The transmission section was the first of the big pieces to be painted.  Actually, I painted it and the engine on the same day.  Since the engine was already primed, all I had to do to prep it was to set the head in place and cover those parts of the engine that do not receive paint with cardboard or masking tape.  This was accomplished with the block sitting on my B&D Work Mate with another piece of cardboard under it to mask the surface and frame of the Work Mate.

It was a beautiful, warm day in mid-October with a forecast of no rain for several days.  The transmission was hauled outside and placed nose down on another large piece of cardboard.  Couldn’t have moved it an inch without that hydraulic lift.  Prepping the transmission block was accomplished with a wire brush, putty knife, and a dull chisel.  The transmission cover and steering sector housing had been long since removed.  These openings were covered with thin cardboard.  Masking tape was used around the rear (top, as it sat) edges.  After a final clean-up with paint thinner and a wash with brake cleaner it was painted with about four coats of paint, waiting to allow it to get tacky between coats.  One whole can of paint was consumed with this piece. Note that, with the sun where it was for this picture, it almost looks orange instead of Ford red.  It is, however, very much the Ford vermilion red.  I let it sit outside for a couple of days to thoroughly dry before hauling it back into my garage.  Once inside, I covered it with plastic while I continued working on other pieces.

October turned to November and other important activities began to cut into my available tractor working time, deer hunting season being the biggest.  I was well beyond my initial anticipated schedule and could still see no light at the end of the tunnel. 

The oil pump was also serviced by replacing the gears and gaskets.  The pump was packed with white lithium grease before final assembly.  It was only by reading the parts book and service manual that I realized I needed a hex shaft to drive the distributoroff of the  oil pump mechanism .  That was not included in the boxes of disassembled parts that came with the tractor and was purchased from the local New Holland/Ford dealer.

 The front wheel hubs were the first pieces to be chemically stripped of paint.  They were painted white, of all colors, and appeared to have several coats of various color paint under the white.  Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that paint stripper would work just as well on metal as it does on wood.  Perusing the shelves of our local Home Depot I found a product specifically designed for removing paint from metal.  Let’s give it a try – so I bought a quart.  It worked great!  The paint that was not removed by washing it with a hose following the directed time was softened and easily removed with the drill-chucked wire wheel.  Why hadn’t I thought of this before?  Up to now I had been sanding and hand wire brushing to remove paint and, while it got the job done, was tiring and didn’t always get it down to bare metal.  But I wasn’t going to go back and re-do all those parts already painted.  In retrospect, though, I should have re-done the instrument panel sheet metal piece and taken it down to bare metal, removing all of the old paint.

After the paint remover application was finished, I gave each piece a one last cleaning with paint-thinner before drying, masking, priming, and then painting the final color.  This method seemed to result in brighter colors that appeared to have reasonable durability.

With the transmission section painted and the engine assembled, it was time to turn my attention back to the rear section.  The first part to be removed from the rear section was the cover plate for the hydraulic sump.  Once this was off, I was able to thoroughly clean the vertical hydraulic lines in this section.  When I began my cleaning, a couple of pieces of metal fell out of the pressure line.  One appeared to be part of a roll pin and the other part of a small spring.  Where had these come from?  Disassembling the hydraulic pump provided the answer to this mystery.