Any comments?

Every July 4th in my home town they have all sorts of stuff, including an antique tractor show. Some guys, friends and relatives of mine included, bring tractors that are so over-restored it's obvious all they do with them is keep them pretty for the next show.

Now, I have a '52 H Farmall with a hydraulic tilt bucket loader that I use most every day. It's totally healthy mechanically, but most of the paint is gone. I've thought about taking it to the tractor show and parking it next to all of these immaculate over-restored tractors with a sign, "1952 H Farmall. Used Every Day. Doesn't Stand Still Long Enough To Restore".

Wonder what kind of reaction I'd get?

One of the things I have learned on here is that tractor people covers a wider range that the term restored. Take her to a show if you can go a day with out working her, hit her with a garden hose to get "organic matter" off and be pround of her. You are going to get some looks and people will ask why she ain't painted. You won't need a sign.

Have fun!

Dave

Whereabout are ya'll from?

Sounds like an old neighbor lady we had once, nothing pleased her.

NOW that's a sign and a half

If I buy into, I'd have to go on to say that there hasn't been a true restoration of anything older than twenty-five years done in the last ten (numbers approximated). Those old paint bases and the tints that go into their formulation haven't been available for a long time. I could not, for example, go out and find the same turquoise and off-white paints that Pawpaw's '56 Olds was wearing when it left Detroit. I wouldn't call its restoration, otherwise historically accurate, and certainly not a customization.

Likewise, IH2150 is, to my eye, a lovely color to behold, but it's more orange than the IH50 originally applied to the letter series, and is no longer available thorugh CaseIH or CaseNewHolland. So one does one's best to replicate the color of IH50 and apply it in a thickness representative of what the old darling was wearing when it left Chicago. If it happens to be acrylic instead of alkyd?

Customization? My mind goes immediately to chrome stacks, locking chrome lug nuts, dingleballs on the light bars, and leopard-skin prints for the seat covers.

Not trying to pick a fight. From what I've read, I know we agree on a lot of other things. If we differ on this point, then we do. But using modern paints, in my book, does not rise to the level of customization, and does not take away from the quality of a restoration.

My two cents. YMMV. ;8^)

I did have a few things chromed, even though there was no chrome originally. Mostly just a few accents, nothing major.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Funny thing. Not one of them has ever had any of their work there to show me.

One difference is that the correct police rarely, if ever, have anything to say about the SuperC. They do, however, go right for the grade five bolt where there should have been a dot-head, and won't pass up remarking on the run in the paint on the inside of the back of one fan blade. All that tells me is that they're more intersested in tearing down the owner/restorer than the machine. They'll respect the work a machine does but look for any chance to bust a guy's chops after he's put 150 hours or more into restoring what was a dead machine headed for the torch.

Can you guess I don't have much time for them?

Again I say, take your hoss to the show. I think you'll be surprised at the positive interest it gets.

250 (or even more) is probably more accurate for actual wrench and painting time. And that isn't allowing for phone and driving time getting parts and tools, online time getting advice, the untold hours sitting and pondering how things have gone so far and what best to do tackle next, set-up and drying time between coats, and the (still ain't done) tinkering trying to get the old girl just right -- the most important part of any such job. The clock's still tickin'!

Don't think I've asked how you're making out with the crawler.