1979 Cat 950 Restoration

I can't remember if I have posted this loader on the forum or not. Today we are finally starting the restoration. Long story short, my grandpa bought this loader brand new in 1979 when he started our business. It has had one repaint, one engine rebuild at 24,000 hours, and has 18,143 hours since then. As far as I know the rest of the drive train has not been touched. I want the loader to be finished in time for its 50th birthday, and the company's 50th anniversary. Here it is after I gave it an initial steam clean. The plan is to start disassembling and start sending stuff off for repair. I have started gathering some parts, but I am still on the look out for a bunch more.

I managed to get the bucket and some of the linkage off and on a pallet. The bushings were working their way out of the loader arms and causing some damage.

         

Looks like a worthy project. Good luck! Send pics! We LOVE pics!

More disassembly. Found some original paint under the front fenders, and an old repair on the front axle that will need some attention.

             

Always nice to see things like this stay in the family, we still have the 2U D8 that my grandpa started his business with in 1967. Good luck with the project look forward to the end result.

It's been a little bit but I have an update. I had to get some tooling from Ziegler Cat, which they were nice enough to let me use, to remove the lift cylinder pins. These would not budge at all, so I looked up what I needed on SIS. The pins were also mushroomed badly on the outside, so then I had to order a 1" x 14 tap from Cat to get the rod to thread in. But the arms are now off. We used the Cat 926M that we keep around the shop to lift the arms off the old 950. Its funny the size difference between the two loaders.