Gold 8n

I seen a gold 881 Ford on tractor classic fever with rare transmission yesterday that they said was very
rare and today I seen a gold 8n with a 12 speed transmission for sale. Would that tractor be rare and if so
what would it be worth in good condition. It is not restored but looked OK and they said it ran ok. Thanks
for the help.

No such machine, selectospeed gold demonstrator models didn't come out till late 50s and 8n ended in 52

To my knowledge there were never any Ford 8Ns that where painted gold from the factory. The "Gold" demonstrator program was for the 01 series tractors and even then it was mainly the SOS transmission tractors. The gold program was to show case the "new" features of the tractors.

As for the Ford 8N having a 12 speed transmission it has an over/direct/under/drive aftermarket gear box installed in front of the factory transmission. So it is unusual but Not rare. There are hundreds maybe even thousands of them still around.

(quoted from post at 07:08:58 05/22/16) I seen a gold 881 Ford on tractor classic fever with rare transmission yesterday that they said was very
rare and today I seen a gold 8n with a 12 speed transmission for sale. Would that tractor be rare and if so
what would it be worth in good condition. It is not restored but looked OK and they said it ran ok. Thanks
for the help.

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If you go over on the Ford forum here on YT you can get a much better answer than I can give. Ford and IH both had special painted "demo" tractors, the age of the 881 Fords were gold and Farmall IH were white. Neither company kept track of the serial numbers on the demo tractors IIRC and the were supposed to be repainted by the dealer to the correct colors when they were sold.

It's very common to find a "demo" that wasn't a demo. Can of paint and it's a demo. If you can prove it a demo is worth more money. Someone on the Ford board has the starting and ending serial numbers for the demos but that's the Demo's started "here" and ended "here" but only a few tractors between those numbers were actually "gold demo's" and we don't know which ones.

The tranny would be a "Select-o-Speed" or SOS. Generally the SOS tranny hurts the value rather then helps. There were not that rare but they are difficult to rebuild and parts are very hard to find so are generally undesirable.

Many people trying to sell something like that either are ignorant of what it is and the value or darn well know that it isn't all they claim and are only trying to jack up the price.

Here, as a working tractor with the SOS tranny it would be worth about 3500-4000 dollars. If you can prove that it is indeed a gold demo to a collector it would be worth much more.

Link to the Ford page: [/url]http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewforum.php?f=15 Rick

Opps, I missed the 8N part. The others are correct. The 8N ended production in 1952 BEFORE Ford painted any demo's gold.

As JD said the "rare tranny" in that case would be a "Sherman combo auxiliary tranny" that was an add on generally by the dealer. While they are not exactly common they are not rare either. An 8N, depending on location and condition, running, is worth anywhere from about 900 dollars to about 2500. The Sherman tranny might just drive that up to about 3500 but that better be on a darn nice tractor with new to near new tires. The gold pain hurts the value because Ford never painted those gold. For a collector the cost of a profession paint job could exceed the value of the tractor just making it right.

IMO if a person is trying to sell that tractor as a "rare gold demo with a rare transmission" they are trying to scam someone. But on the other hand it could be someone who "was told" what it is and really doesn't know.

Rick

A gold 881 is not all thaty rare, ya maybe a bit uncommon since the SOS transmission of the time had its problems so many either have been repaired or have been scrapped.
A gold 8N was something some one did just to be doing it or to make it look like something it wasn't. As for the 12 speed that is just a Sherman Aux combo transmission which could be ordered or install some time after it was new. Again only thing that would make it rare is the fact it was gold but that was not factory so not rare other then in maybe one person mind

Thanks for the info they were asking 2500 for it so that's probably a fair price think I will let someone else get that not a real good deal like I thought it may be. I just happened to see that 881 on TV yesterday thought I may have run across a good deal thanks again

There is no such thing as a rare Ford.
Production numbers were Way too high on all of them to be rare.
There are a couple of models such as a Very early 9n - - with aluminum hood or the Funk 8Ns with the Ford flat head V8 - the REAL Funk done by Funk Bros in KS - not the home spun jobs - that will fetch a pretty penny.