ford demonstrators

How many models were made and how many of each number. Saw a 971 at show.

Every model that was available with the SOS transmission was also available was a gold demonstrator.

I don't think there was ever a actual recorded number of how many where built.

Yeah! And if there ever was a record, it likely would have been destroyed in the fire that hit Ford some years back.

From many posts about them on here over many years one gets the impression that they were very plentiful at the time. In the neighborhood of one for pretty much every dealer. They also come up here frequently when someone comes across one. They frequently have just a little gold peaking through red.

From my records there were between 3,000-3,500 dealers at the time of the Gold 's. the plan was to have each dealer order at least one. The SOS was the item of the day so that was promoted and any series that offered SOS could be ordered as a gold, actually Gold's could be ordered non SOS but those in the initial run were likely all SOS. A large number of dealers refused to order one as the Gold Demonstrator Plan was to actually have the dealer drive it from farm to farm and demonstrate it by plowing along side the farmers Farmall or Deere. Most smaller dealers could not afford this and would not participate, in fact many larger dealers did not either and used the Gold strictly for a display item. Many unordered Golds were snapped up by bigger dealers as there were promotional pricing incentives involved. So far as records go Ford is a car company, the US Government requires their documents to be kept a max of 14 years and most were destroyed at or before that time. The fire at the Rotundra where some records were housed in the basement burned but records from 1959 Ford Tractor era would have been shredded long before that fire.

Hello Dylan. First a little clarity for you. ALL Gold Demos are Select-O-Speeds there are Absolutely NO four speed or five speeds built EVER. The only purpose of the Gold Paint was to stand out fron the regular red and gray tractors for the introduction of the new transmission. The color was a one year only Lincoln regular production paint color. They were all built in one run beginning the second week of Jan. 1959 the first serial was approximately 60692 and the last was before 71484. Anything with a lower or higher serial number is a fake. There were 2900 dealers in 1959 estimates were production of 3000 to 3200 tractors were built. Some dealers sold more than one ALL Dealers were required to purchased one weather they wanted to or not IT was not a choice. The most popular Golds are 871/881 and 971/981, second would be 671/681 and 771, the rarest would be Heavy Duty Industrials which I have been able to account for about two dozen. You will never see an Offset Gold Demo because they entered production later in 1959 model year. Thanks Tony