Farmall Tractor Seat

I have a 1948 Farmall Super A and I was wondering what the original material on the tractor seat, if it was vinyl or canvas. Thank you

silver Canvas


Andrew

Canvas, but it was black.
Picture from the Wisconsin Historical Society McCormick Collection:

(quoted from post at 16:09:04 12/31/09) Canvas, but it was black.
Picture from the Wisconsin Historical Society McCormick Collection:

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Jim:
I know this is a contriversial subject, but when I was a boy and these tractors were new (1950-1953) I never saw a canvas seat that wasn't silver. In fact, I never saw a black one back then.
mike

I have the same problem. There are things from 55 or 60 years ago that weren't quite the way I remember them either. That is why I posted a picture.

And the question was 1948.

Jim, I'm wondering if there was some kind of a protective coating over the seats during shipment to the dealers by railway flat cars? I see the black seats on those tractors leaving the plant but I drove almost every new Farmall around this part of Missouri from the late 1940's through the end of letter series production and never saw anything except silver. All three of my grandfathers were silver and I spent many hours on his tractors. Just a thought, Hal.

Have been browsing through tractor pictures on Wisconsin Historical Society site and the early tractors definitely had dark color seats but a 1951 SC and a 100 definitely had light Grey or White seats. Found picture of genuine experimental H TA (not SH) also White demonstater SA it had a lot of red showing lights, seat, wheels and some other places.

I wondered about the covering thing too. For one thing, it seems likely the seat pans were painted after the padding was crimped on. If so, there is llikely to be some masking type covering that was on the seat and would still be pinched in the crimp. I have thought about prying one open enough to see what is still in the crimp. (Darrell Darst could probably answer that.) If the black covering was crimped in masking, it should be showing some red on it. If on the other hand some protective covering was added after painting, would it stop at the edge of the pad or wrap around the edge? It appears to stop right at the edge of the padding. All in all, I'm still inclined to think we are seeing the actual seat rather than a covering in this picture.

Here are 3 more pictures from WHS to add to the mix:

The first, based on the barn in the background, appears to have been taken on an IH exec's farm. Seat is unlikely to have a shipping cover there and it is black. An oddity is red rims on the same tractor.

The other two are listed as taken the following year. I don't know where the first was taken, but it had a black seat and silver rims. The other one clearly has a silver seat. That indicates that silver seats were used shortly after 1948.

The only ones I got to sit on were STEEL!

(quoted from post at 17:42:39 12/31/09) I have the same problem. There are things from 55 or 60 years ago that weren't quite the way I remember them either. That is why I posted a picture.

And the question was 1948.

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1948 may be a good point. But, as for my memory, I damn sure remember silver seats.

I restored a 1948 SA for a friend about ten years ago and it definitely came with a black seat. There was plenty of original canvas, particularly under the crimp in the pan, where the color could be seen. See the link. At the time I researched the whole black seat topic including talking to the people at the archives in Madison and if memory serves, there was a very brief period of time that IH used the black. Can't remember why.
Untitled URL Link

Jim, great pictures. Do you know the model number of the IHC flare box wagon shown in the first two photos? I would really like to find a very nice one but those few I have seen had taller sides then the one shown in the pictures. Maybe the downward photo angle makes them appear as shorter though. Thanks for any info you might be able to provide and Happy New Year, Hal.

Randy, are you doing a complete restoration? The reason I ask is the '48 SA that I worked on had very distinctive hood decals that I could not find anywhere. I had to go to a truck lettering outfit with the original hood and they custom made some die cut decals for me with the correct lettering. The part that was not correct in the commercially available ones was the black lettering below the large "Farmall".

IH didn't always put model numbers on things. That seems to be the situation on the wagon. Looking at the late-40's catalog, they only have a couple running gears. One was designed for heavy use, with tapered roller bearings, brakes and the whole bit. It was simply called a "Tractor-Trailer". The other has straight roller bearings, no brakes, could be on steel or rubber. It is called an "All-Purpose Farm Truck". The one in the upper picture looks like it could be one of these. Note that the upper one is a 4-wheel wagon but the lower appears to be a 2-wheel trailer.

The flare boxes (in both pictures) look like the one in the catalog. It is listed as an "All Steel Grain Box". The dimensions are listed: 10'6" long, 36" deep, 54" wide top, 38" wide bottom and 100 bushels or 5,000 pounds.

(quoted from post at 07:52:38 01/01/10) Jim, great pictures. Do you know the model number of the IHC flare box wagon shown in the first two photos? I would really like to find a very nice one but those few I have seen had taller sides then the one shown in the pictures. Maybe the downward photo angle makes them appear as shorter though. Thanks for any info you might be able to provide and Happy New Year, Hal.

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If you are located in SE/SC Wisconsin or NE/NC Illinois I know of some locally. They aren't beautiful, but they are pretty good compared to most. These things didn't seem to survive very well.

I forgot: If the OP doesn't mind a hijack, was the same true on all letter series of just "the little ones?"

Thanks Jim for the information. I appreciate you taking the time to share from the vast resources you have available. Thanks again, Hal.

Thanks for your reply along with Jim's. I live in south central Missouri and my email is open. Please send me an email with contact information as I will probably venture out your way once the winter wonderland you live in gives way to spring. Thanks again, Hal.