A Challenging Little Project...

[LKeithR]

Well, first post and a little story to tell. We live on 12 acres that we bought in partnership with my wife's parents in 1972. When first purchased the entire property was solid west coast bush and to open it up we needed a bit of mechanical help. We looked around and found a decent '57 420 crawler at a price we could afford, trucked it home and put it to work. We used it to knock down lighter bush and trees, spread various kinds of fill and pull a lot of timber out to a landing for sale. Pretty much worked the poor little thing to death.

The property is almost all peat bog, very soft and very easy to get stuck in. More than once we had the little beast buried so deep that the you couldn't see the tops of the tracks. But I was young and strong and my father-in-law was pretty savvy and, with the help of wood cribbing, come-alongs and a big 'ol stump puller we picked up we always managed to get it out and working. Over the course of 4 or 5 years we managed to open up two home sites and yard out enough timber to make most of the payments on the place.

We were pretty happy with our little "cat" and for years it was a fixture in the yard but ultimately, we pretty much wore it out in spite of the fact that we completely rebuilt all the running gear. I have run my own welding and machine shop since '69 and my FIL was a semi-retired mechanic so we pretty much did everything ourselves--track frames, rollers, front idlers and drive sprockets all got built up at least once. Would have been nice to throw new parts at it but with our budget at the time it wasn't going to happen.

Eventually it got to the point where we seldom needed to use the crawler and when we did it was almost impossible to keep the tracks on. She got parked in a corner of the yard--pretty well abandoned. There was always a thought in my mind that I'd pull her out and do a rebuild and/or restoration but with a wife, six kids and a business to look after the time was never there. My father-in-law died in '81 so I didn't have a "partner" to help me with the project either.

But that little machine has a special place in my mind--I can still see my FIL chugging through the slop pulling a 30" + spruce log out of the bush. I've always felt badly about leaving her sit as long as she has and although I'm 66 now and still working I do have a bit more time and I'm thinking seriously about having a go at "fixing" the crawler.

As you can see from the picture below I don't have much to work with--pretty much a basket case. The first step was to clear away all the brush and blackberries and knock down an alder tree that had grown up between the blade and the rad--kinda gives you an idea of how long she's been sitting. So, for better or for worse, I'm going to drag it out of the bush and see what I can do. Wish me luck, I think I'm gonna need it...

[Tigerhaze]

Welcome to the board.

It's amazing how quickly nature will "reclaim" items left out in the elements. However other than the lichens and moss, it appears that the sheet metal is good. Hopefully it is not as bad as first appearances.

[whiteclipse16]

Welcome !!
You definitely have a project. On the bright side, you know it was running and functioning when you parked it. The machine is all together now, and you know it's history so you shouldn't have many big surprises if you restore it.
I say go for it if you have the time, budget, and a good sandblaster

[Willyr]

I think you are going to have an excellent restore on your hands. Be sure to post pictures as you progress. We all love pictures. The more the better. Even the ones of you getting her out of the woods and into the shop.

I think you will find great satisfaction getting her restored. You may even feel like the presence of the father-in-law still being there. Old projects where a partner and friend always help with memories and sanity.

I look forward to your future posts.

[waterman28]

That one is one of the highly sought after crawlers painted john deere camo
green

[LKeithR]

Well, I finally got some time to work on the 420; so to speak. This part of the project involved cutting back the brush and blackberries so I could actually see what I was up against. Not a pretty sight! As near as the wife and I can figure it's been about 30 years since the crawler was parked and, as you can see, our (wet) West Coast climate doesn't allow machines like this to age well. Oh well, when I started thinking about trying to restore the little beast I knew I was in for a challenge so my expectations didn't start out too high.

A few more photos...

The dash is going to need a bit of work...



Just before we stopped using the machine the wear in the front idler shaft on one side had gotten so bad that you couldn't keep the track from falling off. This was my father-in-laws "temporary" fix--actually worked pretty well...



A crude but functional repair to the pivot point of the c-frame...



It came with a Gearmatic 8A winch which was essential for yarding out logs and extracting the beast from the bog when she got mired down. Gearmatic's factory was only about 10 miles from where we live...



I'm kind of PO'd about this next shot. I had caps and/or covers on all of the vents and fillers but about 15 years ago a couple of my daughters friends lived on our place for a summer. They were borderline juvenile delinquents and I know they damaged some other equipment that was sitting around. Windows and lights in some cars were smashed and I figured out later that they must have carted off some of my "stuff" for scrap. I think they must have removed all the covers from the crawler too. I'm mad at them for doing it but I'm also mad at myself for not noticing till now--could be a deal-breaker...

[whiteclipse16]

Those are some good pics.
You def. have your work cut out for you. The caps being off and the amount of wear on the idler might be a deal breaker. Those are costly things.
Good luck and keep us posted.

[LKeithR]

Those are some good pics.
You def. have your work cut out for you. The caps being off and the amount of wear on the idler might be a deal breaker. Those are costly things.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Yeah, when I cut the brush away and discovered that the caps were off I knew the project just got a lot more expensive. Being a welder/fabricator/machinist and having my own shop means I can fix or build a lot of things but when you have to start buying "parts" it can get expensive.

Five or six years ago I almost scrapped the thing out but sentimentality got the better of me and I decided to hang on for a while longer. The way I see it now the least I can do is try to salvage some individual items for souvenirs or to use on another machine.

Part of the reason I've gotten interested in doing this is that my grandson has just turned 13 and is starting to take an interest in the way things work--most of his interest seems to lean towards more "scientific" things but I want to see if I can at least give him a taste of some mechanical stuff. He was at our place yesterday and I told him that I had a project for the two of us to work on. We walked out to where the cat is parked and when we got there he paused for a moment and then turned to me and said: "So what's the project? Cut it up for scrap?" Maybe he's got a better eye than I thought...

[NNAATZ]

with the history behind it,..... i'd try to fix it before its sold to china.

[Tigerhaze]

Five or six years ago I almost scrapped the thing out but sentimentality got the better of me and I decided to hang on for a while longer. The way I see it now the least I can do is try to salvage some individual items for souvenirs or to use on another machine.

You've probably already figured it out, but once you have a "project" crawler then you will buy another one to use as parts to make the other "whole". Then you'll get another so you can have a loader AND a dozer. it's a crawler affliction that is pretty easy to catch

[JD440ICD2006]

Tigerhaze,

I started out just wanting one good little dozer with a 6 way blade.
I now have 3 JD 440 crawlers.
What was that about getting addicted?

[Lavoy]

I have always said that crawlers are a disease all to themselves.
Lavoy

[kedorland]

I admire a person's determination to take on a monumental project as the one mentioned above. We're all old enough to have been through a few rebuilds, on projects, to know better...however...the next one still may somewhat apealling.

Your grandson, in my opinion, will have deeper family roots to hang onto if he has had his hands in, and on, too, his grandfathers, and great-grandfather's, crawler.

Everyone on on this site has more crawler experience than I do....agree very much with Lavoy thoughts. I've only owned my first crawler for one year and I want another one...

Kevin from Iowa.

[Lavoy]

Believe it or not, I have done one that was much worse looking than that one. If fact, first crawler I ever did.
Lavoy

[whiteclipse16]

Now that you bring your grandson into this it changes things. I suppose since I'm a grandson redoing my grandpa's/great grandpa's dozer I have a biased opinion. I'd say at the very least, just hang onto the dozer and your grandson may have more interest when he gets older.
Remember he's interested now because he doesn't have a drivers license and is probably just starting to notice the women His interest may go away when in high school but after that he'll realize the significance of the machine.
JMHO