B7100 Restore Project Has Begun

[Baby Grand]

My b5100 hood has a 1" deep ding right next to the li'l bull. Been eyeing planishing hammers lately.

 

[j t huskins]

Got my transmission parts today. Was in such a hurry to get to work that I forgot to get any pictures. Got it all assembled except for the front cover and input shaft where I broke my lock ring pliers and had to stop until tomorrow when I can find a good strong set. Priced a NEW hood today.Toooooo much! Body putty it will be if I can' locate a good used one.

 

[KubotainNH]

The hood metal is pretty thick, maybe instead of tons of bondo you can braze or mig some new sheet metal on the bad areas.

 

[6mmbr]

If you want to keep the stock appearance then you only have one option.

If you want functional, then you could cut off the front of the hood where the headlights mount and have a shop fab and mig on a flat front. Then you could mount in some rectangular headlights and still put the bull emblem in the middle. I think that could look pretty neat. I almost wish mine was more dinged in the front (ha! too late to trade) to do something like that. The OEM headlights I read are kinda weak. I am trying to figure out what to do with mine. I would like to put more powerful lights in, using a relay with direct link to battery of course. Finding some replacement that will fit the 4 inch opening is a challenge.

Meanwhile I built a front grill pictured below. That radiator was too exposed for me - my boys seem to run into everything when they 'tractor'. I did not put any expanded metal on the front of this one (unlike all others) since wanted to be able to reach in and clean the radiator front. It looks a little awkward, but then so does anyone over 6 ft sitting on this little machine - but that gives it some of its appeal to me.

 

[petes]

Looking at the pics of your hood... that shouldn't be much trouble for you or any decent body shop to dolly back into shape. Probably will need to drill out the spot welds to disassemble the front off the top to get access, but filling/grinding the holes and re-spotting is no big deal. The metal isn't rusted into oblivion, therefore it can fairly easily be re-shaped. Shaping in corners is actually much easier than in flat sections since you can "hide" any metal stretching in the shaping rather than having to try to shrink it so it doesn't "oilcan".

 

[don white]

Baby Grand I like your picture

Funny story
I worked in a machine shop as a supervisor for several years. It was a union shop and I has about 30 guys. One black guy was a bit of a clown. You see where this is going. One day he calls me over and wants to know why it is always the black guy getting hurt. I told him to get to work.

My last name is White so obviously I get called Whitey. Which is how I got him back. We were at a company picnic and he yells out "hey Whitey". Now understand his family was the only black family there. His kids were teens at the time and were in total shock. That part was pretty funny. They thought the old man went off the deep end. A lot of people were looking. So I go walking over and I see he is trying to explain that White is my name. So I say " Hi I'm Don Jones". His pretty wife didn't know what to say, she was completely slack jawed.

You might try one of those guys that get dings out of car panels. The one I use does great work and it is cheap.

 

[skippy957]

Very nice job men.

:thumbsup:

 

[Baby Grand]

My b5100 hood has a 1" deep ding right next to the li'l bull. Been eyeing planishing hammers lately.

Here's a picture - think I can knock that out? Doesn't have to be perfect:

 

[GPintheMitten]

Here's a picture - think I can knock that out? Doesn't have to be perfect:
<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252096"/>

I think you could. That bull emblem comes out.

 

[RobertN]

Take it by a body shop maybe? Seen worse, lots worse, fixed by friends who were pro body shop guys...

Here's a picture - think I can knock that out? Doesn't have to be perfect:
View attachment 252096