Just drove it out of the garage this evening… not anywhere near done, but being under it’s own motivation sure helps mine.

Not under it’s own power, but at least its not on blocks anymore.

‘ still a long way from done, but will probably wire ‘er up first to be able to move it in-and-out of the shop at times.

Neither Front nor Rear mountings are done at this time:

When looking at the photos of the front, you’ll notice the piece of 2″ ID Mechanical Tubing welded to the center cross-member, under the radiator. This is for the front oscillation pivot. The visible square tube (2″x2″x1/4″) on top of the axle will bolt to the axle using the original bolts for the leaf pack. I will weld a bracket from this square tube to another piece to create the pivot.

The rear frame is cut-out (C’d) for the rear axle and will have 2 1/2″ x 1/4″ flat bent in the shape of the “C” and welded to the inside of the frame. Additionally, I will take another piece of frame - from the 7′+ section standing in the rear of the garage - and “C” out of top,
slip this piece in from the bottom and bolt to the outside of the frame and lower edge of the frame… somewhat hard to explain without being able to use my hands to talk. ;^)
The wheels were definitely a trick with a lack of machine tools at home. Low-buck, but here’s what I did:

1. I took the Schrader valves out of the valve-stems to insure all air was out of each tire figuring the heat might make the air expand too much.
2. I then took my dividers and slid one end around the 4 1/2″ hub hole with the other end set to create the necessary diameter center to go inside the 16″ wheel.
3. I “rough cut” the center out of the wheel with the torch.
4. I set the axle up on saw horses and bolted a jig-of-sorts made from angle to where the leaf springs mount on one side. My hand grinder was band-clamped to the jig so as to place the grinding wheel up against the edge of the rough-cut wheel
   center. A stop was used to prevent me from grinding away too much material.
5. Bolt the wheel center to the axle hub and rotate by hand while running the grinder.

The 16″ Pickup Truck wheel are actually riveted together. The bolt center is riveted to the “ring” (for lack of proper terminology) in 4 places with 3 rivets each. I left the rivets in, but cut the “bracket” part free from the center. This allowed me to weld only to the riveted bracket instead of the rim ring. My wheel is now assembled exactly as the original except with a welded center instead of a one-piece stamped center.

After doing the first, I tried cutting the center out of the wheel with a jig-saw and metal blade… Slower going at first, but with copious amounts of oil on the blade while cutting, it definitely made short work of the finish grinding.

The dropped axle could create ground clearance issues on certain terrain, but it’s what I have to work with at this time. Although our yard is not flat by any means, there’s nowhere I can high-center so it should work for me.

I’ve been tinkering with this project in my spare time since April:

It’s a conversion from a 1958 Chevrolet Series 40 ton-and-a-half. (I’ve got other
plans for the truck body.)

Since our garden is already growing and we won’t be doing any major exterior improvements this year, my hopes are to get the actual foundation of the tractor up-and-running this Summer. Then install some sheet-metal and possibly FEL during Autumn/Winter and come out strong for ‘08.

The hydraulic pump that was previously driven from the transmission PTO will be relocated and belt driven from the engine pulley. This will allow use of live hydraulics and free the trans PTO to drive a traditional rear spline.

I had intentionally left the frame long, figuring that I could always cut it to length after completion. My reasoning was that I’ve read about many projects using 2 transmissions for gear reduction and may want to do something similar in the future. This would require setting the rear further back than it is now. The challenge is that the truck pinion yoke is off-center a few inches and it may make more sense to build a gear box.