 16lbs.

Needless to say I no longer have traction issues and the tractor still has plenty of power to pull itself and about any attachment I can throw behind it. I had been running the tractor around the work room and outside a bit and noticed that all of a sudden my steering was getting really sloppy and weak. So I brought it inside this evening and spent some time tearing the back end apart to find that the HS645MG Hitec servo wasn't in to healthy of a condition. Now granted that I haven't run it too much since adding the weight I decided to not wanna tear it apart again if I didn't have to so I opted to put in the biggest servo I had laying around.

That servo would be a Savox coreless digital servo with over twice the power of the hitec, I went from just at 8 lbs of force to steer this pig to over 16 lbs of force to easily and consistently turn this heavy rig around.

I will try and get some videos up sunday as I'm busy as can be tomorrow and saturday but I'll finally get some up for you guys to enjoy. So now that I've explained everything lately, here are some new updated pics of the tractor after an hour or so of working time on it and how it currently sits weighted down.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2744.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2745.jpg

And here is how the new Hitec servo looks after about an hour in the tractor.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2746.jpg

Thanks for looking guys and lemme know what you think or any questions you have.

Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

I guess my Deutz Allis weighs about 6,5 - 7 lbs....and has no problem with the disc.
More weight will help you to get more traction.
Looking forward for more pictures...

regards
Frank

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Can't wait for the video Tyler! 16lbs! Wow that should pull a lot!

New video and pictures outside
 

Well I got back home early today so I decided to take the tractor out and play in the dirt with the camera. I took a couple of crappy videos as the scraper was acting up with interference and then the tractor shut down but here are a few teasers to hold you guys over for a little while. Also have a couple of poser shots to show her out and getting dirty. :p

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...h_100_2747.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...h_100_2748.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2750.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2751.jpg

And now for my new computer background. :rolleyes:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0/100_2752.jpg

Thanks for looking guys and lemme know what you think. I hope to get the small bugs out of it soon and get another videographer to help me out as I operate the tractor, it's a little hard as it is now. :eek:

Enjoy,
Tyler

Re: My Ford FW-60 Project
 

Looks like a good start!