1968 Firestone Riding Mower

Could you post a picture? I buy a lot of old mowers.
My email is open
I won't ask where you are, cause someone thinks I'm creepy for doing so.
 
It is not worth very much. Perhaps......$200.00.... if you are fortunate enough to find someone who collects the ODDBALL marques. Back in the 50's and 60's, Firestone operated corporate stores that sold a wide variety of products. I can remember one of those stores where I live, quite vividly. I used to work for my father who ran his own business doing maintenance on service stations.... a phrase that no longer exists these days. Firestone partnered with Shell Oil and installed a Firestone store as part of the Shell Service Station. The experiment failed. Firestone also had "stand alone" stores that were franchised.

Sorry to digress.

It was not unusual for companies such as Firestone to go to MTD, a company that did a lot of "private branding" of lawn tractors; and end up with a slightly customized MTD lawn tractor bearing the name and colours of choice for a company such as Firestone. What you have is a common MTD lawn tractor with the Firestone corporate branding. These were a low end, low quality product that MTD was well-known to crank out in order to meet a price point. In one sense, the Firestone LT is "rare" but only on the basis that not many were made, not many were sold and most ended up in the scrap yard where they belonged, alongside almost all the other junk created by MTD. If anything, I would call the tractor you have a "novelty" item that would be a conversation piece to most collectors of obscure brands. If the one you have is in good shape cosmetically, then you have a much better chance of finding a buyer because it will be considered a "survivor" model that can be cleaned up, tuned up and brought back to life with a minimum of cash input. Good luck with your search for a buyer.
 
(quoted from post at 15:35:13 04/25/15) Could you post a picture? I buy a lot of old mowers.
My email is open
I won't ask where you are, cause someone thinks I'm creepy for doing so.
mvphoto19864.jpg


mvphoto19865.jpg


mvphoto19866.jpg
 

Thanks for the input Tom! Cool to hear the history behind it, a little disappointed it's not worth much but we bought it more for our son, his first tractor ;)he loves it!
 

Thanks for the input Tom! Cool to hear the history behind it, a little disappointed it's not worth much but we bought it more for our son, his first tractor ;)he loves it!
 
The photos are surprising. Someone has spent a lot of time as well as some money to refurbish this tractor. The irony here is that from a collector point of view, it is now worth less than if it had remained
untouched. The original paint is now gone, as are the original decals.

However, value is not always decided by what a tractor will bring in hard cash. As Butch noted, your son has placed his own value on this tractor and the things I speak about mean nothing to him. And
nor should they mean anything to you or your husband. What matters most here is the relationship your son is having with this tractor and if his father is deeply involved, then what is happening are
memories that your son will cherish for the rest of his life.

No matter what... this will always be his first tractor of which he is very proud, judging by the photos. There are some things in life that you just cannot put a price on and this is one of them.
 
Thanks for the input, you and Butch are absolutely right! It's not going anywhere, we were just curious ;) Bub loves his tractor, and more so the time he's spent with his dad working on it!
 
(quoted from post at 06:18:37 04/26/15) Thanks for the input, you and Butch are absolutely right! It's not going anywhere, we were just curious ;) Bub loves his tractor, and more so the time he's spent with his dad working on it!
do you know what stickers one on it and if the color is right
 
Presumably, Firestone sold several styles of push mowers and riders for a number of years. Very little seems to be known about them and photos are almost non-existent. Whomever it was that decided
to refurbish the tractor you have, made a huge mistake by not photographing every aspect of it, measuring out the decals themselves and the location of the decals. He also erred in not having the original
paint colour matched by a computer.

If the entire tractor was fully dismantled, media blasted and then re-painted.... the paint colour is likely lost forever. However, if that person just spray painted the tractor while it was still assembled, then
the original paint colour or colours may still be hiding in areas that the assembly conceals. In other words, you would have to dismantle the tractor yourself to inspect all those hidden areas to see if
original paint still exists. Unfortunately, that does not help you any with the decal issue.

MTD is very much in business today. They are the company behind many of the top brands from the 50's and 60's that went bust back then and the ashes were bought up by MTD in order to capitalize on
the reputations those companies had for turning out a quality product. Cub Cadet, Bolens, White and Troy-built are all names owned by MTD today.

MTD or Modern Tool and Die have a number of websites. I do not know if they have kept an archive of all the tractors and other equipment that left their factory under the private branding program. No
harm in asking though.
 
You might try contacting this person.

Fred Archer, "Engines of Yesteryear"
P.O. Box 96, Crescent, IA 51526, Museum - 202 Riordon, 1 Block E. of hwy. 183
Phone: (712)545-3791

Fred runs a museum for some of the more obscure brands. Perhaps he also collects sales literature as well. Worth a shot.
 
It looks an awful lot like the one we had when I was
younger. I have tried for years to figure out what it
was - now it all fits. Ours had a 7 horse Briggs
engine in it and a two blade deck. It had a three
speed transmission. The most destinctive thing was
that the steering wheel was notched out so the
hood would open. Here's a pic of ours.

<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto19980.jpg"/>
 

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