This Oliver OC-3 was manufactured in 1956, its first owner was a company called Krangede AB, who purchased the machine to work on the construction of a hydro electricity plant in a place called Storfinnforsen. Ulf bought the machine from a person who had worked at the powerplant most of his working life, and at first he was very reluctant to let the Oliver go but eventually after an incredible 5 years of trying to persuade him to sell, they finally got their machine and were able to take it home from where it had been lying, unused and unloved for many years. 
The machine was “sold as seen” and although it had been standing out in all weathers for many years, the previous owner said that he had turned the engine over once a year using large pliers on the crankshaft pulley, so it should fire up ok. 
However they soon found out that the pin holding the pulley on the crankshaft had broken, so in actual fact all it was doing was rotating the pulley and not the engine, which as it turned out was in a pretty poor state. Luckily there was also a spare engine included in the sales deal which had a broken exhaust valve, so they set to work to repair that engine before replacing the seized one in the tractor. 
According to Ulf, the rest of the rebuild was pretty straightforward, with some sandblasting, welding painting, and the fitment of some new parts like gauges and brake bands. During my visit to the MaskinExpo show the little Oliver, now back to her former glory, was fired up for a short while in front of a fascinated audience. 
On the Saturday when they were leaving the showground the Scania and trailer that they use to move the machine couldn’t get any traction on the wet grass so the little dozer was put to good use pulling the stricken lorry across the field to the roadway. Ulf commented, “it looked really funny seeing that tiny little crawler pulling that big truck around” 
The Digger Blog would like to thank Ulf for sharing his story and pictures with us here, and remember if you have an old machine that you have restored too, we would love to hear about it.
