Cab progress

Lil Foot · Dec 28, 2016

Lookin' good. If you do the double wall, throw in some styrofoam insulation- cheap, easy to work, and better than an air gap.

mendonsy · Dec 29, 2016

Whether you go to double wall or not, there is a simple trick to keeping your wiring out of harm's way.
Take some short pieces of angle and box in the frame angles where you want run wires. 6" pieces of angle spaced 6" apart work well. That gives you a place to feed wires through that is easy to get at and protects them from harm.

chim · Dec 29, 2016

I glued Armaflex sheet to the inside of the roof on mine. A dome light is handy. Unless your cab is a lot different from mine, the radio will only see use if you have headphones. My cab is too noisy to listen to a radio.

Digger Dager · Dec 29, 2016

The build looks good. One suggestion for the ceiling, don't use the diamond plate. Use something that will absorb sound. With the hard panels all around you, ALL the noise generated by your Kubota will be amplified. The ceiling of my B3200 with a Curtis Cab has foam rubber type padding on it. Makes a big difference.

I use over the ear headphones with built in radio (for entertaining the voices in my head

) while I work with most of my machinery. Helps protect against hearing loss and does't disturb the neighbors.

Digger Dager

fatjay · Dec 29, 2016

The kubota's diesel is pretty quiet compared to my other machines, the big muffler doesn't hurt I'm sure. I've isolated the cab from the frame with all rubber mounts, so there shouldn't be much vibration passing through. I have Styrofoam insulation that will be going on the back of all the metal panels.

Grouse Feathers · Dec 29, 2016

The loudest noise in the cab will come from the HST right under the seat. You can seal up around and under the seat with some foam, but likely the HST whine will still be loud enough to require hearing protection.

fatjay · Dec 29, 2016

I have a huge rubber mat about an inch thick of solid rubber that will be under the seat/floorboards/etc with holes cut for levers and controls, that i did to keep the heat in and cold out. hopefully it'll cut down on the HST whine.

fatjay · Dec 31, 2016

Been a few days, thought I'd check in. All panels are cut, glued with heavy duty epoxy, and about 200 rivets holding it all together. Feels very solid, but surprisingly light. My doors don't clear as well as I'd like them to after bolting everything into place.

Tomorrow I'm taking it off and getting ready to primer and paint, then back on and will do the electrical. I'm way over time and way over budget at this point, but it's getting there slowly but surely. Doesn't help having been sick the last week.

I'll get better pictures later, I wrapped up tonight at 10:30 and I'm exhausted.

MadMax31 · Jan 1, 2017

Looks good. My door was perfect when tacked. Put it on the saw horses and finish welded and it warped at one joint or another, cuz it has a slight bow now. I was pretty bummed but not cutting and re-welding at this point...

fatjay · Jan 1, 2017

Hit the ground running today. Got a lot of stuff buttoned up and started interior insulation. The foaming stuff in a can said "use sparingly", they weren't kidding. The stuff came out with the consistency of melted marshmallow, it was extremely sticky.

Was getting ready to paint when I realized I'd overlooked a small factor. I can't get it off. I pulled the tractor out, everything cleared by a large margin. So I'll call that a success. Unbolted everything and went to slide it off, except it didn't. It wasn't heavy at all, maybe 100-120lbs max. But it was awkward, and frame mounts bumped pedals, so it's like there needs to be a person on pedals, one on each side lifting, and one in the back to support. Not the way I had planned it. I will look into getting a hoist in the garage, but I think I need to come up higher than the roof.

Tomorrow I think I'll get my feguson loader, that thing gets about 12' high and should be high enough to lift it off. Once off, two people could lift it easily, and set it down for paint in the garage. Maybe even 1.

Yooper · Jan 2, 2017

One of these would do the trick. I use this often when welding. Allows me to get the height exactly where I want it to be comfortable. On the negative side, it takes up a lot of real estate when not in use.

coachgeo · Jan 2, 2017

Get you some used camper jacks and mount on it to jack it up for removal?

fatjay · Jan 3, 2017

I kept thinking hoist to lift it up from the top, but jacks to lift it up is a pretty good idea. I'll have to make something for it, but that shouldn't be to hard. Only has to go up about 18-20" and the tractor could drive out under it.

fatjay · Jan 7, 2017

A week and a half with the flu set me back pretty far on the project. Feeling better now, though. Had a buddy come over and we got the cab off without to much trouble. Put it in the garage on a saw horse and got ready to do some painting.

Also got all the insulation done. Used 1/2" thick rigid insulation cut and glued inside of every panel. Not sure it will do much, but $12 for the sheet, figured I may as well try.

Picked up a $8 paint gun from harbor freight and got ready to shoot with my pancake compressor. Neither were very reccomended, however with the oil based paint properly thinned, it shot really well. The compressor was going non-stop and I had to slow down a few times, but over the course of 4 hours I got two healthy coats on. First is a matte black/primer mix which would stick to the steel and aluminum. Next will be kubota orange. I'm going to flip it up tomorrow and spray the bottom real good, more so as a protection against rust than anything else.

Thinking about pulling the hood and side panels off and painting them while I'm at it. Fenders seem to attach in more places than I can easily see, so I'm not sure I'll go that far.

Really can't wait to get back on track. Once it's orange I'll start wiring everything up. Have everything electrical ready to go, flood lights, radio, heater, flashers all in boxes. I do need to pick up some 12v switches though, not sure what kind I'm going to go with.

Here it is from the back.

fatjay · Jan 10, 2017

And it's orange. The orange didn't go on nearly as easily as the black. Black went on even, coated nicely, and dried quickly. The orange, however, has not been nearly of a "complete" coat, and takes forever to dry. Same gun, temp, ratio of thinner to paint. I'm far from a paint expert, though. This is 2 coats, and if I get close I can still see the black through the orange.

Yooper · Jan 10, 2017

Orange is a hard color to coat because of the type of solids used to make the color. Very little amount of solids makes it transparent. Yellow is another hard one. Only remedy is more coats.

fatjay · Jan 10, 2017

Many broken bolts and busted knuckles later...

bearskinner · Jan 10, 2017

I have a buddy up north that needs a cab like that!

fatjay · Jan 16, 2017

Some panel painting and the light installation today. Flood lights, flashers, and backup camera.

Panels are about ready. One or two more coats.

It's going to be a rats nest until I get the wire management done. Flood lights are decently bright, they're the same ones I used in my last built, so I think they should be good. The flashers have 3 on the front/back and 2 on each side. They will alternate, instead of all on, all off. All lights are LED. so draw should be minimal.

My only complaint is the LED's on the backup camera. They are on ALL the time, and are extremely bright. It's not like that on my other camera, and depending on how it is in the real world, I may replace it.

fatjay · Jan 18, 2017

Wig-wag flashers and flood lights hooked up. Flasher relay is not opperating as it should, one is on all the time, while hte other flashes. Amazon wants me to return it at my expense, buy another, and pay shipping for that one as well. I'm a bit annoyed with that. Basically paying full price twice for the same produce, one of which is defective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtcP3FF8OTg

Cab progress

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