1958 Dexta Restoration

[charlie63]

There sure are Mervyn. You and the family are welcome over here anytime and you can take the tractor to the show if you want.

[charlie63]

Bonnet ,fuel tank, radiator cover and headlamps all flattened and masked off ready for respraying.

[Mervyn Spencer]

Charlie you refer to masking, what are you masking if I may ask? I'd love to visit Scotland one day and especially the "Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston, where the Tractor World Scotland And Classic Commercial Show is to take place. Driving your Dexta to the show "tongue in cheek" also would not be fair to take away the pleasure for you to parade your newly renovated Dexta. . Thank you for the offer Charlie, I'm sure our paths will cross one day. Add it to my bucket list.

[charlie63]

Mervyn,
Ive masked off the front part of the diesel tank and also the inside of the bonnet as I dont need to paint these. The inside of the bonnet has already been painted with the same paint and even if it is a slightly different shade it will never be seen. Dont see the point of using any more paint than I need to. Im sure our paths will cross one day.

[charlie63]

Well thats the bonnet,radiator cover,fuel tank and headlamps all repainted again. The paint went on fantastic once I had the temperature up in the workshop and no runs either so well chuffed with the end result. Now it will all get at least 4 weeks for the paint to set properly before refitting.

[Mervyn Spencer]

Well done again Charlie, you are a pro now. I really envy you having that shed to work in, I basically have to do my spraying out side my garage. Just worried that one day one of the neighbours might raise a few eyebrows.

[charlie63]

Thanks Mervyn but I dont know about being a pro lol. It does make a big differnce having the workshop now to do my work in instead of the garage at the house. The good lady was always complaining about the paint fumes when I was spraying. At the moment I just cover everything up with tarpaulins before paining so built up quite a collection of them. Sometime this year im hoping to get the back of my workshop cleared out and build a spraybooth with a big extractor fan.

[charlie63]

Repainted fuel tank, top dash panel and steering wheel refitted.



I had noticed a small coolant leak so it made sense to investigate it whilst the radiator cover was off. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it wasnt my new radiator that had sprung a small leak but found that it was both top hoses leaking a small amount of coolant past the jubilee clips.



I removed both jubilee clips and replaced them with the double wire clips as these seem to grip the hoses better and this is what was fitted as original. All fitted, coolant topped up and engine run for over half an hour. No leaks at all.



Repainted radiator cover all nicely fitted and repainted bonnet set on so as everything could be lined up before tightening all bolts.



Now just the wiring to tackle.

[Mervyn Spencer]

Good morning Charlie, congratulations on a beautiful job, she really is looking good and ready for the show.

[basewindow]

Looking like a new machine. Good job. Good luck with the wiring. I found that the easiest part once I had the circuit diagrams. You guys are lucky over there with plenty of spares. Not an overly common tractor over here.

[charlie63]

Thanks guys for the comments.
Ive got everything to complete the rewiring,new loom, connectors, cabling,shrink sleeving etc and was hoping to get the job all completed before returning to work again in just over a week but more pressing things have taken over. I am busy fabricating new steel doors for my workshop to make it more secure as there have been a lot of opportunist thefts in our area over the last few months so I am just not taking any chances and want to make sure everything is well locked up whilst I am away.

[charlie63]

Its been a little while folks but Ive finally managed to make a start to fitting the new wiring loom. First of all I set it out on the bench to check all the wire colours and matched it up to the wiring diagram. Got it all set in to the engine bay and started from the front. Seems easy enough and straight forward. Only thing I have noticed is that there are no wires in my new loom for the horn but that wont be a problem.

[Mervyn Spencer]

Good work there Charlie. what has happened to all your other images from page one up to your latest images?

[mathias1]

Good work there Charlie. what has happened to all your other images from page one up to your latest images?

There was a problem with postimage. If you chang the extension from .org to .cc it will work.

You are doing a great job there Charlie!

[Mervyn Spencer]

Thanks for the tip Mathias, but I'm not quite sure where/how to change to .cc

[mathias1]

Thanks for the tip Mathias, but I'm not quite sure where/how to change to .cc

Mervyn, last one:
https://postimg.org/image/mhhmoa2rz/
becomes:
https://postimg.cc/image/mhhmoa2rz/

[MikesDexta]

Hi Charlie
I've been following your posts with great interest and as I'm also restoring my 1959 Dexta I would really appreciate it if you could get all your photos back. I realise this may be a big ask but I'm sure many more newbies like me would learn much more if we could see each stage of your superb restoration.

cheers

Mike

[Mervyn Spencer]

Hi Mathias, Thank you for the two links but how do you change from .org to .cc. I see another member is also requesting some assistance. Sorry for the repeat request but I'm not a computer fundi.

[mathias1]

Hi Mathias, Thank you for the two links but how do you change from .org to .cc. I see another member is also requesting some assistance. Sorry for the repeat request but I'm not a computer fundi.

It's up to Charlie to correct the links, if he wants to.
You can see the pictures if you copy the hyperlink and change the .org to .cc

[charlie63]

Thanks for the comments guys. Ive been busy getting all the wiring sorted out. Ive soldered in new wires for the headlamps and fitted corrugated conduit over all the wires and shrink sleeving at the ends to hopefully keep water etc out. Have done the same with the horn wires as they were on the new loom but they were away back at the steering box and my horn is bolted to the cylinder head below the inlet manifold. Just waiting on new P clips to keep the wiring in place along the top radiator brackets. Will post some more photographs once I hopefully get Postimg sorted out. I never realised all my photographs had disappeared. Damn annoying as I have already changed them all when I lost access to Photobucket. Will do my best to help you out if I can Mike.

[charlie63]

Yahoo all the photographs and links restored again. Many thanks Mathias for the tip on how to do it.

[charlie63]

The headlamp wiring with new lengths of correct colour wiring soldered on to get the correct length of wires to reach the loom and 7mm internal diameter corrugated conduit fitted over the wiring and shrink sleeved at the end.





New wiring soldered on to the horn and same process as the headlamps.



All terminals have been fitted with shrink sleeving as well.





New 32mm rubber grommet fitted to the back panel where wiring loom comes through. I was unsure if there ever was a grommet there in the first place but thought at least if there is one fitted there will be no possibility of the wires chaffing.



New control box fitted.

[Mervyn Spencer]

You are a star Charlie! thank you for putting up all your pictures again that must have taken you a lot of time. Your wiring looks very professional. I like the shrink sleeve idea should keep most of the gremlins out.

[charlie63]

Mervyn it was no problem getting the pictures sorted once I knew what I was doing using the advice Mathias had given. Hopefully the posts and pictures will help some fellow members when they are restoring their tractors. Im hoping the shrink sleeving will keep any gremlins out.
My P clips have arrived so hopefully get the wiring completed next week.

[MikesDexta]

Thanks a lot Charlie this is great.

2 questions:

Where did you get the grommet from?
Did you use metal conduit or just split plastic and where from?

thanks
Mike