Figured i'd share some pictures of a project that got a bit out of hand. Original plan was to fix the slop in the steering column, and maybe clean the cab up some. After 3 weeks of screwing around, i'm ready to call it quits until next winter.

Found some pretty severe rot in the bottom of the cab so i cut out and replaced what i could, and made a new trans cover. If it gets much worse the whole cab will need to come off and build a new floor. Also made a spot for a buddy seat in the fender. Don't critique the welds too much, i'm an untrained welder using an old Miller 200 and dealing with thin sheetmetal. Everything was eventually welded solid or seam sealed.

The steering column was trashed as well, both bearings were extremely rough and the joint was wore out. Got 2 new bearings and a joint from Macmaster-Carr to fix it. Original joint was welded onto a 7/16" shaft, and my new joint was for 1/2". I took it to a friends machine shop and had them make bushings and made the joint pin-on for future service. Not really thrilled with the joint i used, but its what i got and can be replaced later on if it fails.

The original seat wasn't worth saving, but i wasn't ready to shell out $600 for a new one. None of the adjustment knobs would turn and the back of the seat was broke so it sat crooked and flopped around. The lumbar portion was also broke and with most of the foam gone would poke you in the back. Ended up making some new brackets and welded it all back together. With the help of Free All i was eventually able to get all the adjusments working again. I couldn't find a good way to fix the lumbar so i removed it, but can always install one of those little blow-up things if i want to.

And the finished product. I ended up lining the cab with sound dampener, and putting a Fehr cab kit and floormat in. I had the seat re-upholstered by a local shop, choices for plaid fabric were limited and i didn't think to order some ahead of time so i just went with what he had. Not a factory look but i think it it fits with the cab pretty well. I wanted air-ride so i went with a MSG95 base and swivel kit, and re-used the original seat rails. It sits higher than i'd like, but its a fair trade-off. Can actually swivel it around a good bit. Still need to finish up the buddy seat and get the rest of my GPS/autosteer installed, but its usable if it ever dries out. Overall it turned into a lot more of a project than i intended, but i'm 29 and this is my main tractor so i figure its a cheap investment.

Ky.Allis wrote: You made a HUGE improvement. I'm sure it was a lot of work. Just curious as to what would cause the cab to "Rot" out? Washing out cab with garden hose and trapping water under floormat? Doors and/or windows missing?

I'm assuming the floor mat trapped a lot of stuff, theres actually rust pitting all the way around the side of the cab where the floor mat sat. I'd say that combined with a general lack of decent paint from the factory led up to this. And its not the first 8000 i've seen with a rusted floor. I bought this 8050 3 years ago, and from knowing the previous owners it was used on a hog farm and didn't have the best maintenance if any. The floor actually had a large hole inside the left hand door, so when you got in and out the only thing holding you up was the floormat and a crossmember.

Cool, what do you think of it. Does it swivel to right to help looking behind