Good topic!
I can appreciate the work that goes into maintaining, overhauling and restoring a tractor, especially if somebody does it himself as opposed to farming out all the work, and am of a mind with JimN.
By way of example, I have my SuperC. I did a motor job, a brake job and overhauled the Touch Control. Added a flip-up seat bracket, front saddle weights, and an after market three-point that operates off the lift arms. Replaced the seat pan, rear rims, the missing battery box, throttle quadrant and a few other odds and ends. All new rubber. Some of the newer parts are freshly painted with a rattle can, but for the most part she goes to work and to shows with most of her original faded paint, a little rust and a little oil, grease and grime. It draws the folks who have worked tractors, if only as kids on their grandparent's farm or as full-time farmers. Folks coming by get interested in things like the front saddle weights (I've turned down some pretty good offers for those!) and have all sorts of questions about how things work. One fella who had a SuperC of his own got all excited at seeing a Touch Control without a remote.
Then there's my BN. My great-grandfather bought it new in '47 and taught me to drive on it. It got away from the family for a few years and was left to sit in a field. It was a disaster when I got it back.
For myself and for the uncle who grew up on it (and tracked it down for me), I did the best and prettiest job I could on it with the knowledge and skills that I have, picking up and improving some of both along the way. Completely dismantled. Motor job, new bearings and seals from stem to stern, rotted parts replaced with originals where possible but some reproduction goods, as well . . . Parts painted and reassembled, wrench marks touched up. I bought way too expensive a paint, especially considering it was the the first job where I ever shot color from a gun -- I'd primed before but never put a finish on until this one, but I wanted this one to look nice.
She purrs and she's shiny. And she draws the correct police! Now I like to put square heads back where square heads broke off, but I'm not one to chase and pay for dot-heads. The geezers will pick me up on that, and a couple of marked Grade 5 hex-heads where the originals weren't marked for grade. My usual response to them is to show them to the two bent nails that PawPaw put back in the place of cotter pins -- I put them right back where he had them. If they look and find the occasional run in the paint that I didn't wet-sand and polich out, I apologize and ask if they're going to be back with their tractors soon, as I'd love to see what they have done. It's odd, none of those folks have ever had anyting of their own at the show for me to go look at. About the worst was a show Fawteen and I went to a couple years ago. A vanload of geezers showed up, called themselves something like the "East Bumflick Hose and Ladder Company", even wore matching khaki trousers and black polo shirts made up with their logo. They were hosers alright, and spent all of a Saturday wandering around like Statler and Waldorf ho-hoing and tearing apart everything on the lot.
I have no time for those guys or their ilk. I have a lot of appreciation for anybody who brings out tractors like either of mine, who did the work themselves. When I look at other tractors, I'm looking as much to learn as anything. How are those Dzus fasteners anchored and how do they turn? I needed to fab up a new guide bracket for the starter rod, so I've looked at others to figure out what I needed.
We can discuss, argue or disagree about whether a good mechanical overhaul and a good paint job qualify as a restoration. It's a good discussion. The important part to me is the satisfaction to be had in working on these old girls, and being satisfied with the job I've done. The level and degree of that satisfaction is a little different for everyone, and I have little use for anyone that will tear down some one else's hard work. It's pretty thoughtless and heedless in my mind to attack the pride somebody takes in their work, and that's about all those folks are doing.
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