TO-20 with Stainless Steel Grille?

Tom Bowman · Feb 9, 2013

I went to a farm auction today with a 1949 TO-20.

It looked like the tractor had been professionally repainted, with shiny red hood and fenders, but the grille was unpainted, and looked like stainless steel - was that original, or were aftermarket grilles stainless steel at some point? (The sheet metal was perfect - almost TOO perfect.)

2tractors · Feb 9, 2013

Someone may have gone overboard with chrome plating, can't say I ever saw a ss one.

Tony in Mass. · Feb 9, 2013

Years ago at a little show in the northcountry, I saw what was billed as '1939 Ford-Ferguson'... and it had a horizontal slat -aluminum? Grill. I remember taking a picture, but this was long before digital cameras.... Not the typical Ford one. I dunno....

trac · Feb 10, 2013

fords first 9n came out with that grill About 750 or so came out with aluminum hood and grills then went to the steel hoods ending out the year then in 1940 they changed grill design to the vertical look. I would think clear coating it would make it look like stainless steel.

Tom Bowman · Feb 10, 2013

I hadn"t thought about clear-coating - that was probably it.

I"ve never seen a new grille before, but a pristine, new one, clear-coated, would probably look like stainless, especially to someone (like me) who didn"t know what he was looking at.

The red paint job, with the "stainless" grille, makes sense now: these folks had a bunch of Massey-Ferguson tractors (a 65, 2 135s, a 231, etc.), and the TO-20 was probably painted to match the rest of the fleet.

TO-20 with Stainless Steel Grille?

Tom Bowman

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2tractors

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Tony in Mass.

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trac

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Tom Bowman

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