When do you decide to paint over original?

Got Farmall C that Im sure isnt the original cause , i think it got a paint job at dealers as part of a spring maintenance special. Should I leave it alone? Its not original as I think ,factory out the door once?
Some of these Farmalls look pretty good with original paint coated with linseed oil over paint and surface rust.

It's about as much a personal choice thing as functional. Basically the paint is to keep the metal from rusting. This pretty much only affects the sheetmetal. Linseed oil is a hardening oil, it's one of the ingredients in paint which makes the film and gloss. A thin coat of linseed oil isn't going to give much protection and also will yellow as it ages altering the color. You would be better off putting a clear urethane over the top.

Me, I have done complete paint jobs in the past. Where you sand blast the entire tractor, prime, paint, and then decal. Superb job, make it look like it came out of the factory door kind of thing. Haven't done one like that for a long time.

I don't know if I'll do another one. My deal is, I use my tractors. They don't just sit in the shed only to be taken out for a parade, tractor show, or occasional hay rack ride. So the factory quality look and paint job don't last long. And it's a lot of work to re-paint a tractor like I described above, and not be that way for very long (get scuffed up, faded, and what not).

A nice paint job use to add value to a tractor from the 30s and 40s, and
now 50s. But, ones from that era that I have seen sell at auction here lately, it don't seem to make much difference if it has nice paint or not. The market is down for those on that era. And the buyers for them, don't seem to care one way or the other. Maybe on a unit that is exceptionally original, complete, mechanically sound, and has that bidder on the crowd wanting that model in parade ready condition. But, that don't happen to often now. Especially since tractors from the 60s have moved into that SPOT LIGHT.

Linseed oil to save what you got? I don't do it. I kind of don't see the point. When it comes to a nice paint job, you either got one or you don't. In between is the same as you don't, in my opinion.

This 35AR will never be painted as long as I own it.

Never! My original 1942 Ford and 1930 John Deere.

I am the second owner of the 9n, built just before Ford switched to the steel-wheeled 2Ns. I'm not really a Deere guy, but I bought the JD GP to keep it from being sold to another guy who was going to ''restore'' it. Eventually, I sold it to another collector that specializes in unrestored, original John Deeres.

Original paint on a C - unless its in really good condition it doesn't matter. The number of rusty old C tractors is huge, the demand gets smaller every year. If you had one of the white demonstrators or an extremely low serial number there might be reason to pause. The white demonstrators are made even more rare by the fact many dealers painted them red to sell them. Paint it to your preference - In NE Kansas there are several K-State purple tractors and even a few combines.

They're only 'original' once.

Agree. Even if you will try this

working solutions for painting, is still not the same.

This post was edited by BillieHardy94 on 07/05/2022 at 11:14 am.