Ian

The carbs had a quick (very quick) clean up before being hit with some black paint.
For some reason the engine when in the trike never had a choke cable fitted, but it was quite easy to fit the original quad cable to the carbs.
 

 
 
Carbs fitted.
 

 
 
The throttle cable had seen better days and decided to snap! Looking at this "unsnapped" section of it I'm surprised it had held together for as long as it did!
Another thing for the shopping list!
 

 
 
Tank and seat plonked back on..
 

 
 
The reason for fitting the tank was to work out if I needed to re-position the fuel tap.. As it turned out the original tap position was spot on, it's just a shame someone had cut it out to fit it to Why Not's tank!
 
 
 
 
The plan was to cut this tap off the trikes tank and graft it onto MadTrax's tank..
 

 
 
Well... That was the plan until I found the tank still had some petrol in it!   I guess it still is the plan, it will just have to wait a few day for the tank to air out..
 

 
 
Some funky airbrushing.. Looks like a previous owner had a thing for Iron Maiden
 

 
 
 

The carbs had a quick (very quick) clean up before being hit with some black paint.
For some reason the engine when in the trike never had a choke cable fitted, but it was quite easy to fit the original quad cable to the carbs.
 

 
 
Carbs fitted.
 

 
 
The throttle cable had seen better days and decided to snap! Looking at this "unsnapped" section of it I'm surprised it had held together for as long as it did!
Another thing for the shopping list!
 

 
 
Tank and seat plonked back on..
 

 
 
The reason for fitting the tank was to work out if I needed to re-position the fuel tap.. As it turned out the original tap position was spot on, it's just a shame someone had cut it out to fit it to Why Not's tank!
 
 
 
 
The plan was to cut this tap off the trikes tank and graft it onto MadTrax's tank..
 

 
 
Well... That was the plan until I found the tank still had some petrol in it!   I guess it still is the plan, it will just have to wait a few day for the tank to air out..
 

 
 
Some funky airbrushing.. Looks like a previous owner had a thing for Iron Maiden
 

 
 
 

A little RJ update, she (Is it a she Neil?) has moved onto my bench ready for work to start on it Friday, it's a kinda joint mini project with Nigel..
It's going to be interesting working on such an old and fine machine
 

 

 

Make your own rear fenders Ewan, i made some for a Trojan I restored ( thread on here somewhere) I'll dig the photos out for you and load them when my internet has been repaired, its easy and cheap.
you need a spare wheel well from a scrap car ( boot floor ) i used a vauxhall vectra , i can make you a cardboard template from the rowcrop that has the rear fender kit on, just mark them out and cut them to size

i was in the same situation as you Ewan , I wanted to have a round hood but they were rarer than hens teeth here in UK  so I desided to build my own using the frame from my old commando 8  shown below  , I had a hood stand ,fuel tank and other parts shipped over from US  but most of the parts you have will already work for what you are trying to do .
sadly I never got round to finishing the round hood and is now in bits in my work shop , Mabe one day I will get round to finishing it.
good luck with your project 

Its been a long time since I restored my last Wheel Horse so I thought it was time for another challenge. I have long wanted a Wheel Horse round hood tractor but as they are rare in the UK I thought I would build my own. Whilst browsing that well know auction site the other day I saw that someone was selling a Lawn Ranger hood and so I placed a bid and won it , since that and the fenders are about the only parts we can't make or easily source I was very happy. So here is the build thread, as I am at university this project is going to be a summer project and I am hoping some of you fellow members will be able to help me out with measurements and maybe some parts. 
 
Here is a picture of what i'm hoping to build, i'm not sure whether it will be a 704 or a 654 yet, probably the one with the easiest engine to source.
 

 
First of all, does anyone know what thickness/ gauge of metal was used for the hood stand/ sheet metal work?
 
Thanks Ewan

1953 rj 

Brilliant video Ian and I loved the special effects. We all love some toilet humour, had to pause the video myself at that point ant use the facilities
 
You are making great progress
 
Iain

Not a great deal to report as I've not been up the workshop apart from a few hours Friday where my body needed a break from all the festive sitting around!

Trying to follow a wiring diagram on a smart phone (printer out of ink) was interesting but I did manage to remove a few more un-needed wires from the loom...
It's starting to look less frightening now
 

 
 
Just before silly season hit I pulled the gauges out of a box to finish them off..
The glass "eyebrow"/top/bit that actually holds the gauges in (the pods were make from ride on mower headlamps remember) needed a little something to stop them from flying apart during high speed jumps/crashes (delete according to taste/fear/bravery).
A bit hard to see from this photo snatched from video footage, but there is a small Allen key bolt that screws through a hole in the lip thingy into a threaded insert welded to the pod body.
 

 
 
Gauge pod body's and trim/eyebrow top ring thingys hit with the black stuff..
 

 

 
 
To finish this update off here's the latest MadTrax video where I play around some more with special effects and a few sound effects as well..
I even do some work on MadTrax
 
 

Not a great deal to report as I've not been up the workshop apart from a few hours Friday where my body needed a break from all the festive sitting around!

Trying to follow a wiring diagram on a smart phone (printer out of ink) was interesting but I did manage to remove a few more un-needed wires from the loom...
It's starting to look less frightening now
 

 
 
Just before silly season hit I pulled the gauges out of a box to finish them off..
The glass "eyebrow"/top/bit that actually holds the gauges in (the pods were make from ride on mower headlamps remember) needed a little something to stop them from flying apart during high speed jumps/crashes (delete according to taste/fear/bravery).
A bit hard to see from this photo snatched from video footage, but there is a small Allen key bolt that screws through a hole in the lip thingy into a threaded insert welded to the pod body.
 

 
 
Gauge pod body's and trim/eyebrow top ring thingys hit with the black stuff..
 

 

 
 
To finish this update off here's the latest MadTrax video where I play around some more with special effects and a few sound effects as well..
I even do some work on MadTrax
 
 

Not a great deal to report as I've not been up the workshop apart from a few hours Friday where my body needed a break from all the festive sitting around!

Trying to follow a wiring diagram on a smart phone (printer out of ink) was interesting but I did manage to remove a few more un-needed wires from the loom...
It's starting to look less frightening now
 

 
 
Just before silly season hit I pulled the gauges out of a box to finish them off..
The glass "eyebrow"/top/bit that actually holds the gauges in (the pods were make from ride on mower headlamps remember) needed a little something to stop them from flying apart during high speed jumps/crashes (delete according to taste/fear/bravery).
A bit hard to see from this photo snatched from video footage, but there is a small Allen key bolt that screws through a hole in the lip thingy into a threaded insert welded to the pod body.
 

 
 
Gauge pod body's and trim/eyebrow top ring thingys hit with the black stuff..
 

 

 
 
To finish this update off here's the latest MadTrax video where I play around some more with special effects and a few sound effects as well..
I even do some work on MadTrax
 
 

Not a great deal to report as I've not been up the workshop apart from a few hours Friday where my body needed a break from all the festive sitting around!

Trying to follow a wiring diagram on a smart phone (printer out of ink) was interesting but I did manage to remove a few more un-needed wires from the loom...
It's starting to look less frightening now
 

 
 
Just before silly season hit I pulled the gauges out of a box to finish them off..
The glass "eyebrow"/top/bit that actually holds the gauges in (the pods were make from ride on mower headlamps remember) needed a little something to stop them from flying apart during high speed jumps/crashes (delete according to taste/fear/bravery).
A bit hard to see from this photo snatched from video footage, but there is a small Allen key bolt that screws through a hole in the lip thingy into a threaded insert welded to the pod body.
 

 
 
Gauge pod body's and trim/eyebrow top ring thingys hit with the black stuff..
 

 

 
 
To finish this update off here's the latest MadTrax video where I play around some more with special effects and a few sound effects as well..
I even do some work on MadTrax
 
 

Well, it turns out I won't be getting this Deck Drive Unit for my 72 Wheel Horse. Chased them (Shipper) up just before Xmas for an update, got a familiar response. 2 days later I get a full GSP refund back into my Paypal account!. I fired off an Email to the Seller, as I knew they had received the returned item.
Asked if I was likely to get a refund?. No reply, but yesterday got an Email from Ebay saying they have refunded the purchase and Seller's postage charges!.
So I got all my money back, but no item unfortunately.  2 months of hard work fighting for this and I had not used my last options of Paypal's system and Legal-   smug mode. 

Paint looks great Ian. My head hurts just looking at that wiring loom, I hope it is not too difficult.
 
Iain

The all black engine, in the all black frame, looks grand as owt, Ian.

Almost a year to the day
 
heres last years holiday pic
 

 
and now this years
 

 
 
 

Picts of the lake

If you look close you can see the Holder from our drone 

Took the holder into the woods for a play and a bit of logging

Thanks Iain, glad you like the extra "silliness" in the vid... I wasn't sure how people would take to it..
 
 
 
The full size Nigel spends most of he's time sitting down, if the small bloke had a chair nothing would ever get done
 
Before the engine could go back in there was a slight frame mod to do.. As the shock mounts had been moved up..
 

 
 
The strengthening bar between them also got moved up..
 

 
 
Engine in, thanks for your help today Rob should you be reading this.
 

 

 
 
I just need to finish sorting out the rat's nest of a wiring loom!
 

 
 
Yesterday all the front end parts had a session with some rattle cans.
 

 
 
A spring looking good in black.. Well, it did look good until I noticed how much I had missed on the other side..  Spring can be a right pain to paint!
 

 
 
The front end bolted back on.. The good thing with painting everything satin black is I can just spray over any pain chips without having to mask anything up
 

 

Thanks Iain, glad you like the extra "silliness" in the vid... I wasn't sure how people would take to it..
 
 
 
The full size Nigel spends most of he's time sitting down, if the small bloke had a chair nothing would ever get done
 
Before the engine could go back in there was a slight frame mod to do.. As the shock mounts had been moved up..
 

 
 
The strengthening bar between them also got moved up..
 

 
 
Engine in, thanks for your help today Rob should you be reading this.
 

 

 
 
I just need to finish sorting out the rat's nest of a wiring loom!
 

 
 
Yesterday all the front end parts had a session with some rattle cans.
 

 
 
A spring looking good in black.. Well, it did look good until I noticed how much I had missed on the other side..  Spring can be a right pain to paint!
 

 
 
The front end bolted back on.. The good thing with painting everything satin black is I can just spray over any pain chips without having to mask anything up
 

 

Thanks Iain, glad you like the extra "silliness" in the vid... I wasn't sure how people would take to it..
 
 
 
The full size Nigel spends most of he's time sitting down, if the small bloke had a chair nothing would ever get done
 
Before the engine could go back in there was a slight frame mod to do.. As the shock mounts had been moved up..
 

 
 
The strengthening bar between them also got moved up..
 

 
 
Engine in, thanks for your help today Rob should you be reading this.
 

 

 
 
I just need to finish sorting out the rat's nest of a wiring loom!
 

 
 
Yesterday all the front end parts had a session with some rattle cans.
 

 
 
A spring looking good in black.. Well, it did look good until I noticed how much I had missed on the other side..  Spring can be a right pain to paint!
 

 
 
The front end bolted back on.. The good thing with painting everything satin black is I can just spray over any pain chips without having to mask anything up