Tribute to hard work

I'm restoring a 52 SM my Father-In-Law purchased used sometime in the mid to late 50's. The SM was his primary workhorse until he bought a Case 830 Comfort King in the 60's. My FIL came from hard working frugal German ancestors and being a young man in the "dirty 30's" only reinforced his save and use, re-use everything work ethic. I never thought to ask him about the event or events that created the need to repair and reinforce the drawbar on his SM. Wish I had.

At any rate, I'm thinking I will reuse the horseshoe on the restored tractor as a tribute to the long hours both he and this tractor put in back in the 50's. I might even keep the homemade hitch pins in it too.
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With all the obsession to replace all the "not so
perfact" stuff with "factory perfect",I applaud you
for saveing it to honor Grandpa!Every
blemish/'injury' tells a story about him.'Tribute to
Grandpa' Good job!!
 
The drawbars on the 2 Ms on the farm when I was a kid both had an extra welded on the bottom of the swinging part and the u part. The 53 Super M that I've been slowly patching up had a 1/2inch x 3 in. piece welded on the swinging part like a inverted dorsal fin witch I torched off and ground smooth, I like them like they came from the factory
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I can see it several ways, and they are all "right" and beautiful in the eye of the owner.

If a tractor has personal history, you may as well honor the scars that contributed to it's survival. If your thing is "restoring", by all means go back to original. If you have something you need to improve to make it work for you, it's no different than what the factory likely would have done to make a better machine from what you currently have - that's why they keep coming out with new models. If you can take something from 1950 and make it work just as well (or better) than something new that won't last half as long, by all means, have at it. In the later case, it's really neat to see what some are doing, such as David G's MH44 with electronic fuel injection, or the fellow who put a diesel on a Farmall A.

Whoa Nellie, yours is every bit as pretty in a historically functional way, as gab's is in new clothes, and I like 'em both. :)
 
The little things like that give a tractor "personality". If fixed to or better than new the machine loses some of its story of how it got to now and becomes just another tractor. Good luck on the project.
 
Seeing the sucker for pins makes me laugh. I guess I'm not
the only one with a few of those.

Was the roller swinging attachment an option? I have a roller
on my 50 but just a metal bracket over the bar on my 49.
 
That is the one thing I prefer about this "hobby" over classic cars shows, bikes,hot rods etc.
Either way you decide to go, there is always a reason and always a good story behind each one. There in lies the attraction of shows for me, getting to converse with owner and each tale, as no two ever seem the same.
I have seen show stopping show tractors that looked like they were drug up from a creek bed in the beginning, to 80 year old original paint on a workhorse that had been very well taken care of it's entire life. The good thing is, there is no right or wrong, anything in between is righteous. The sharing of how it came about gives more value than any amount of money put into or taken out of a project.
The 'correct police" have their favorites, not everyone can mortgage the house to afford to complete a tractor the way everyone else wants it, but most find, once you start, why go half way. I like em all.
 
Not that what I think matters but here it is, a
farmall M or SM are both good tractors but
regardless of how much money you put in making it
brand new it will never be worth the memories you
destroy making these old farmalls like New I prefer
a little farmer engineering myself it usually adds
useability to it, much more valuable to me.
 
well i see that us e.tex oil field patch people arnt the only ones to use suckerrods for pins that all we ever used
 

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