The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Well its 10 days to my wedding and the Super Dexta Restoration was ticking along nicely until lastnight!!!!!!!

I bought a new nosecone from Agriline and had it professionally sprayed along with the bonnet, tank and wings, by a friend of a friend. I've come to fit it lastnight and before i even put the bonnet on i thought something didn't look right. Well i was right. The whole shape of the nosecone is out. Looking from the front the left side where the bonnet rests, it drops away quicker than the righthand side and at a totally different radius. We fitted the bonnet to check and the result is truely heart wrenchingly horrendous! All enthusiasm for the project went after seeing it. We left it in this state as none of us were in the mood to fiddle anymore.

Here's an attempt to upload a picture


and another


bonnent to tank fits well though


plus the badge I also bought has the wrong curve to it but that could be the nosecone too!


I've sent my findings to Agriline and await their response.

Hi Ross,

Just a thought, in my younger years I spent many a month over the school holidays helping a friend who ran a panel shop. In many cases bad panel fit was caused by bent mounting brackets. If your original nose cone was bent I would investigate this first as panels tend to be fairly flexible and can be distorted by mounting bolt positions. I don't know if you will get it perfect but the left to right offset should be fixable from the looks of the photos and the radius missmatch would only take a little encouragement with a good pair of gloves and a strong arm to pull it into place. I just wish I was closer to you, I would pop over and have that sorted for you.

As for the badge, I can't realy help with any direct advice on that as I can't realy tell where the distortion is from the photos and it should just bolt on, but again mounting bolt holes can make a big difference. Maybe a couple of holes in the right place will make it fit much better.

Just don't give up, we are all waiting for those wedding photos with you, your lovely wife and the Dexta.

Regards, Frank.

Thanks Frank, sorry I can't afford the air fare to ship you over to fix.


I've spoken to Agriline and they are getting a replacement to me for Monday. Which I will trial fit prior to spraying. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

RossM wrote:I've spoken to Agriline and they are getting a replacement to me for Monday. Which I will trial fit prior to spraying. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

Hope you told them about the important ocassion! Perhaps with an Agriline sticker on the bonnet!
Hope the new one does the trick!

Sadly this is not the first time that I have heard stories of panels and other pattern spares which did not fit or were poorly finished.

It is evident to me that the firms who are supplying these parts are more interested in turnover and are not initiating proper quality control checks. Fortunately Agriline appear to be sympathetic to your problem.

Gerald

I've not been on here for a long time but some of you might remember this topic.

I've finally got round to trying to fit the new nosecone lastnight ready for a her first show next weekend and guess what! Its just like the previous one.

I've emailed agriline this morning to explain so i'll see what happens. It might not help that its taken me just over 6 months to get it out of the box! The joys of marriage must be keeping me busy!

On a positive note she fired up with probably only half a turn on the engine, she's not run since just after Christmas!

The wife or the tractor?

The tractor!

Still not heard back from Agriline

I had the same problem with my nosecone from Agriline, and ended up elongating the two mounting bolt holes at the bottom to get a fit. The badge supplied by them was very distorted and I ended up sending it back, as even if I had tried to get a fit , I feel there would have been too much tension and it would have cracked in use. I paid more for a badge from Tractor Panels that was a perfect fit and looks good.

hi Supertractorman,

I'm going to attempt to jig things about a bit tomorrow evening hopefully but the radius on on side is blatantly different to the other so i'm not holding my breath.

Agriline have got back to me and would like me to return bth Nosecones and they are going to check what they've got against an original before sending me a replacement. Don't know how long that will be. Something tells me I should have gone for a fibreglass one. People say bad things about them but they are the best fit i've seen.

2nd hand original ones come up from time to time on ebay.

Also Vugot.com do Super D nose cones. I have no experience of them, so can't comment on the quality or fit.
£ 217.38 inc vat

Has anyone had one of these cones from Vugot? I'm thinking of replacing my Fibre Glass one.

woodseaves wrote:Has anyone had one of these cones from Vugot? I'm thinking of replacing my Fibre Glass one.

There is a helpful guy at Vugot called Dave on 01258-486209 who could tell you more about the nose cones.

Thanks Ben I'll give him a bell tomorrow.

Spoke to a man (not Dave he was on dinner break) who told me they got their parts from Sparex so it looks like they didn't buy the original Fordson tooling.

Had a fiddle with the bonnet and nose lastnight, managed to get one side to fit alot better however the opening side is still miles out! It'll have to do for the Great Eccleston Show this weekend and wait for Agriline to decide if they have a suitable replacement.

woodseaves wrote:Spoke to a man (not Dave he was on dinner break) who told me they got their parts from Sparex so it looks like they didn't buy the original Fordson tooling.

I just emailed Dave at Vugot, who assures me their nose cowlings are not Sparex. He says they have sold a few now and to date have had no complaints.

Might be worth a try for anyone who's having trouble finding one that fits.

Did you ask him where they got them from Ben??? If he said they weren't Sparex are we to assume they make them themselves?

woodseaves wrote:Did you ask him where they got them from Ben??? If he said they weren't Sparex are we to assume they make them themselves?

If you have specific questions, I suggest you email enq1@vugot.com For Attention of Dave.

RossM wrote:Had a fiddle with the bonnet and nose lastnight, managed to get one side to fit alot better however the opening side is still miles out! It'll have to do for the Great Eccleston Show this weekend and wait for Agriline to decide if they have a suitable replacement.

RossM,

The one thing none of us know in replacing nose cones, is if the tractor has ever had a knock or twisted, as I spent a while with a measuring tape trying to find if all things were level, and could not come to a conclusion.

David

Supertractorman wrote:The one thing none of us know in replacing nose cones, is if the tractor has ever had a knock or twisted, as I spent a while with a measuring tape trying to find if all things were level, and could not come to a conclusion.

Hard to imagine how a tractor could get twisted, as the castings are substantial and they are well bolted together. I guess the fuel tank or its mounting could get distorted or more likely the radiator support at the front end, but damage here should be fairly easy to spot.

I have done some tweaking where the nose mounts to the front which helped but nothing accounts for the blatantly mis-shaped radius on the nosecone itself.

Had a succesful weekend at the show but broke down on the way home. Driver Error I'd forgotten to turn the fuel tap back on so ran dry and air locked. Had no spanners with me so couldn't bleed it. Managed to get it running again just turning her over but she died quite quickly and then the battery went flat so decided it was quicker and easier to tow her on the back of my L200 as we were on the side of a very busy A Road!!! Got most of the way home and the chain snapped! Debris from the chain put one of my head light glasses through!!! Not a good end to the weekend but all part of the fun!

Intersting thread, my nose cone has some rot on it plus its been repaired with filler at some point.

I think I may well go for a repair as a first course of action given the above issues.

And yes, thats clearly a poorly formed part!

i'd definately recommend getting yours repaired, it'll probably be cheaper than a new one also!

Since my earlier post I've heard that there are only two main manufacturers of Dexta cowlings, both of which appear to rely on hand finishing. This probably explaines why quality is somewhat variable and some fit whilst others don't. Keep trying seems to be the advice!

Hopefully as the market matures the quality will improve as it seems to have done with the fenders/ mudguards.

Hi

I havnt time at the minute to read the previous posts, but i have had 2 new wings for my massey ferguson 35 from agriline. Their prices are very good, but im afraid the fit and build are poor, my wings are not the best off fit, its a shame we all cant pay a little more and get a far superior product. Things were better made in britain