paint scheme

As far as I know, all Bs (Cs too) had front wheels that were orange all over. What little original paint is left on the front wheels of my '42 AC-B confirms they were all orange. I have never heard anyone suggest that any B ever came from the factory with silver on the outer portion of the front wheels (rims - on the few two piece fronts w/cast centers). I have seen some resto pictures with fronts having silver outers but believe that is the preference of the owner only. In fact, the vast majority of the earlier Bs had orange rear rims also - no silver anywhere. BTW, there were two different shades of persian orange used by AC. All Bs used the early version, sometimes referred to as persian orange #1 (formula #60080 in PPG). In the end it's whatever you prefer since it's your tractor.

Rod

I suppose the purist collectors or those who want tractors for purely show purposes would find "incorrect colors" to be a reduction in value - or at least a bargaining point. They would be easy enough to repaint, although matching other existing paint could be an issue. Anyway, I'm not a good one to ask since I'm not into restorations at all, at least not in the usual sense. I readily make changes from original to my two tractors that I think benefits me without regard to resale value. I also believe that value is determined by a willing buyer dealing with a willing seller. If your tractor is one that I wanted and you were selling, it wouldn't be a consideration for me (and wouldn't detract from whatever price I was willing to pay) if the wheels were painted purple or any other color - I'd probably wind up repainting them anyway if I didn't like it. I would be much more concerned with running functionality and whether it had implements with it, especially an AC-B where the implements are typically proprietary, hard to find or far, far away and, for the most part, don't fit anything else (except probably a C). A B w/o working implements is little more than a specialized tow vehicle with limited uses or a parade queen, neither of which interests me. One example of something on the early Bs that would certainly devalue them for me, but not originalist collectors, would be the presence of hand brakes. But that's just my take on it from a user standpoint.

Rod