1.9 TDI into 90q: resurrection and for sale

[Marc]

can I add my own 'fuck drywall' post?

yeah. fuck drywall.

[Foscora]

Because I'll have to do some next week : fuck drywall aswell

[Grillage]

It's Unanimous - Fuck Drywall

[dana]

Wrapped up some extraneous projects before house destruction.

My grandpa bought this 53 ford NAA new, used it a ton on the farm. Its the first tractor I ever drove. My dad had it 'restored' by some jackass who messed up almost everything he touched.

Its been with me since february, and I've been through almost every part of it. The main issue was the rear end casing was cracked, so i found a good one and replaced it. I also replaced all the bearings in the rear ends and axles, a ton of seals, rebuilt the hydraulic pump, replaced the rear main seal (two piece seal, WTF) etc etc etc.

Shes running good now, no more oil leaks.















heading home


built this 5th wheel hitch for a tractor 3 point hitch. Pretty awesome for moving around 5th wheel stuff. I use this to move my new home around.






new house in its location for the summer


luxury living


started digging shit up, i located my power feed out to my shop, have to break the conduit and pull the wires back out of the house.

[audifreakjim]

What a cool tractor. Time for a house build thread??

[jretal]

Never a dull moment! Look forward to seeing more on the house rebuild. I'm about to start in on reno'ing our kitchen (hopefully after I finisht the RS4) - and the one thing I am farming out is drywall. Buddy is a superintendent for a construction company, and one of his guys does a slew of side work. He offered to hang AND mud my kitchen (floor and ceiling) for $500, I supply materials. I can't say YES fast enough!

[PRY4SNO]

What a cool tractor. Time for a house build thread??

Agreed on both fronts!

[dana]

I'm loving all the 'fuck drywall' comments. Its unanimous, drywall sucks.

Never a dull moment!

aint that the truth. I've had a few "WTF am I doing" moments as I am indiscriminately ripping apart my functioning house that I live in and throwing everything onto a bonfire. I will feel a lot better when things start going back up, but the tear down phase has caused some sleepless nights. No risk, no reward, I suppose.

I'll post up a build thread when things get a little further along. I'm going somewhat rouge on this whole process, and not super keen on full internet photo documentation until I've got things a little more squared away.

[dana]

I set out this weekend to make a camper hookup so I didnt have hoses and cords running all over the place. The plan is to keep the existing well in place, and have temporary power feed that will feed the camper, shop and some construction power outlets. Good Plan, and simple, right?

Saturday was looking good, got my ditch dug. I had to be careful because I was crossing over the main power feed, near the well lines, and well power and over the propane feed from the remote tank into the house. No problem, a little careful shovel work in tandem with the backhoe, and I got things working.

The problems began saturday night when pressure testing the new water system. No leaks, but I wanted to turn the well down so the RV wasnt over pressureized. I try dialing back my well controller, but the gauge doest move. No problem, slap another gauge on there. Interesting, the gauge shows a cycle from 20psi cut in to 100 psi cutout. Waaaay to high. Replace pressure switch, new we have a nice 30-60psi swing.....BUT...pressure drops down 30 psi in 10 minutes, when using NO WATER.

Shit....a quick isolation test reveals a leak under ground or down the well. Sunday morning finds me welding up a well pump puller and dragging the 1/2hp submersible well pump out. Don't worry, it was only 300 feet down there. Anyone need an upper body workout? Try dragging a 100lb well system up 300 feet with no way to stop and rest.

No leaks in the well pump line, check valve in the pump is good. I clean it up, clean the screen, re-secure the wiring and send it back down to its home at the center of the earth.

Then I start digging, its buried about 6-7 feet deep (VT frost protection). I carefully uncovered the whole line, and found that I was loosing pressure where the well line T's to a remote hydrant. Malfunctioning well pump switch probably blew the seal in the hydrant. Fuck the hydrant, I don't need it. I put in an elbow and abandoned the water line to the hydrant, and we are now holding pressure all night.

Moral of the story, project starting off with a bang. Thank fuck I bought that shitty old 3 point hitch backhoe a couple years ago. It paid for itself this weekend.

Finally got water running again last night about 10.

Just getting started, feeling good about progress.....




power, phone, water and septic laid in


then the shitstorm ensues...

[dana]

notice well pump line goes out to shop and loops all the way back to house.

[chaloux]

Nice work Dana. Pulling deep well pumps is the beeeeest. Most people would have given up/called a plumber lol. 20-100 psi is a ridiculous swing.. but lots of volume!

[dana]

Yea man, LOVE pulling well pumps by hand. I used to work for a contractor in high school, and he had a roller on legs that he made by cutting a truck rim in half and welding an old pressure tank in between, and he would pull the pump fitting out of the pitless adapter, tie it to the truck and pull it out that way. It worked awesome.

I never call other people to work on my stuff, not matter what. I'll buy all required tools and equipment to do it myself! Its awesome to learn and master new shit. Might be a crazy mentality, but I am starting to get to the point where I have the equipment and tools to literally do anything I need myself. Also, it forces me to learn exactly how everything works. I am getting the bonus of learning how an RV works. Lots of little intricacies to that whole scene, and man, they kind of suck! All the worst parts of a house and a car combined, plus the shittiest possible construction methods and materials.

I think this whole issue comes from the fact that my well has (and always has had) iron bacteria. It is harmless, and my water always tastes amazing. However, there is always a very slight film in the toilet bowls and in glasses that sit around for a long time. This stuff gummed up my pressure gauge and switch over time and caused the overpressure situation, which I think blew out the seal in the bottom of the water hydrant at some point last fall. A review of my electrical bills shows a noticeable increase that has held steady since around last August. A 1/2HP pump cycling 6 times and hour could do that for sure.

Not sure what to do about it, probably will just monitor the pressure switch and gauge more often and run what I brung.

[vt10vt]

I never call other people to work on my stuff, not matter what. I'll buy all required tools and equipment to do it myself!

I'm nowhere near as well equipped as you are for house projects (largely since I don't own one) but this is the approach I take on car projects. Now one of us just needs to get a TIG.

[jretal]

[quote="dana"
I never call other people to work on my stuff, not matter what. I'll buy all required tools and equipment to do it myself! Its awesome to learn and master new shit. Might be a crazy mentality, but I am starting to get to the point where I have the equipment and tools to literally do anything I need myself. Also, it forces me to learn exactly how everything works. I am getting the bonus of learning how an RV works. Lots of little intricacies to that whole scene, and man, they kind of suck! All the worst parts of a house and a car combined, plus the shittiest possible construction methods and materials.
[/quote]

This is great as long as you have the time! I follow a similar thought process of "why pay someone else to do the work that I already know how to do."

That being said, a wife and 2 kids starts to force this mentality to change a little bit! lol The wife doesn't care for the projects to drag out (namely house projects - she doesn't harp on the car as much b/c out of sight out of mind). The kids just zap up time... my son finds the construction stuff/projects amazing (as would almost any 3 yr old!)

So enjoy it while you can! Nothing like stepping back w/ everything done and saying to yourself "I did this!"

[dana]

No audi work, but I have been doing some finish carpentry.


Then I had to celebrate the rebirth of my Grandpa's old 1970 honda 100 that I rebuilt this winter while also celebrating the death of my house.

Channeling by best "Hot Rod" impression here

[Foscora]

Perfect pic !

[AudiSport4000]

lol, I scrolled down, but not far enough to see how far the drop was....

Nice!

[WOMBAT]

Hhahahahha that's getting framed in the new house somewhere. Nearly a mantle piece.

[the german]

hahhahaha awesome

[dana]

I got to say, the house jump was a good idea. Hilarious photo opportunity. I think I'm going to hoist my real bike up to the second floor and drop that one.

Its fun to do burnouts in your living room too, as I found out.

Set up some temporary power that is not connected to the house, so the dirty deeds can begin.

[dana]

Its official! Its spring in Vermont. Came a little late this year, but yesterday we got the official sign. THE ANNUAL MK4 OIL PAN SMASH! I was a little worried I wasn't going to get to change out my pan this year.

I just shotgunned it out to Detroit and back for some tractor parts, 1400 miles nonstop and I smash the pan on the way up the driveway at home. Maybe the car was telling me it wanted its oil changed after 9k miles.

[ringbearer]

Way more reliable than those groundhogs and their shadows!

[Foscora]

wut ?

[ringbearer]

It's a dumb American tradition.

[the german]