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Found a pair of narrow rear wheels and tyres in my store and thought now the weather has warmed up i would clean them up and fit them on the back of my Raider 12 that i use for ploughing hopefully will give me a bit more traction

This morning after checking the forecast for the coming week I went to my worked and sprayed the top coat. This will be left to dry for a few days. In the meantime I will start painting all the black bits. I purposely am not going to go over the top, as I would like to put this machine to work, once its finished.

Drew a blank on the weights. Guess they have all be snapped up by body builder types. Got the wheels top coated today. Got told they looked like new. Then got asked when I was going to do the patio by her studio. Got them fitted as well. Spacers made and fitted to lift the fender by 7/8th". This showed up three more things to modify. (1) The hole for the filler cap needs to be opened up. You can't get hold of the cap now. (2) The tyre fouls the back edge of the foot plate. Needs the edge trimmed and/or bent forward. (3) Also the front bottom edge of the fender will need to be altered, to allow the foot plate back to be bent forward.

This is a project that ive been doing on and off for a few years. Anyway, over the last few days I have dug it back out due mainly to the fact that I haven't picked up a spray gun in 6 months and wanted to have a bit of a practice session before I sprayed my Sachs diesel Gem. I was also unsure how my new batch of primmer would react to Vapormatic Howard Orange. Well im pleased to report that it worked a treat. The history behind these machines is that by 1960 Howard had been increasingly frustrated with losing out sales to what they termed "Scratchers". Their solution was to start import the Hako Combinette, as a direct competitor to machines like the Wolesy Merrytiller. The problem was by the time Howard had put their mark up on the price, these rotadiggers (note how they didn't call them Rotavator's)were just too expensive to be competitive. After about a year to 18mths the project was dropped,making suvivours quite hard to come by. This example turned up on good ol' ebay in 2013. I placed a low bid on it and won.

The engines air shroud, starter recoil, fuel tank and bracket then had the same treatment. But as its metallic, the final finish is two part, base coat and clear lacquer. Once the base coat was dried sufficiently I painted the raised JAP logo to highlight it and then applied several light coats of clear. I really like the colour used on these little JAP engines, this was matched by my local paint supplier....... It's a nice contrast to the blue of the rest of the metal work. Here they are in base coat and then once cleared.

I did a bit more to the Gardenmaster today...... The engine had a leak between the barrel and crankcase, so I removed separated them and cleaned all the old sealer away. I then made a new gasket and refitted with a smear of RTV sealant. I then repaired a small split in the exhaust and gave it a clean up to remove the rust. Once all that was done it was degreased and then sprayed with an appropriate heat resistant exhaust paint. I then gave the barrel a light dust with some dark grey spray paint to tidy it up.

The basic machine with the engine removed looked pretty grotty, but after a hot wash this came up surprisingly well. Next several applications of paint stripper followed. Then I applied a few coats of a new primmer (as stated above I wanted to see how it worked with the Howard Orange.)

The engine on these machines are a JLO two stroke. As ive said before on here this engine design was purchased by the construction company Wacker, so a good friend of mine, who is a retired Wacker service engineer said he would rebuild it for me. I took this plus another old short motor I had lying around up to him. Even though the seller claimed it was running when put away in the shed (where have we heard that before?) it still needed a crankcase half, piston rings, seals, bearings and a set of points, all courtesy of Wackers scrap bin many years ago when they decided to make the engine obsolete! It has now had a full clean up. Ive also dug through my sheds and found an as new cylinder head so will be fitting this over the next few days.

Second tank collected today, looks good... (original is on the right in first photo)

Looking nice. Really like the blue.

After the engine was finished with today, I made a start on removing the old green paint from various bits........ The rotovator cover and exhaust shroud were given the usual treatment, paint stripper, wire brush, etch primer, and then several coats of blue!

More for protection really Doug. once they are fitted to the tractor and got weights bolted in them and been up and down a field their going to be covered in mud and you wont see much of them

This is becoming embarrassing, I'm definately going to have to paint mine now😎

Yah! It works. Not set yet, I will have to find some virgin ground to work on. Also fitted my Xmas present of a tool box behind the seat.

Anybody interested in one of the helicopters that were available with a glow version of an O&R? Very uncommon and were pricey in the day.

Thanks pat, as I said I've resurrected this project to mainly give me practice at spraying again. Am particuarly aware that with having a bonnet the Sachs gem is going to have a bigger surface area than most to show up the flaws. The deadline for the Sachs is October but I've also got to get another one finished before then as well,plus a very busy full time job, plus a family life, plus.... Got to admit this Hako is making a nice change to the sheer enormity of a gem.

That jap engine looks stunning unusual machine never seen one over here.

Yep! Knew I'd seen one before. Not completely senile yet.

Nice display , you seem to be making good progress. I am looking forward to see the sachs diesel project as i picked up one of those engines up a few months back...owner gave up on trying to start it and put a kohler on instead.

My Wacker plate and trench rammer use the same engine.

Also stripped the old paint off the wheels too, masked them up to prime then paint with white.......

Engine air shroud, starter recoil and tank bracket reunited!

That JLO engine rings a bell. Is there something else on here somewhere with one?

Definitely interested, is it one of these; http://www.vrhc.co.uk/rc helicopters/USA/Du-Bro/Du-Bro.htm From the link it does look like one or two did find their way over here in the 1970's, £195 from a Birmingham model shop in 1975. David

Any photos ??

Just done a quick count and I have 29 different tools (a few more if you count different versions of the same tool) in my collection, 13 of which have been found over here. There is also quite a lot of engines here too, as well as a few duplicate tools. Definitely still catching up though. David

Chemical Metal is a brand of two part polyester resin made by Loctite/Henkel over here, it is probably sold under a different name in the US. The safety data sheet provides all the info on what's in it; http://docs-europe.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/001f/0900766b8001f4d2.pdf David

Some people CLEAN their tractors after use.

They were pretty bad and took a while to clean them, i let them down and stuffed an old drive belt in the bead to keep the tyre away from the rim to save getting paint on the tyre, i used a bit of hose pipe on the other. they've both had a coat of thick red oxide that i will leave to dry before rubbing down and priming

Alas...... There is some blue under the green paint! That's despite a previous owners best attempt to disguise the machine. The only bit not stripped to bare metal and repainted was the bit behind the engine...... Good job I bought 2 cans of blue today! Although I had already decided to make it match my other Landmasters........

Awesome machines! Thanks for the pictures.

Hello and welcome to the forum from all in Iowa.

Never had a Black Hood, you have a very worthy Stallion!

Chainsaw collected today from the Mower Centre, many thanks to John Cruse for the new chain Just need some decals now...

A couple of quick photos Norm, 35kg's, to fit, they only need a couple of mm shaving off the diameter, the bolt holes fall just about in the middle of the outer section.

Veeeeery nice Norm, I'm going to have to do the same with mine now! You'll notice the increased height when driving, especially i you've raised the fender for clearance. If you're thinking of wheel weights, Aldi have been selling some nice cast iron 10kg ones that fit nicely inside the wheels after shaving a couple of mill off the rim.

Looking good Norm

Great job, they sure do look chunky!

Some of the guys here have been talking about jigsaw puzzles they and or there wives have been putting together so I though I would show you guys some pictures of my wife's currant project.

I also need to do this to make some 6" rims, I was going to bolt the rim to a hub attached to the gearbox and mount an angle grinder some how, and then just turn the rim to make the cuts.

Looking good Norm. I am pleased you are doing this as this is something I need to do at some point and I can learn from the master . Do you know how the engineering company did the cuts? I was thinking of using a rotary table on my mill as I think they are too large for my lathe. Iain

Hi Normin The tyres you are going to use are off a Gutbrod pto driven trailer from Germany They will be the bees knees It will be fine when you are able to try them in Scotland Keep well George S

Looking good Norm!

Spent another couple of hours on the bonnet, yet still it needs more work! I hate filling!!!