Lost Has Been Found

To recap the old gorey story:

In 1983 I went broke and had to sell out. The thing that bothered me the most was the loss of that sweet two-year-old Gleaner F2 combine. That was one, nice Cadillac machine!

As you'll remember, a month ago while driving by the dealer's lot I spied the corn head, just knew it was my old one. Checked and sure enough it was the same old bear I had bought years ago when it was brand, spankin' new.

Did the only thing sensible; bought it back again. :>)

I then got to snoopin' around and found what really looked to be the grain table off of the same machine. Went in, asked the office lady to look the serial number up. Yep, sure enough, that's it.

You guessed it. Didn't have a choice. I had to buy it back again also.

Prior owner had told me that the combine was really, really in rough shape when he traded it in, so I figured that they had probably just scraped the old devil. :>(

Then, I got to talking to my friend who owns the dealership. He said the old gal just wasn't worth fixin' up again; would have taken at least $5500 worth of repairs. Someone down in Ainsworth had needed an engine so he just sold the engine off of 'er and scrapped the combine.

However, what's left of it is setting out back of one of his buildings!!!! He'll make me a very reasonable deal on what's left just to be rid of it.

Poor old thing has a side window broken out of the cab, the feeder house is setting askewed for some reason, fingers are all gone from the thresher beater and the engine/hood/compressor is all gone.

One drive tire doesn't match and one rear wheel looks to have been replaced at one time or another. The walkers are completely gone; nothin' there but the crankshafts. Some of the weights are missing, however, I could sure see where I had welded on that weight bracket all those many years ago.

Gotta tell ya boys, when I crawled up into that cab, the old sister sure looked like a prom queen to me. Darned 2-way radio is still hanging in it right where I had mounted it. The chrome hydro handle as I remembered, the nice, wide ladder with the up-lock latch, all the gauges, etc. etc. Both hour meters have been around the horn at least once. The mouse-chewed manual is laying on the floor.

Think I'll run in there tomorrow and see what it will take to bring her back home again, although I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna do with it.

Maybe build a F-F2 Cross-bred? :>)

Allan

Bless their hearts in there. They are so darned nice to me.

Allan

I just posted "The Rest of the Story" over on that forum. This ordeal is too darned funny for publication. :>)

Allan

Quote "Think I'll run in there tomorrow and see what it will take to bring her back home again, although I have absolutely no idea what I'm gonna do with it."

Your gonna fix it up and use it ain't ya.

We know you will.

Good luck and have fun.(:~})

Gary

Go drag your old F2 home. It ain't gonna cost ya much to "get" it and I know it's worth more than money to you anyway.
It's the scrounging for two or three more this winter that'll kill ya cause I know you won't want to strip the one you have as a donor....
We're all crazy anyway, but so long as we can afford to have fun, who cares.

Rod

Sounds to me like you found your next project. No need to wonder what to do with yourself this winter.

John

You're not being a "butt" at all; you're just being level headed. Sure wish I could be that way. :>)

Allan

Glenn

Good luck and congrats on the find.

Dave

R.J.

Well....hmmm, digging in my memory from way back....I'll tell you what I recall beyond what I already said....it had buckets up front, but a fold down arm rest between the seats. It was indeed a push button automatic....all the gauges and buttons lit up an eerie green color. The dash was covered with a glass dome and the instruments clustered around it in a semi circle. The radio was a tube job. The center of the steering wheel has a big 300 in it. The front seats were electric as were the windows. I never got to to spend much time in the back seat..upright or horizontal (hehe). But the car and interior was all black. I vividly recall the engine...it didn't have the 405 hp version with the staggered carbs out on the fender wells....they were back to back and covered with gold painted oval air cleaners. There was no air conditioning. The power steering took the feel out of the road. The headliner as I recall was gray and had chrome strips across it. There was a red, white and blue 300 emblem on the grill. It did not have a posi trac rear and you could smoke the right weenie FOREVERRRRR RRR! And it'd also bark the tires at every shift. I vividly recall getting to drive it one day and the mufflers were obviously rusty.....I kicked the twin 4's and promptly blew the bottoms out of both mufflers! It sounded good to a kid of 17...until I got home.I didn't get to drive it for a long time after that! It was a sled on launch.....lots of smoke and screaming MoPar under the hood, but not much forward progression! But once cruising along it was a handful for most anything on the road in the late 60's-early 70's to take.