Broken BX24 hood, RE-USING decals

[Sodo]

Firewood fell out of the bucket onto the PLASTIC hood and shattered it. The hood seems to be made of styrene plastic, it's brittle. I was busting up the pieces just to see how strong they are - and its brittle plastic, pretty lowball stuff.

So I ordered a new hood from Messicks, it was $214. I don't remember how much the decals cost but it was either $35 for a pair or $70 for a pair, either way it was too much. I thought maybe later I'll replace the decals after the credit card cools off.

But I got to thinking maybe they will come off with heat, so with a sawzall I cut panels off and set them just above the woodstove to warm up. It was a great success, the original decals and emblems are on the new hood and it looks great.

The Chromed BX24 emblems can stretch too. The glue softens well, lets the emblem go but you could stretch the emblem and tear the chrome so be careful.

I worried a little about heating the emblem side as opposed to heating the plastic side. You want the glue to remain with the emblem, leaving no glue on the orange plastic. Which suggests to heat the plastic panels with the emblems face-up. That's not how I did it though, and most of the glue remained on the emblem. If I did it agin I'd try heating face-up.

The big KUBOTA decals are stretchy and soft when they're hot, so be careful pulling them off. It's a thick, durable vinyl and it holds together. They cool all distorted after coming off, so I had to put them back over the heat and they 'healed' up, regained their original shape. One of the pics below has them sprawled out over the stove, healing. I put them on carefully starting in the middle of the decal and rolling them outward, and they came out perfect.

A new BX24 hood, with re-used decals from the old hood.

There are two little chrome hood ornaments, the posts break when you try to get the retainers off. The posts that break off are hollow, and you could put a small self-tapping screw & washer into this hollow post. I don't have any small screws at the moment so I will just glue them onto the new hood.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey well done... thanks for sharing. I hope I don't find myself needing to replicate your adventure but I already broke one of the little tabs that hold the hood in place on the frame so I can envision the day that I break the hood in a more spectacular fashion as you have.

 

[rbarker]

Hey well done... thanks for sharing. I hope I don't find myself needing to replicate your adventure but I already broke one of the little tabs that hold the hood in place on the frame so I can envision the day that I break the hood in a more spectacular fashion as you have.

I'm pretty sure they went back to metal hoods with the BX25 so you might dent it but it shouldn't break like that.

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[radioman]

Thanks for sharing. Have you thought of trying a metal hood from bx25 for the 24?

 

[Sodo]

I thought of it but the BX25 hood costs $350 vs $214…..and maybe you get a dent (maybe not). I have not heard if the BX25 hood fits the 24 but it does seem like a better replacement if it fits. The hinge system is designed to accommodate the flimsy plastic hood, don't think it would be necessary with the metal hood, so might require a bunch more parts to buy. The plastic hood sure is a piece of crap, just removing the headlight mounting bolts tore an entire boss off both the hood and the headlamp assy. I can see why they went back to steel. If I'da disassembled the plastic hood before ordering the new plastic one I may have considered the metal hood! (I was not thrilled investing half the cost of an implement for a hood).

Working on this BX I've been impressed by the high quality build where necessary but they skimped on the some less-than-essential stuff that can be a headache. I'm selling this BX24 anyway, this tractor has opened my eyes, it really has done its job well and I'm on the move for a 30hp.

 

[Tollster]

Nice save on the decals! I know the 24 had quite a few issues with the use of plastic, namely the fender and step area were prone to cracking, I believe they had a recall on the step area.

 

[dragoneggs]

I'm pretty sure they went back to metal hoods with the BX25 so you might dent it but it shouldn't break like that.

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oops you're right... hood is metal. I broke the plastic tab on the engine shroud.

 

[rblochli]

BX25 is metal, and yes it dents Nice work!

 

[George the Beagle]

I broke my headlight assembly in two when removing it, so I thoroughly glued it with JB weld, even including an extra gusset. Two months later, the vibration got to it, so I broke down and bought a new assembly, ouch. As such, I recommend screwing your chrome emblems on rather than gluing them. You did a great job saving your emblems.

 

[zoltanthegypsy]

Hey Sodo,

Interesting post. I'm just glad that firewood didn't end up in your lap. I came close once when I lifted a little too high to get a log clear of a pile. Happens mighty quick when one isn't thinking... Scared the SUDT out of me.

Stay safe and keep posting,
Z.