Caterpillar D9 No 18 restoration

[joepinehill]

I'm restoring an old D9 Caterpillar. It came as part of a lot. A couple questions. The tracks are in place, but one track is cracked half way. I know I can buy replacements, but would rather avoid. Anyone have success mending with waterproof tabe?

Second, is the scraper bladed fixed to the casting one side? One side came off easily, the other is either glued with paint or casted in. I have it soaking in stripper now.

[joepinehill]

a couple photos of the subject





Images resized by Ghosthunter.

[DrJeep]

Second, is the scraper bladed fixed to the casting one side? One side came off easily, the other is either glued with paint or casted in. I have it soaking in stripper now.

I've never looked closely before, but I think the blade is part of the base casting, firmly cast on the left side but resting on a pin on the right side. It's a very complicated arrangement! I think this is so that the front axle and tracks could be fitted. The peened axle then holds the blade in place. If you're taking it apart, you'll need to drill the rivet in the middle of the base and also remove the front axle. Then the base will come away from the body. The rear axle is attached to the body. It would be good to see pictures when it's apart - the restoration forum would be the best place to document the whole process. There's some information on repairing tracks here. Yours looks quite good so you might find that a bit of glue will do the job, maybe with a small piece of bicycle puncture repair for strength.

[joepinehill]

thanks MrJeep. I separated the castings. the blade is definitely casted as part of the base on one side. that had to be a complex.

Also , how do you resize photos in the postings?

[DrJeep]

how do you resize photos in the postings?

It depends on what you're using to take the pictures. You need to end up with an image that's about 640 pixels wide.

PC I think lots of people reduce the size of the image in Paint. You may need a bit of trial-and-error to get to the right size.
Mac You can export from Photos and choose whatever size you like (File, Export)
iPhone or iPad You need to download one of the free file resizer apps - there's one called "Image Size" that seems to work pretty well.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

There is a whole thread with hints and tips on image editing and resizing here...viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21&start=70#p45573

It is worth going back to the begining to read everything but I have taken the link directly to smartphone users which mentions the download app but overall everything you need on resizing images is there somewhere!

Ghosthunter.

[Malibu]

I do not believe that the baseplate and the shovel are one part.
I don´t have this model but see what Nick wrote about it:

Text.JPG (21.21 KiB) Viewed 2203 times

http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk ... /xx18d.htm
Stephan

[yellowfoden]

I do not believe that the baseplate and the shovel are one part.
I don´t have this model but see what Nick wrote about it:

The attachment Text.JPG is no longer available

http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk ... /xx18d.htm
Stephan

Hello Stephan,
Unfortunately the description is not quite right and the 18d baseplate and blade are cast as one unit. Also misleading on this 18d page is this photo with red border taken from Nicks page of the base plate because the one on the right is from the 8d and the two are not the same.
This confuses many collectors.
I have attached the base photo without tracks to clearly show the one piece casting of the 18d and the 8d for comparison.

Bert

[Idris]

Most illuminating! (I'd always assumed that the blade was a separate casting, held in place by the front axle, with the studs providing rigidity.)

[Malibu]

hi bert,

thanks for the explanation and the pictures.
I wonder why they did it like this and not like the other castings befor.

Stephan