Hello from Minnesota

I've done some posts, but figured it would be good to officially introduce myself. I live in Minneapolis, MN and picked up a free 1995 12hp 38" Murray at our cabin recently. I am looking to join the tractor community since i am in a week 15 and can't legally drive our ATV.

This mower is the biggest piece of trash you've ever seen. There is not a bearing on the frame (or bushing) and the frame consists of stamped sheet metal. In this build i need to,
Make a chassis on the original "chassis"
Re-do the hood/grille (i have the ugliest one-piece light ever)
Make hubs to fit atv tires
Make a FearlessFront slap shifter
Re-do electrical
Gas pedal
Clutch
Pulley system
And more. If you guys have any ideas for me that would be much appreciated.
Happy to be here and for the welcoming people that i've "met" already!
Charlie

Welcome Charlie!

That is quite a list.

Suggestion for the hood/grill for now. You can paint the lens of the ‘mono light’ black and it will blend in with the grill. You can cut out holes for the headlights. That will change the look a LOT with little work.

Take your time on the rest of it. There are lots of ideas here and on youtube that will help you decide the best and maybe even cheapest way to do all those things you listed.

murrayman2.0 wrote:

I've done some posts, but figured it would be good to officially introduce myself. I live in Minneapolis, MN and picked up a free 1995 12hp 38" Murray at our cabin recently. I am looking to join the tractor community since i am in a week 15 and can't legally drive our ATV.
This mower is the biggest piece of trash you've ever seen. There is not a bearing on the frame (or bushing) and the frame consists of stamped sheet metal. In this build i need to,
Make a chassis on the original "chassis"
Re-do the hood/grille (i have the ugliest one-piece light ever)
Make hubs to fit atv tires
Make a FearlessFront slap shifter
Re-do electrical
Gas pedal
Clutch
Pulley system
And more. If you guys have any ideas for me that would be much appreciated.
Happy to be here and for the welcoming people that i've "met" already!
Charlie

welcome to the forum man, there are a few things to clear up here, number one is that while you can't drive an ATV on the road unless you are 16 the cops can't stop you from driving it on private property, those stickers on the quads are there for liability purposes and don't really mean much of anything.
Other then that you have a pretty interesting base, lots of good plans, I'm always looking forward to seeing new machines and unique ideas, and I'm 100% with on the bike lever gas pedals being borderline sketchy.

Welcome (Again)! Lol. Check the local bylaws in your area but @TechnoChicken is right, you're allowed to ride on private property as long as you have the homeowners permission.

That doesn't look like a bad tractor to start with and there's alot of die hard Murray guys around here, luckily alot of tractor bearings and whatnot can be found for pretty cheap and tractors are WAY cheaper to work on than ATVs that's for sure! I'd recommend you to find and download the parts manual for it, if you're having a hard time finding it post a picture of the tag with the info and I'll do what I can to help. Feel free to start a thread for it in the "tractor project builds" section so we can all watch the progress!

The headlight doesn't look so bad but like @Nevadablue said you could paint it, could even do something like this (sorry for the crude drawing I did it on my phone)

Now for a proper Welcome to ATLTF! Glad you came!

Welcome to the forum I am also from Minnesota! are you on the north or south side of Minneapolis? also neat muarry!

Haha, love your tractor as well! More north side.
I'll have to look into those atv rules again. I did the class that certifies you but havent finished it completely yet. The grille desighn looks good. The only thing is the stock lights are not very bright. i think what i might do is cut a hole in the light that is there and put some big led's in.
I think im going to make a build thread, so look out for that in the next week or so.

The more i think about it, the more i think i want to do what NevadaBlue said
"Suggestion for the hood/grill for now. You can paint the lens of the ‘mono light’ black and it will blend in with the grill. You can cut out holes for the headlights. That will change the look a LOT with little work.
Thinking that will work well.

Cool. This is what I plan, just done with an image editor for now.

MN mudder wrote:

Welcome to the forum I am also from Minnesota!

You sure about that? You sound more Canadian than most of the Canadians I know and I'm surrounded by them! Lol

@Brianator haha ya I actually get told that quite frequently! @murrayman2.0 thanks! I like those LEDs. I had a set of semi-trailer backup lights which were LEDs they worked well until the muffler decided to cook em up.

MN mudder wrote:

@Brianator haha ya I actually get told that quite frequently! @murrayman2.0 thanks! I like those LEDs. I had a set of semi-trailer backup lights which were LEDs they worked well until the muffler decided to cook em up.

Probably from watching a Canadian youtuber is my guess? 
Happens to me too, I find myself using Derek words all the time ( VGG )

TechnoChicken wrote:

MN mudder wrote:

@Brianator haha ya I actually get told that quite frequently! @murrayman2.0 thanks! I like those LEDs. I had a set of semi-trailer backup lights which were LEDs they worked well until the muffler decided to cook em up.

Probably from watching a Canadian youtuber is my guess? 
Happens to me too, I find myself using Derek words all the time ( VGG )

I'll be dipped.

Out for a rip are ya bud?! Lol

@TechnoChicken ya i think ole peg may have had somthin to do with that lol! i always had a ole Midwestern acent just added to it i guess. @Brianator that's a good tune haha!

MightyRaze wrote:

TechnoChicken wrote:

MN mudder wrote:

@Brianator haha ya I actually get told that quite frequently! @murrayman2.0 thanks! I like those LEDs. I had a set of semi-trailer backup lights which were LEDs they worked well until the muffler decided to cook em up.

Probably from watching a Canadian youtuber is my guess? 
Happens to me too, I find myself using Derek words all the time ( VGG )

I'll be dipped.

We got some accentage going with the carbalater, also the weird finger things are a little addictive as well... 

@brianator, haven't heard that one yet, are those guys actually Canadian?  
also the Diesel Creek phrase "Son of a diddly" I find myself saying that one all the time...

@TechnoChicken the singer/creator is from the Kingston area (video made there too in a weekend) and that song is probably from before your time as it was released in 2013ish but if you've ever heard anyone saying "out for a rip are ya bud" or seen "out for a rip" stickers on trucks that's where it came from! Everyone was saying it for the longest time! Lol

Brianator wrote:

@TechnoChicken the singer/creator is from the Kingston area (video made there too in a weekend) and that song is probably from before your time as it was released in 2013ish but if you've ever heard anyone saying "out for a rip are ya bud" or seen "out for a rip" stickers on trucks that's where it came from! Everyone was saying it for the longest time! Lol

Ah, made in a weekend, the best kind of songs  
I'm not sure if the OP is ok with this thread jack but it should probably get back on topic, or at least try