Chris , I’ve just watched your video on grading a road and I was touched by the fact that you let Matt enjoy that whole moment . You stood back , all three of you and didn’t jump in and take over . It was nice to see Matt have a live audience . He can’t see or hear me and the rest of us laughing at his comments or shouting “ Yes! ” when watching his videos . So it was good to see the banter you all had .
Considering she had one wheel in the grave, and was destined to become a I beam or something like that.. this is amazing and now she can not only have a second chance of life but tell her story to future generations. Well done Matt !!! Something to be proud of
Matt, wish we were neighbors, as a Master Tech for class A trucks for 40 years now I also love repairing the old stuff. Just as a tip next time for flaring steel lines add a drop of oil on the tool head and the threads it will go much smother. For bending the line have a rag with some grease on it and give it a smear at the spot where you are bending the line. Thanks for your videos much enjoyed.
One of my favorite restorations on RU-vid! This part reminded me of when I was a teenager working in an auto parts store in Fairhope, AL... many of our customers were local farmers, and they were always coming in looking for belts, bearings, and seals, and, of course, bringing in busted hydraulic hoses! We had the hose stock and all of the various styles of replacement fittings, along with a press to crimp the fittings onto the hoses. I learned (mostly by watching) how to make the hoses, and after getting a hard time from all of the farmers, I got to be pretty good at the job. So much so that many of the old guys would ask for me to make their hoses. I considered that a high compliment... So now, forty-odd years later, I'm passing along the compliment: you have done a wonderful job on Christine, and I look forward to seeing you continue on her restoration, and watching you put her to work! Thanks for taking us along on the journey!
Well Matt, don’t ever worry about making videos to long. You could make 2 hour videos because they’re always entertaining. Your channel are one of my favourites 😁
Get rid of the galvanized coupling just before the filter bowl, it WILL eventually rust from the bare threads inside from any minor condensation that develops in the tank and head for the carb. Brass for fuel systems.
Love seeing the old grader back at it. Brings back good memories on the farm. Heck, I'm still finding grader blades in the trees all these years later. My dad used to tell me, "Never take advice from a grader operator. They're usually not on the level." haha.
Matt, it's great to see the old girl running! I'm impressed by your determination dealing with so many different kinds of equipment and managing to get them all running.
Thank you so much for the two part videos, it feels like Christmas morning! Brilliant content on Christine's journey and can't wait for more from Diesel Creek, genuinely a highlight every day a new one drops
From my earliest days, I've felt a need to save and restore unusual, even oddball equipment. As time goes on, more and more people recognize the rarity and are drawn to it. Because it's been saved, it's there to be appreciated for perhaps generations. Besides, I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. Nice job, Matt. To watch it working again was a real pleasure.
@@petero2693 It is. I did a journal entry this morning in Word Perfect on my Grid 1530. The OS is the last version of DOS. Some time this afternoon, I'll cut the grass on my Wheel Horse riding mower that was built during the Nixon administration. On the other hand, this laptop is a late model Lenovo machine running Linux. The old and capable survive alongside the new. I think that is as it should be.
Awesome job Matt, you've certainly brought Christine a long way. Am I the only person who was disappointed to see Christine's first run on another channel?
Matt, when you "re-do" your electrical wiring, move your primary feed tap in point AWAY from the battery terminal clamp and piggyback it onto the battery positive post at the starter relay (input post). This moves it away from a location where battery leakage and fumes might cause corrosion. Also, make sure you provide that primary tap with overcurrent protection in the form of a fusible link, a heavy primary Maxi fuse holder, or an appropriately sized main breaker. I don't know where you are joining the alternator output wire to the positive side of the electrical system right now, but wherever you do connect it make sure it is not at a point where the charging current will feed through the ignition switch. I have seen home made wiring jobs where the alternator output was fed into the system through the ignition switch and that will burn up the ignition switch and possibly even the wires if they are not sized for the maximum alternator output. And finally you need to utilize a small fuse panel to feed your gauge circuits, lights, heater fan and other small draw electric appliances.
So happy to see this relic brought back to life. I know you keep saying it's not a perfect restoration, but that's probably better anyway. If it had been made completely perfect it would be hard to justify putting it to work again, this way you know you'll use it well lol
Matt, as a person who has watched this whole series, one hell of a job! i really cant wait to see her with all the glass back in. I'm glad to see someone saving all that old iron! thats our construction history
I forgot today was going to be part 2 and was mentally prepared to wait a whole week for the next vid. Pleasant surprise! Christine turned out awesome!
After all the loving care Christine has received and all the time and effort you've put in on her behalf hopefully Christine has gotten over her urge to kill and will co-operate with you in future! She looks beautiful now and sounds pretty good too. Nice work Matt.
Love the "King of the Hill" pipe bending time lapse. Perfect music for it. You are doing a great job on your videos. Love seeing you get back on these older projects, The "Celebrity" appearances are fun too. I am loyal subscribers to you, Chris and Mike for years.
This was quite emotional to watch especially at the end when Christine was doing her thing at the steam show . I feel so proud of you . It seems like the list of ’to dos ‘ are nothing compared to all the work you’ve done on her to get her to this stage . She looks and sounds so good . It was great watching those three guys just standing back in awe , being so impressed and letting you have your moment when she fired up . Well done Matt . I’ve really enjoyed watching you bring her back to her former glory . It doesn’t matter how long it has taken I think we’ve all loved being on the journey with you so it was great to see her first outing was at the steam show . Can you tell I’m slightly overwhelmed... not only with Christine but TWO videos over a weekend ! Get in ! X
What a great comment. My daughter pointed out your comment to me. I agree with her. The entire process, from start to finish, was a great story for all of us that found ourselves locked-down over the pandemic. Peace ☮💖🙏💙💛😷😎
@@kevinkipp3899 thank you Kevin . You’re right , it was great to watch his channel especially throughout the lockdown with his comical quips as he always proclaimed that he wasn’t an authority on things but yet I learned so much about how engines work . How many times were we all there willing his latest project to come alive after his call “Contact!” Living next to them must be a hoot although when he revives some of the more noisy engines you just hope they are either out at work or deaf . Still the funniest one was the snow mobile reveal when the garage door opened to a bright sunny day . Priceless simple humour . X
What I like is that you have all but done a complete job. I don’t want to watch restorations for museums and I suspect you will never do that, but what I like with this job is that when those jobs you said you will do are done this old girl will be good for another 30 years and not a bodge job. Well done. Now get rid of the scrap in your farm, scrap prices are at an all time high
Another great video Matt, really appreciate the work you put into these! Oh, and as a guy who's been making a living from bending pipes and tubes for nearly 40 years, believe me when I say that you did a great job piping Christine up! Trust me, it gets easier 🙂👍
I’ve done a heap of that sort of pipework but still occasionally flare without the nut or bend it in the wrong direction, bloody good first effort Matt 👍🍻
Might want to check out the steering box and the UJ, there's a lot of movement in it. Great job getting her done and moving. Nice to see letsdig18 helping you out too with his verbal encouragement.
That steering UJ is pretty shot Matt I would replace it as a matter of urgency as it might do the same as one I had and "lock up" right in the middle of a vital manouver. Not Fun!
You've done a great job on "Christine". She's looking good. Engine sounds like it has a cylinder down and not just carb tuning. And check the lower universal joint on the steering shaft just before it goes into the front housing, it's looks a little worn out. Check the video at 44:01 to 46:19 you can clearly see the movement in the worn out joint.
I started watching because of your church renovation series but then your machine overhauls kept me watching. It's nice that you make Series so that we can follow a project along I hope you find a new project that we can follow
As an old school mechanic, doing it most of my life, you impress the shit out of me! No fear, just git er done. I have busted my ass off for my entire life making a living as a mechanic. Too many tools to carry sensably. Yet can't make sense of any of it. Yet you just get er done. My mind and body busted, I can't make sense on how you do it. But I guess when you work for yourself it just makes sense. Never had that opportunity. Good job, brother!
Congrats for that a BIG and Splendid JOB. ""Christine"" is re-born. And now add grease and or oil every place where is a sliding. "Christine" will Thanks for that. Bon courage and stay safe.
Really, really neat. Brings back memories from when I was a child (a long time ago). I watched a Gallion grader of a similar configuration work and had a similar toy. Very nicely done. Thank you.
Great Show! When in doubt, add Grounds all around the chassis. Old steel has an affinity for bad grounding just from sitting out in the weather and if it was used for salting roads, even worse. The metal may look good but may also have become brittle from weathering. Just add a shitload of green ground cables and good copper lugs. I have an old 1950 Desoto and it has a Negative Ground system. Everything in the electrical system gave off a brownout condition aka dim lights. After grinding all surfaces clean, gained some improvement. I found out it was at the beach most of i's life. The salt spray, devastated the metal aka body rot and loss of grounding. I added at least 25 ground straps and the lights gauges and radio suddenly came to life. Love your show!
Well add another piece to the Diesel Creek Equipment Resurrections! Man I love seeing old equipment come back to life and get to do what they was made for.
I've always been a firm believer in look after your stuff and it'll look after you. watching this series bringing ole Christine back to life has been hugely gratifying, you're methods make me chuckle but the end game is still the same.
Heck yeah! She's looking good. I'm glad to see an old machine like that put back into service instead of scrap. It's amazing that she's getting the love she deserves.
A little trick on something like bending tube to match an old line would have been to leave it long on both ends and start with the "middle" bend and work out from there. Then you can cut the ends to match the old line. Overall looks good.
Ive bent close to 80ish feet of stainless tubing per liquid hydrogen transport trailer at my place of work and ill tell ya this bit of information is what I've trained other on in the past and it had made the difference of sucess and failure in new hires. Definitely takes a different perspective to "seeing" it finished before the first bend is made.
Man Matt! Ol' Christine was determined to fight you all the way......but too bad for her....you won! Nice job on the resto/fix up...now let's get her workin'!
You look so proud of your achievement on the ol' girl and you have all the rights to be so, mon ami ! This is the right piece of equipment for you, not too big, not too small. And you don't need a flat bed to get it at your job sites. Definitely a money maker. Cheers Matt !
You're ALMOST there! I'm about to start down the grader journey myself! Prolly won't go as far as you ended up going, but who knows! Glad to see you beat the old girl into submission!
I’m pretty sure you just assumed the gender of the grader and I’m not too sure how I feel about that, I’m considering calling you a bigot, let me think on it for a bit.
My favorite and most anticipated series to date. When I was a kid we lived on a dirt/gravel road and my favorite memories were when the grader came and redid the road. He would cut from the ditch side back to the middle then flatten out the hump in the middle. Probably using this same vintage of machine. To me these were huge wonderful machines.
I’m so proud of your efforts on that thing. Glad I waited to watch Chris’s video on this. Doesn’t it suck when things fail and there’s people there to bust your balls.
You know, the fact that you’re prepared to have a “go” at things you haven’t done before and acknowledge that you’re not sure, is one of the reasons I enjoy following. You don’t claim anything, other than the way it is. Great stuff.🇦🇺
You can find window molding through Year One or Classic Industries or LMC or other car renovation catalogs . I think but its worth a try. It would look freaking cool with the glass installed. Trophy winner for sure. Keep going on it. I hope you gently use it and not turn it into a work horse. Not many out there, take care of it.
Having watched all these, I'm really pleased to see Christine has come this far. Perhaps a video on sorting out the remaining electrics next (lights, blower motor - although you will need to change the filter for that) as well as fitting the glass? A great job - well done!
I'm impressed with your making your grader like new (sort of). You do nice work on these beat up old machines. Great video. Great work. It'll be done when you say it's done. Again, great work.
I know that proud feeling when a project is almost finished. that feels so good. you have a nice machine to work with. and you will certainly get the hang of it. great machine, and a top job.
Matt, both the 45 degree and 37 degree flares work by establishing a "ring of contact" between the mating surfaces, the surfaces will never be perfectly matched up enough to have full contact along the entire angled surface. So as long as the 37 and 45 flare angles were contacting each other, they will likely perform fine. I would also bet that as you tighten down the nuts, its going to push the angle of the tubing from 45 degrees closer to the 37 degrees. If it really became a problem, I would think that you could re-do the flare on the tubing with a proper 37 degree flare on the machine down the line if needed.
This is spot on. Also, the flares will form to each other a little when the union is tightened, so if it doesn't leak now, unlikely to ever be a problem into the future.
I tell my pals to tune in to yous guys channels,and they look at me funny when I explain the type of stuff you get up to. Some people will die ignorant .
Let's Dig preempted your vid a little, but this is still super awesome! So glad Christine is all dolled up and almost ready for the prom. So glad you didn't name her Carrie! 😉 That steering U joint looks like it needs a little love.
Matt, was great to finally meet you, Dirt Perfect and Lets Dig 18. Was shocked to walk up the line and see Christine sitting there, I knew it could be no other. You did a great job on it, and seat time will make you proficient also. was a great show.
Appreciate every moment of this journey with you Matt. who'd have believed it would turn out that good, and a new set of skills acquired en route. Thanks so much and Well Done. :-)
hey Matt great work and congrats this one was one of my favorites. I spotted an preventative issue if you look back at the footage @ 44:37 the most inner hose is riding on top of the chassis leg and might rub through over time ,you might want to put an sacrificial saddle or sleeve on that part of the hose.
Brilliant seeing you guys altogether, love the way you provide Diesel Creek with moral support by as we say in the UK, taking the micky. Shows what good friends you all are.
