A little fresh paint. Well I got tired of looking at my counter weight being all scratched up and listening to everyone talk about scratched counter weights on here so I did a little work to mine. There was just enough of the letters left for me to follow and free hand paint the black to make it look as straight as possible. The next day I did the light gray. Again I free handed around the letters. I also did around the whole bottom of the machine. So what do you think?:beatsme
Looks good, where was that thing working? Bahgdad?
LOL:lmao No Bahgdad. It is a demo machine with a shear mounted on it. It is either in the scrap yard or doing demo jobs no one else wants. This one mainly stays in the yard anymore.
good job mate!do you travel?
take some gray paint and give the "i" back it's dot and it'll look just as it came from the factory.
The old saying around here is, "bondo and paint'll make 'er what she ain't"... When are you going to make the "I" look like an "I" Truckie? Looks like a small "L" next to the big "L". like Llama... LOL...Baghdad....hahahah...:bouncegri
Don't bother, Truckie. I fixed it for ya... (BTW, looks %1000 better with the paint job. Nice work.) :thumbsup
Here you go truckie, I fixed her up for ya. You did do a nice job to have done that with a paint brush. Were did you manage to find a gallon of linkbelt paint?
Crap digger, you and I were playing in paint shop at the same time By the way you needed to custom define that standard gray to make it match a little better. lol
I took the door lock panel off and took it to Home Depot ands the were able to do an exact match. I got a gallon of Behr paint with a primer, hardener and sealer all mixed in one. It is for painting outdoor stuff. When it dries it is hard to scratch. I called the dealer and they dealer with a auto body shop and were going to charge me $85 dollars a gallon and the paint directly from Link Belt is $ 145 dollars a gallon, so I did some research and came up with an alterative answer. Home Depot and $35 dollars a gallon. I did the whole job with brushes.
Thanks for pointing out the “I“ I messed up on guys.:Banghead And thanks to Digger for fixing it at the moment. And thanks to Dirtman 2007 for the custom job and needed laugh.
It's only gonna get scratched up again anyway...
LOL!! We'll have to get some HEF approved rubber bumpers to put on the sides and she should stay looking good:cool2
Hey I received it scratched up. But if I do scratch it I got touch up paint now. Just incase.
That first "fix" digger242j did doesn't look official; it looks like a piece of duct tape. That doesn't count.:nono I also took the liberty of correcting the spelling glitch. Pardon the penmanship, please... If you were using that machine to dig every day, I'd have to remind you to try and use the bucket a little more to shape the banks around you, not the counterweight.:lmao (That came from a job I was on in Ct. a while back. A "veteran" operator who supposedly knows all was on a fairly nice 460 Volvo sitting on a rock shelf, and every time he swung he gouged the counterweight all to heck, so I asked him if that was a new technique to shaping the ledge...using the excavator like a router. He didn't think it was so funny.)
Well lets see if I did this right now. I used spell check this afternoon when I checked it so I hope it did not lie to me like before. So lets see who is going to redo this picture for me? Thanks again folks.
Oh my god.... did you hit a DEERE??:lmao All kidding aside, that link belt does look 100% better. Hard to find someone who will spend their own money to make someone else's machine look better. :drinkup
Hey! I was going to do that!
Maybe this will attract some women to the site?
Well it is breast cancer awareness month, so I will operate a Pink Belt for the month for that and the hopes of drawing more women to the site.:drinkup
This is what she'll look like in 12 more months...:stirthepot opcorn
:update Ha HA Back to normal!
Low Bow very interesting custom job you did there. :lmao Just to let you know all the paint is still on the counter weight.
I'm sorry truckie...but you have to admit you left yerself wide open once the Pink Belt showed up.:lmao It wasn't an easy task for me to do all that either, not exactly Bill Gates here. It took a lot of :Banghead for me to get that picture into an edit phase, do all the artwork and get it back to here. Obviously not much else going on...:laugh In between jobs again, plus fighting the darn flu... always too much time on my hands when that happens.
Just want to join in on the fun if its headed back to Baghdad......
:lmao :falldownlaugh :stirthepot
Derrrrrn...this guy's G O O D. Makes me look like Jed Clampett in photo shop.:notworthy:salute ointlaugh (I'd bet a sawmill dollar that's the last time you'll E V E R post another picture of that machine around us Truckie...:lmao )
:lmao:falldownlaugh:iagree
WOW!!! :dizzy I don’t think I would have taken this bad of a ribbing if me and the machine were really in Baghdad. Well as long as we all had fun on this one, that’s all that counts. I must say this thread has mad me laugh and I sure do need it at this point and time. Hope you start to feel better Low Boy.
Since we are having fun now I would like to point out that this machine below has been to baghdad and back and teh counterweight is still not as scratched up as the "Llnk-belt" Oh wait then it was "Link-Belt", then she when to "Wink-Belt", Then "Stink-Belt", Then the famous "Pink-Belt", and lastly "Sheik-Belt"... What will we think of next..... Oh wait "Leak-Belt" !! Truckies sunday ride:drinkup
This 'ol gal looks like she got a little "warm" out in the pump compartment at one time or another.:eek2 Kind of makes me wonder why people don't take a little more pride in their iron, being as expensive as it is nowadays. Plus just the "public image factor". Many years ago I worked for a guy that had quite a few pieces of John Deere equipment. It was all in good mechanical shape, but I especially remember a JD 310 hoe that had more rust spots from loading salt into sanders all winter, than paint left. I asked him why he didn't paint it, and he just said, "don't make 'ya no more money..." May be true, but...
Sounds like something my father would say...must be an oldschool thing...?:beatsme
I hear what you are saying, LowBoy, but being the owner/operator of a small contracting operation, it is just not that simple, for us, anyway. We try and take care of our equipment, but working with trees and rocks, equipment does sustain cosmetic damage, no matter how careful you are. We are not a large company operating on shareholder's money, every expense comes out of our own pockets and we simply just can not afford to pay some one to knock out every bent panel or frame as it happens and clean down and paint our equipment, as much as we would like too. Our first priority is servicing and maintainance and even that gets behind when we are trying to keep everything working to keep the customers happy and maybe make a dollar. While our equipment is not the smartest around, it is reasonably well maintained and we try to build our "public image factor" through the work that we produce, which must be working for us a bit, because all of our work is repeat business. On the other hand, I have seen some people come out with the latest and greatest in equipment, signwriting plastered all over it, large adverts in the local papers and they couldn't operate it to save themselves and in a couple of years they have dissappeared, never to be seen again. So what I am saying I guess, is that flash paint and a large public image, does not necessarally equate to a good operator or operation, but I do accept that if some one turns up with old, poorly maintained equipment that looks like it has been to Baghdad and back, it certainly doesn't fill you with confidence. And just to stay on track, don't let 'em get to you, Truckie, at least you used real paint!:thumbsup Rn'R.
Second all that Rocksn'Roses. However, can't abide an operator that doesn't keep his cab clean - there's no excuse for that and is a indicator of how he'll treat his machine in general.
Oh, don't misunderstand me R&R's...I'm not insinuating that everyone should keep their iron painted, dent free and waxed...I was merely describing this one particular fellow I worked for. You have to know him to understand. To look at this character, you'd think he was so broke he couldn't even pay attention, and want to hand him a vegisite sandwich. In the 60's he started out just trucking for the local quarry with a gas job Ford F-950 Super Duty. Another trucking company owner told me this story, as did a few others that all know each other here in this town I'm talking about... This guy would truck all week for the quarry, and take his weekly checks and throw them on the dash of that Super Duty. There was a years worth of unopened, uncashed paychecks scattered on the dashboard that he'd brag to everybody about.(How he operated was on his daddy's money, when gas for the Ford was .35/gallon.) The bookkeeper for the quarry finally cornered him and told him to either CASH the stinking checks or GIVE THEM BACK, because he had their accounting all screwed up! He thought it was funny, living like a miser, and making fun of everybody that had something nice. Years later as he diversified into bulldozing and digging, he paid cash for the machines one at a time. He also had a few more trucks that all looked like they belonged in the junkyard, again, just to prove a point that "chrome won't get you home"...He ended up being the richest guy in town, bought up all the distressed properties and lots around, and selling them off. All this and he couldn't read nor write, to this day. My point is, that all his iron was simply disgusting looking. His reputation for quality work is unsurpassed to this very day in his 70's...and he still has that original old JD 310 hoe...and finally painted the old girl. I'm not saying his success or failure would be based on the appearance of his fleet of machinery, but when working around palatial homes and high-class residential areas such as in that region, MOST people have a decent looking image. His backhoes (this was before excavators were not quite as popular yet,) were all scabbed up and oxidized from the winter salt/sanding work and snow removal he did, and his trucks were as bad. He would REMOVE any chrome that came from the factory just so nothing would shine. A little extreme, but the man is rich and still working, and didn't go through life trying to impress anybody. He watched a lot of young, strong headed yahoos come and go with big dreams and big payments, too. So have I. It's just nice to see an outfit once in a while that has stuff that makes you take a "second look". Here in town a heavy highway contractor is working on a job with a lot of Cat iron...haul units, dozers, hoes, loaders. Every one is lettered up and pinstriped with black and silver on that Cat yellow, and I gotta say...it does create a WOW! factor when you're not used to seeing that all the time. Not everyone believes in being that anal, and I for one understand how hard it is to keep things looking good in the field, especially with a bunch of different personalities running everything. I'm one of those guys with "extreme, excessive compulsive disorder" when it comes to keeping things neat, organized, and semi-clean. I'm the first to admit, I'm one step away from having to wear a hockey helmet all day I constantly sweep my floormat off in whatever I run with a self-supplied whiskbroom, but NOBODY ever does it behind me...EVER. I grease what I run first thing every a.m., even if someone else jumps in and starts thrashing. That's where the hockey helmet comes in... To keep this thread "legal"...Hey Truckie, if you ever trade the Llink-Belt in for a Cat, let us know would you? There's a lot of things we can do with that counterweight.:lmao:falldownlaugh:drinkup
So you bring your own broom to work? Yeah I'm the same way. When I get in a machine that my boss run. Him and his size 15 workboots and strow more dirt in a cab in one day than I can do all week. And sweeping... You'll only see me doing that ointhead
thats all very well if you dont have to get out and work ,i work in a two man gang on water works we cover all aspects including bursts ,i have a hard job to keep the machine clean inside when i have been knee deep in mud repairing a main,i keep my machine fed and watered and dont abuse it mud washes off :drinkup cheers graham
i usually don't care about the exterior, but a messy cab and dirty windows drive me nuts.
I can understand that. I speak primarily to lunch trash, cigarette butts, used paper towels, etc. When the mud dries the clods can be swept out. Maybe I should rephrase it to say that a tidy cab given the circumstances reflects how the operator thinks of his machine. If you can't remove your empty coke cans or used sunflower seeds or whatever at the end of the day - you may not have the same care level as the next operator (keep in mind these are generalities - doesn't mean it's always true). Mud/dirt in the cab because you have a hard working operator isn't a problem. I'll always be looking to give a raise to operators that are willing to get dirty with everybody else .
This is all true and respectable. I referred to the guys that NEVER, ever even think of trying to remove the wheelbarrow full of dirt on the floor of something once in a while. And I second that motion on the empty soda bottles, coffee cups and garbage stuffed behind the seats and in between the consoles. It just looks better for an operator to his employer and the general public/customers, if he takes 60 seconds at the end of the day and hoes out his cab, that's all. It's a "step above" concept, to keep things in proper order, and it goes a long way. I worked around a couple veteran operators who've been at it for 50+ years,(well in their 70's now,) that taught me that lesson as a youngster. I recently worked with the same two vets this summer, and they still do the same things they did in the 70's...clean up after the day's ended, and they even take the time to remove any excess "blobs" of grease from fittings after they lube up, to eliminate it from spreading all over the machine, onto their clothes, etc. It's the little things like that that make them who they are.
clean the worst thing that i find is when you get a rental machine and you need the seat right back (long legs big feet) you find it wont go back and you find the cause is old half drunk milk cartons and a few green sandwich,s along with a months supply of newspapers :Banghead cheers graham
RNR and d4c24a I agree with what both of you said earlier in the post. My machine may not be the cleanest and best looking but it is pretty well taken care of by me. Some of the jobs we get are because no one wants them because there scared of getting a bump. I sweep my floor every day and try to keep the cab clean, but it is had when you are in and out of the machine all day long walking through the muck. Once a month I pull all ,my stuff out and wipe it down in side. One thing for sure, no news paper in the cab, no food wrappers, no milk or pop jugs. I cant stand that stuff in a cab. Nothing more aggravating than trying to get the seat back when you’re a big boy and got size 14 feet and long legs. Like my boss says were not working with cotton, its scrap steel.
Its always been a pet peeve of mine to climb in a machine that has garbage all over inside, As far as I'm concerned if you can't clean up after yourself go find another place to work. A few years ago we were on a Bridge job down in Cold Bay. We came to work and a Brown Bear had shoved the front window in and climbed in the Excavator we had rented. Ever see what a Bear can do to the interior of an excavator? He had broke off one of the joysticks, shredded the seat and broke the back. Smashed the computer and the console, broke the side windows, then took a dump all over everything. By the looks of it, He was a very large Bear. I couldn't figure out why a Bear would get in the cab when the Operator told me he had left his half ate lunch behind the seat. I was glad we had rented the machine with their operator.
That's ONE way to get a sloppy operator to mend his ways in a hurry... Every try running a hoe with one joystick??? You'll either be really dizzy or really bored.