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| Project Journal - JD 6030 With Soundguard Cab |
| Handle: |
newgenjdcollector |
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| Project Name: |
JD 6030 With Soundguard Cab |
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| Tractor: |
JD 6030 |
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| Started: |
12:00 12/11/13 |
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| Updated: |
12:06 10/23/14 |
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| Expand/Contract all Journal Entries Show newest journal entry on top |
12:06 12/11/13
12:06 12/11/13
12:13 12/11/13
|  12:06 12/11/13 Some before pics (cab of 4430)| I have seen a couple of these done before (some look decent but most look like cobbled up messes). So I thought I would do one of my own, but do it the right way. I already had a 6030 to use for the project, just needed to find a cab. Well that was harder than I thought. I probably should have just bought an entire tractor, but with money tight at the time, I finally found a cab for sale. As you can see, this cab was in pretty bad shape. It's from a 1977 4430. One window had fallen out and birds had gotten in there and did their damage everywhere. There were droppings all inside and nests up in the headliner where the radio and dome light goes. After paying too much for the cab, I quickly realized that everything in the cab was either trashed or busted, not to mention all the rust and rot of the metal itself. But I decided to not get discouraged because this is going to be a long project that would get finished dispite any hiccups along the way. I was going to rebuild this cab no matter what. | | |
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12:25 12/11/13
| 12:09 12/11/13 No subject givenSo I decided to focus a lot of my time on the cab itself. I started by completely gutting it. All the junk padding, seat, dash, headliner, birds nest, everything. I removed the windows and ground away the 35 year old weatherstripping.
I also spent several hours powerwashing the underside to remove all the built-up oil and grease. | | |
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12:25 12/11/13
| 12:22 12/11/13 No subject given| Some more pics during the tear-down session to show you how nasty this cab was. How anybody farms this way I dunno. | | |
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12:29 12/11/13
| 12:29 12/11/13 No subject given| Another view. Pretty huh? The rat's nest of wiring hanging down is from the radio, blower motors, etc. Somebody hacked it up real good so it was fun getting all that straightened out. | | |
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12:31 12/11/13
| 12:31 12/11/13 No subject given| So after all the tear down and cleaning, I had a welder friend help me do some test-fits by lifting the cab over the tractor wity my loader. Needless to say, it wasn't real close at first because of how wide the rear end is on the 6030 versus the 4430. So I sent it to his welding shop so he could make some initial changes to the mounting brackets and add clearance for the rockshaft arms. Once I got it back I decided to throw on a quick coat of POR-15 rust preventative paint to some of the exposed areas. | | |
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13:46 12/11/13
13:48 12/11/13
13:48 12/11/13
| 13:46 12/11/13 No subject givenHere is the cab after paint. I bought all new plastic parts for around the headlights and tail lights. You can also see part of the new seat and the new steering valve. This cab being a later series with the metering valve wouldn't work. So I have to swap it out with the older style steering valve. I also decided I wanted to go with a more modern color theme and get away from the mostly green cab of the 30 series. So I used black for just about everything except on the fenders. If you didn't know better, you would think it was a 50 series cab.
I also know why they want $10k to re-do a sound guard cab. Because it really does cost that much. Or a lot more in my case if you buy every piece of plastic and weatherstripping new thru john deere. | | |
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13:58 12/11/13
13:58 12/11/13
13:58 12/11/13
| 13:58 12/11/13 6030 Soundguard| Here are some initial photos of the 6030 I used. The tractor itself is a 1973. Runs and shifts well. I've already changed the rear cast centers and install true 42" cast and had the tire guy come out and put on a set of firestone 20.8-42 rears. After some more test-fitting and in and out of the shop a few times, I mounted the battery boxes and swapped out the fronts for 16.5-16.1 4-ribs. Installed New batteries, cables, and recycled the accumulator from the 4430 to feed the steering, brakes, rockshaft, and hydraulic clutch I designed. | | |
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14:02 12/11/13
14:02 12/11/13
14:02 12/11/13
| 14:02 12/11/13 No subject given| Next it was time to put the cab back on for the last time. At least until I take it off to paint the tractor next spring. You can see it's really starting to come together. But it's far from finished. Still not running at this point. Still need to have all the steering lines made and figure out how I'm gonna shift it. | | |
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14:09 12/11/13
14:09 12/11/13
| 14:09 12/11/13 No subject givenI decided early on that I wanted to use the complete cab and contols and not just dump the cab over the 6030 dash. I have seen a couple done that way and that to me is just the easy way. I wanted a real challenge. I wanted my shifter on the side (not on the dash) as well as tilt-steering and side mounted throttle and hydraulic levers. In the end it will be worth all the extra effort and I think you'll agree.
Skip forward a few months. Worked on the cab a lot to finish it out. Put in the interior and started putting the windows back in. I decided why not put in a 55 series interior. I's way better looking than the black so I called up fehr and ordered a custom kit. I bought all new mouldings for all the windows (not cheap). Also had to buy a new back glass since the old one someobdy tried to glue the old weatherstrip on with tub and tile caulk and it was a mess. I spent a couple weeks getting all the lights and electrical working. Most of the wiring up in the radio had been cut out go figure. Added a new cab top too. I also decided to switch to an air ride seat. Didn't want to give 2-grand for the deere one so I bought an aftermarket kit. Had to modify the hell out of that to make it fit right. Started roughing in my shifter on the side console as well. Also started working on getting the linkages made for the 3pt lever and hydraulic scv levers. You can see that the cab turned out terrific, even though it's not completely done yet, it looks brand new. I added a monitor caddy and rear view mirror on the post like the 50 series. Man I love those. If I could only have one mirror, it would be the rear view on the post. Put in a new radio, and bought the external antenna kit from salvage. | | |
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14:14 12/11/13
14:14 12/11/13
| 14:14 12/11/13 First Startup| So finally the day came to try to start it. I wasn't completely sure that my gear linkages were proper yet so I drug it outside to test start it. I hit the key and it started right up. It sounded great. But shortly after, when the hydraulic pressure started to build, I discovered huge amounts of hyd. oil dumping out of my steering valve. So I shut her down and pushed it back into the shop to find out why. | | |
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14:20 12/11/13
14:20 12/11/13
| 14:20 12/11/13 No subject given| Apparantly after two trips to deere. lugging the 75lb steering valve in and out of the cab, the mechanic and I discovered that I didn't have the steering shaft locked all the way onto the valve neck and it was causing leakage around the top seal. Put the valve back in one last time and started the tractor without any leaks. After adjusting my shift rods some, I was able to drive the tractor around. This was a proud moment. The climax of about 9 months of hard work, problem solving and engineering. I added 1800lb of suitcase weights to the front and a set of rear weights and hubs. Called the tire guy again and he brought another set of 20.8-42s for the duals. Starting to look badass. The side panels are fiberglass so they are gray for now until I paint the tractor. | | |
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06:51 12/13/13
13:43 09/16/14
| 14:24 12/11/13 What's newSince the last pics, I have put the rest of the windows back in and put the door back on the cab. We are making a sheet-metal piece to cover the gap between the cab and hood. Working on the rest of the linkage for the 3pt hitch and draft control. Also having a new shift pattern made for the console. It seems the gears in the H/L/R side on the 6030 are spaced differently than in the quad range trans.
The picture shown is the new shift plate I had made. This is a side-by-side comparison to an original quad range shift plate (right) to the one we fabricated. We needed to make find the gears better and eliminate the 2-speed areas of the quad range. It really simplifies things for us. Hopefully I get this re-installed soon and show what it looks like installed in the console. Update: New pic shows how the modified shifter plate looks installed in the console. Although I did use the normal quad style decals from deere for the front portion of the console. I may add my own HLR markings on the shift plate when I get a chance. | | |
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|  | 06:50 12/13/13 Video| So I made a quick video of the tractor to show my progress. Tried to post it here, but no luck. Go to youtube and search john deere 6030 soundguard and it should be the first 2 or 3 videos listed there. Let me know what you think so far. | | |
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10:24 03/08/14
10:24 03/08/14
| 10:24 03/08/14 No subject given| Here are some photos of the closure I had made to fill the void between the hood and the cab. It wasn't an easy piece to make but it came out great. Currently working on the hood as it needs attention in a few spots before it gets painted. | | |
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20:03 04/25/14
20:03 04/25/14
| 20:03 04/25/14 No subject givenI finally got the chance to run the tractor in the field in order to help work out any kinks. No better way to test your build than plowing with it. Turning on the ends and crossing ditches, etc. All in all, it works very well. Got a couple hydraulic issues to resolve, but nothing mechanical to fix. The tractor is super quit inside. Comparable to a 4640 or 4840. I can actually listen to the radio or hold a conversation with a companion. Sure can't do that with a hinson cab.
I took some videos and snapped a couple pics. I don't think this tractor is turned up any great amount, but it runs very well and incredibly smooth. Pulling a 7x18 in 4th gear about 5 mph give or take. Keep in mind that the rears are 20.8-42s, so 4th is more like to having 20.8-38s and running in 5th. | | |
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19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
19:35 07/03/14
| 19:35 07/03/14 No subject givenNow that the tractor has been field-tested, it is time to break it all down to paint it. First step is to take the good wheels off and put some junk wheels on. Then pull the cab off. This will make it much easier to blast. I had a special lift bar and cab mount brackets made to help lift the cab off safely without damaging anything. One thing I had been wanting to do is check out the clutch. So we decided to split it and inspect the clutch components. Doesn't look like much all stripped down. It's a good thing we opened it up because both the flywheel and pressure plate surfaces were cut some, so I ended up having them resurfaced. The clutch disks looked fine so we re-used them. The rear engine seal was dripping some so we put a new one in. After a new throw-out bearing and some heavy duty clean-up, we slid it back together.
Now it is completely ready to have sandblasted. Just have to tape off all the important parts that you don't want damaged. This makes for a lot of extra work, but I feel it is worth it. That way you can lay your paint down on the virgin metal surface instead of painting over top of a layer or two of existing paint. | | |
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10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
10:20 07/15/14
| 10:20 07/15/14 Blasting and PaintingSo now it was time to get the tractor blasted and painted. As you can see, I really like to strip them down. I can't stand to paint something knowing there could be grease and dirt tucked in a crevice you can't get to. So having all the parts off allows for better access and makes the job easier. I like to to paint all of the parts separate from the tractor and then re-assemble when finished. After sandblasting, I remove all the protective tape and used a leaf-blower blow out all the remaining media. Then we brought it in and put it up on stands to prepare for paint. Next begins the task of re-taping anyting you don't want paint on and making sure there is no grease left anywhere. And also making sure there are no leaks anywhere. The next picture is after the hubs and axlwes were painted (and masked off) and the gray primer was applied. I recently started shooting black primer first over the bare metal because it's easier to see if you've missed a spot. The gray is simply a sealer coat I apply right before I spray my color. You can see that I remove the manifolds and starter and just about everything else. This allows for the best job versus spraying around those things and getting overspray everywhere. Now you can see it starting to look like a Deere with the green on and clear-coated. Here it is with all the tape removed and ready to start the re-assembly process. The next pic shows it after the first couple days of assembly. It's almost like building a new tractor from the ground up. The only bolts I re-use on the entire project are a pair of carriage bolts. All other fasteners are replaced with grade 8 bolts. I have a fortune in bolts, but the gold on green looks really nice to me. The front tires looked really huge until we put the rears on. You can see it's really starting to come together. Since it wasn't running, we pulled it outside to set the cab on. Looks so much better with the cab on. Next, calling a guy over to put a/c on it. Hope that goes well.
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13:52 09/23/14
13:52 09/23/14
13:52 09/23/14
13:52 09/23/14
| 13:52 09/23/14 A/C InstallHere are some pics of the finished air conditioning system. It turned out just like I had hoped. Seems to function really well, but have not logged enough time to really test it. Had to load up so we could make it to a local tractor show.
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