GT rebuild: Sears ST/16

I'm veering off my normal path here with a non-IT posting.  I've recently gotten into rebuilding garden tractors, and my latest project is a 1973 Sears ST/16. I bought it from a guy down towards the southern end of the state and it came without a mowing deck but with a front blade, rear blade, a single bottom moldboard plow and a disc.
These units were built tough before built tough was a trademark. It originally came with a Tecumseh OH160 16hp overhead valve, single cylinder engine. And a 3 forward and 1 rear speed geared transmission.

Here it is at the beginning. Rusty and ugly.

I have taken the hood, grill and fenders off and repainted them all. The white I used was IH white, the yellow was New Caterpillar yellow. This hog came with heavy wheel weights and a body weight that I sold the front blade which was for a John Deere 200 series.

Engine wise is smoked like a freight-train.. lots of blow by. So with the ring kits being upwards of $60 I found a replacement engine for $75 (which gives me a lot of spare engine parts) which ended up being an OH140 14hp Tecumseh.  Same exact setup only with a smaller piston.

Other existing issues included a leaky gas tank, frozen up carb, old fuel lines, no fuel filter or pump, the transmission fluid was horribly old, left front tire has holes and the muffler was rotten.

I post this now because I'm almost at the end of this rebuild.. I'll follow it up with an after pic once fully completed.