In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 121 Refurbishment and Modification of Second-hand Hand Tractors!
After Yu Dawei returned, he prepared to start assembling the parts: engine, water tank, fuel tank, air filter...

The four tires were replaced with brand new ones. Yu Dawei used a polishing machine to carefully polish the handlebars of the hand tractor, bringing out the original silver color, and then carefully wiped off the particles with a clean cloth.

Polishing the armrests is for easier operation later. Moreover, whether it's the gear shift or the handlebars, these are all meticulous tasks that need to be refurbished later. Now we need to see how the overall performance is after the repair and startup.

The old man and Yu Dawei stopped polishing the rust and prepared to start the car for a test drive.

The water tank has been replaced with a new one and is now full of water, with a clearly visible red float rising to the surface.

The fuel tank cap was also replaced with a brand new one by Dawei. Its interior was cleaned with diesel fuel. Diesel engines cannot be cleaned with gasoline, otherwise it will cause problems.

The original dark green primer on the outer surface of the fuel tank has been washed away.

Although Yu Dawei wasn't quite sure why the car's fuel tank liner was green, it didn't matter much; he would just give it a fresh coat of paint later.

And the crank handle of this hand tractor is not only covered in rust, but the protective cover has also been completely removed, leaving it as just a Z-shaped iron rod.

Normally, the crank handle should be bent at a right angle, but we don't know how many times this vehicle was used back then, and the crank handle has been completely deformed like this.

Yu Dawei plans to go back and straighten the crank handle, making it a right-angle bend, and after sanding it down, he will install a plastic handle cover.

The crank handle is heavy and made of high-quality materials. Refurbishing it would definitely be more cost-effective than buying a new one, and it would last longer.

"Let's start the engine." Old Yu picked up the tools from the ground and put them one by one into the waste oil drum containing gasoline next to him.

After cleaning the parts, the gasoline turned completely black. Although it was too dirty to be used to clean the parts anymore, it could still be used to clean the repair tools, which was a way to make the most of the waste.

"Okay!" Yu Dawei agreed, then inserted the front end of the crank handle into the tractor's hand crank starter, and then turned it clockwise with force.

At the beginning, use all your strength, and then increase the strength more and more. As the flywheel speed increases, when Yu Dawei's speed and strength reach the critical point of the diesel engine, he suddenly heard a "putt-putt-putt" sound in his ears.

The hand-held tractor was successfully started, and thick smoke billowed out of the muffler's exhaust port.

After starting the engine, Yu Dawei pulled out the crank handle and then placed his hand on the throttle of the diesel engine.

He calmly twisted the engine twice with his left hand, and the engine, which had been running slowly, suddenly started making a more rapid "putt-putt" sound!

Yu Dawei felt the sound after increasing the throttle, and then he gently released his left hand. The sound of the engine in his ears began to calm down, just like the initial speed when it was starting up.

He didn't stop, but continued to repeat the actions of revving and releasing the accelerator, carefully listening to the sounds coming from the engine at each stage.

Diagnosing ailments by listening to sounds is a fundamental skill for master repair technicians.

"Done!" After experiencing the performance of the hand tractor, Yu Dawei turned to his father and gave him a thumbs up.

Compared to new hand tractors on the market, the advantage of this old hand tractor is that it uses high-quality materials, whether it is the parts, the frame, or the original engine parts.

Yu Dawei compared the returned parts with the old, broken parts and found that they were about the same in terms of quality, but the old parts seemed to be more solid in terms of weight.

Ultimately, Yu Dawei concluded that it was a density issue. Perhaps with the improvement of production technology, innovations have been made in the manufacturing of industrial parts, appropriately reducing material costs while ensuring quality.

After much thought, Yu Dawei could only come up with this one possibility.

In fact, as costs decrease, the advantages become more apparent. As society develops faster in the future, industrial capacity will also make spare parts cheaper invisibly. When the cost of replacement is lower in the later stages, there will be no need to worry about how long the spare parts will last.

This can be considered a trend in the future development of any product.

"Next comes the real renovation." Yu Dawei let go of the tractor, turned off the oil valve, and the tractor's speed began to drop rapidly before finally coming to a complete stop.

After Yu Dawei turned off the engine, he took the oxygen and acetylene from the old man's four-wheeled vehicle. The oxygen and acetylene was a cylindrical container made by a one-piece welding technique, but it had a pressure gauge and an outlet on top.

"Be careful, this thing can easily burn your face if you don't handle it properly." Old Yu squatted down to the side, moving the gasoline can further away, even placing it against the east wall of the house. Gasoline is extremely flammable, and the advantage of using gasoline to clean parts is that it evaporates quickly, cleans thoroughly, and leaves the surface perfectly dry after wiping with a cloth.

However, it also has drawbacks, such as being extremely afraid of fire!

Therefore, if a smoker wants to become Yu Laonian's apprentice to learn car repair, Yu Laonian will refuse without even thinking about it.

Whether it's Yu Laonian or Yu Dawei, although they might occasionally have a few drinks, they would never smoke.

On this matter, the old man was very stubborn. He had specifically told the two brothers, Dawei and his brother, when they were very young, with a wooden stick: "Don't learn from your dead grandfather! And don't let me find you two smoking. If I find out, I will definitely break your legs!"

Because Yu Dawei's grandfather (Sixth Master Yu Wenyi) died from smoking. He heard his grandfather say that before his death, his grandfather lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) and said to his father, "Quick, quickly light a cigarette for me. I feel unwell. Let me have a smoke to clear my head."

The scene of a person thinking of taking a smoke before dying was something that Yu Laonian could never forget, like a nightmare he could never shake off.

He clearly died from smoking, but he still managed to take a puff before he died!
It is precisely because of this that Yu Laonian is deeply resentful about the death of his own father. If his father hadn't smoked, he wouldn't have died so young. If he hadn't died so young, his mother would have been able to exhaust herself and painstakingly raise the five siblings.
This knot in Yu Laonian's heart will probably never be untied in his lifetime. It was because he watched his own father die from smoking tobacco that, in the end, none of the three brothers—Yu Laonian, his eldest brother Yu Chen, or his third brother—never smoked a single cigarette in their entire lives!

"Dad, why did you run so far?" When Yu Dawei turned around, he saw the old man carrying a gasoline can and running a long way. He rolled his eyes speechlessly.

"What do you know? Don't joke with your life." Old Yu squatted down under the landlord, his brows furrowed as he spoke.

He was cautious by nature and had been working as a car repairman his whole life. It was because of this that he had not lost any arms or hands and had lived a safe and sound life to this day.

"Be careful when connecting the air pipe, make sure it's tight," Old Man Yu reminded him again. In his opinion, Yu Dawei was probably using gas welding for the first time, and had only seen him do it before. He was still a little worried about his eldest son.

Despite having grown so much and his repair skills having unknowingly become comparable to his, Old Nian still couldn't rest easy deep down. This was a subconscious thought that had lingered over the years.

After all, his eldest son had always been incredibly bold since childhood, daring to try and handle anything. (Author's note: "照量" is a dialect word meaning "to dare to try and handle".)
"Don't worry!" Yu Dawei took the air pipe that was coiled in the truck bed out of the truck bed and shook his head.

The air delivery tube has two ends, one connected to an air gun and the other specifically for connecting oxygen and acetylene.

After connecting the parts, Yu Dawei used an adjustable wrench to open the air valve, then lit a match. At the same time, he turned the air release knob on the air gun he was holding.

As the match slowly approached the nozzle of the air gun, a yellow flame suddenly shot out from the nozzle with a "whoosh".

Old Nian had already stopped what he was doing and was staring intently at his eldest son's skillful operation.

Seeing that the other party's operation was flawless and that the flame was successfully lit, he nodded to himself and breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Old Nian also had some doubts. Where had this kid used gas welding before? His movements were incredibly skilled, and his face was completely calm, showing no sign of tension. It was as if he had done this many times before, as adept as disassembling a car?
In the end, Yu Laonian concluded that people in their branch of the family probably all had some talent for repairs. His eldest son was a bold man who dared to take care of anything and do anything, so it wasn't surprising.

Yu Dawei was still adjusting the flame. The reason why blast welding can crack iron plates is because of its terrifying blue flame temperature.

The flame in Yu Dawei's hand was just a normal pale yellow, but as Yu Dawei kept adjusting the knob, the amount of gas output began to change.

The full name of the air gun is air welding gun, and it is also commonly called a welding gun. It consists of two metal tubes, one for oxygen and one for acetylene. Each tube has a knob to control the amount of gas output.

Yu Dawei needs to control two knobs, one in front and one behind, to ensure that a sharp blue flame appears.

Sure enough, after a few seconds of adjustment, a tiny, sharp flame, about the size of a little finger and resembling a blue laser, appeared. It emitted no heat at all, and only when it touched metal could one feel the terrifying heat in the air.

Yu Dawei planned to first cut off the few pieces of scrap metal from the bucket, starting with the simpler parts, and then deal with some unsightly parts at the front of the vehicle.

As the flame from the air gun drew closer to the iron plate, the blue flame instantly turned red upon contact, and the iron plate was scorched red before being completely burned through.

Seeing that the results were good, Yu Dawei did not stop. He continued to cut, and in less than 30 minutes, all the auxiliary materials on the bucket were removed.

Seeing that his son was indeed very skilled at using the tools, Old Man Yu felt relieved and continued to carefully wipe the repair tools in his hands while humming a little tune.

(End of this chapter)