What do you think about this old 1958 Cat. 12 8t Roadgrader?

A scrapper I know has this old Caterpiller 12 8t roadgrader that he was just going to drive into the scrap yard to be crushed. It seems a shame for it to be just scrapped out so I have considered buying it. This is what the owner told me about the grader. He said that everything works. It runs and drives good. Both the pony motor and the 6 cylinder deisel dry sleeve engine run but he wasnt sure it they had ever been rebuilt or not. He did say that the pony motor might need some work on the carb. He put a new exaust manifolt on it and a chrome pipe. It has the hydraulic clutch and has about 8000 hours. He said that it is new enough for a starter as it has a spot for it if someone wanted to install one. The current owner has had it since about 1998 and he said that is was a county grader. The tires on the right rear are almost new and the ones on the left rear hold air and that goes for the front tires two. The cab has all new glass thoroughout as well.
My question is what is this worth?
I think it would be cool to own this, but if I do buy it and cant find a use for it, what would I be able to sell it for?

Thanks for your imput!
From Denton, Nebraska.
Andrew Kean.

Worth about the same $3,500 that was discussed on the yesterday's tractor site.

If you don't have a use for it, you had better just like looking at it😆

A few words of warning, pony carb needs work is a euphimism for pony may be shot. But they're right, you can easily add an electric starter for less than the cost of a magneto or carburetor (from CAT anyway) for the pony. On the other hand, a good cleaning and some adjustment and you are likely to have it running.

Things to check carefully are freeze damage to pony motor water jacket and main engine as well as lower radiator tank. If it's holding coolant now, you're probably all set. Check oil dipstick for signs of water and drain a bit of the engine oil into a cup to check for water and metal if you really want to know for sure.

Hydraulic clutch does not exist, it's an oil cooled and lubricated clutch. Very reliable and long lasting. It uses the engine lubricating oil supply and a duplex pump to circulate oil through the clutch and back to the engine.

Engine is a D318 with wet sleeves, not dry. You can overhaul if necessary. An oil pump might be the hardest thing to find since it's a special pump not used on very many of the thousands of other D318's that were produced between 1948 and approximately 1958. On the other hand, CAT oil pumps are a high volume/low pressure design, so they tend to be able to move plenty of oil unless they have ingested large bits of iron or some such. (I somehow have had 2 graders which have had exactly that happen...........Freaky!)

Brakes are frequently a problem area, on the other hand, you have a 12' wide "brake" hanging under the center of the machine. If you need to repair, the cylinders etc are frequently a standard Bendix or other part, so kits etc aren't so hard to come by.

The blade controls on these old machines can sometimes be worn so that they are hard to use, but with a little ingenuity, you can usually find a way to use them as is, or fix them up right if you want. A full set of knobs for the levers and a good pair of gloves will help your hands and wrists.

How tight are all the joints in the moldboard suspension etc? It'll make a difference in the quality of the finished surface you can produce. There are sometimes still shims in the ball joints that can be removed to tighten things up if they're slack.

One thing to check if you get it is that the shear pin in the driveline of the blade control box has not been replaced with a bolt. That emergency fix can cost a lot of time and money if something is destroyed when the pin can't shear. Look in the small cover on the vertical part of the housing above the cab floor and ensure that there's a pin in the shear flanges. There is usually a place for a spare pin to be stored there as well.