FOWLER MAN wrote:Hi Jeremy,
Great progress,
Well done.
I was only thinking when I looked at your earlier posts, pity your machine is so far from me, as I would be happy to give you a hand.
Fred
Yes Fred shame it's not closer to you as your input would be greatly appreciated
I went back up to the digger yesterday I need to get a move on as I want it operational for the up coming working event; as per usual I went with a work plan which was to firstly top coat the underneath of the floor plate that was going down in the cab, even though it's around 6mm thick I still didn't want it to rust so two coats of paint is always a good start.
Well I got the plate top coated and assisted the drying process with a fan heater fire then I got down to work by putting then plate into position and bolting the track lever brackets up to it; I used 3/8" UNF hexagon sets finished in zinc plate. There are 8 bolts that hold the track levers in position plus two more additional bolts at the front which I have arrowed in the first photo, these are the front two bolt holes that secure the seat base.
The next step was to fit the seat base loosely into position, you have to do this with the track lever safety catches down and the two track levers in the neutral position, then I hit the first snag.
The base was partially covering the two bolt holes; now I had already got two brackets made at work which I had intended on welding to the seat base and then bolting it into position, this was now not possible. The other issue was that the seat base did not have the two rear mounting hole brackets on it so I 'bit the bullet' and decided to weld the seat base to the new floor plate, so using my inverter arc welder I made two small runs at the front of the seat base then tacked the two rear legs of the base, two coats of paint later I was happy with it. I also fitted the new serial number plate (spot the error) and the two track lever handle covers. Once again I had intended drill two more additional holes in the back of the floor plate but decided to do this next time as I have to drill the seat base to accept the throttle lever. It will never be a 'Tony Flint or Julian Carder restoration' but it will still be reasonably presentable.
Jeremy