Painting A Farmall

Sorry.

I don't know what state your tractor is in before putting new paint on, or what you're using for paint, which is why I hesitate.

I'd make sure you've got at least one good solid coat of red on the metal before painting it with the harness on. You'll hear lots of discussion about whether IH used a primer. Whether it was a primer proper or just a coat of IH red, I don't suspect they'd have taken the chance of letting a tractor come off the line with bare metal where a harness laid too close to the metal to get paint under it.

Don't know how many coats you're planning on or what kind of drying time you have between coats with the paint you'll use. Assuming more than one coat -- after the first complete coat, I'd give it a chance to set up some, run and clamp down the harness, then finish painting.

Just remember to mask off the contacts (wire ends, studs on the VR or relay) before painting.

I'm for red alternators and starters, and distributor housings, but I do like the look of clean belts, hoses and harnesses. In the case of my latest masterpiece ;8^) the radiator also went on all black after I was done shooting red. My relay cap is done in black lacquer and the base it's on in clear lacquer. On the other hand, I went out of my way to find Agriservices' harness, for example, because of the more authentic cloth loom, mostly a reflection of my appreciation of how well these and other tractors ran with what would now be seen as primitive technology and materials. Those kinds of points I appreciate and value.

Myself, I have little time for the correct police, and refuse to be join their ranks. If Don and I were to park next to each other at a show, I have an idea we'd talk and take note of how and perhaps why we approached things differently, and then go get a hot dog and root beer together. Ideally, we would leave the correct police fussing and going over our machines to tut-tut and guffaw when they found my radiator with no red overspray, or the Grade 5 bolt where they think there ought to be a dot-head.

Had a bunch of them swarm through a show I went to this summer, trucks and tractors. They were a club. Had matching polo shirts with logos over the heart and their individual initials embroidered on the sleeves. There were some beautiful restorations there, and all they did was walk around and look for something wrong with each one of them. Got behind two of them in the lunch line, and they sounded like Statler and Waldorf, the two tuxedoed Muppets in the balcony. Needless to say, none of them had anything to exhibit so that we might see how they did things. I think they came up together in a rented mini-bus.

Even authenticity can be subjective. It depends on what you want your tractor to represent. In my case, the "masterpiece" is the BN my great-grandfather bought new in '47. I've put more money into the restoration of that tractor than I would into any other. But that nail that he bent and used to replace the cotter pin holding the clevis pin from the governor linkage to the carb? I cleaned it up, phosphated it to stop the rust, and put it right back where I found it. Same with the old bent up gate hinges he used to hold his swinging drawbar in place.

Don, at some point it does become a matter of taste. I suspect everyone here appreciates the spirit of your questions and appreciates what you are trying to do. I know I do. Keep going and do it as you think best. That's what you'll be happy with and if you've gotten this far, you'll have every good reason to be proud of your work.

Me? I'll be looking forward to PICTURES!!!