The 500 Orchard's done

rrlund

Well-known Member
Here's the after and before pictures of the Oliver 500 Orchard,serial number 3. We put the decals on yesterday. It's got some faults,but I guess the next owner will have to do it better after I'm dead and gone if it's not good enough for them.
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Randy that turned out really nice! The fenders look sharp and after restoring a couple of sets of those over the years I know how much time it takes to make them look good. That tractor looks like it belongs in a Florida Orange grove pulling a offset disk.
 
Looks great. I can relate to "the next owner can fix my faults: statement. How does one get on that tractor? Looks like a high very carefully placed foot, somewhere, just not sure where. lol gobble
 
It's almost as hard as a John Deere MT. LOL

You have to step on the drag link then twist around on the balls of your feet a few times.
 
I had to fab one. One fender had been hooked on something and was bent and torn. The skirt was gone out of that one. The other one was welded in. I reworked it so I can take it off to get to the tires. I put those on with slotted pan head bolts and star washers.
 
Now you just have to truck it up to Traverse and run it through some cherry trees to give it "patina". You are gonna make some jealous people at Oakley if you decide to take it.
 
Looks awesome!
I went by your place this afternoon. Apparently I should have stopped!
Are you taking it to Oakley/Blanchard/Buckley?
 
We'll have both of them in McBride July 27th and 28th,then hopefully Oakley because they're featuring foreign built tractors,then Blanchard because they're featuring orchard tractors.
 
I got it in November. I wouldn't have bet ten cents that I'd have had it done a year from now. It was a lot easier with this one since I've already done one 500.
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Hope you take it to Oakley, gonna try to get there this year. Great job, you're a lot better painter than I will ever be.
 
I'm having a hard time telling which are the before and which ones are the after pictures...

Have you shown them to the previous owner, they may want to buy it back!
 
Quit farming and go into restoration full time! At least then the rain won't worry you. Looks super! Ben
 
Thanks everybody. I'm just glad it's done. Now I can sit down while everybody else looks at it. lol
 
Really nice job, Randy. Doesn't that Clover White seem to have a lot more green in it than your other Olivers? Certainly more than on my 550.
 
Southwest Michigan yes. I got it near Hartford. That's where the Friday component orchard tractors were built. We assume they were the ones who did the conversion. The fenders were red on the inside like the Friday tractors were.
 
It looks about like the Clover White on my other 500,my 1365 and 1550. They were all painted with AGCO paint. There wasn't any green tint to the originals. It was more of a cream color. One more reason to be pretty sure this was one of the ones mocked up and sent over in 59 for testing. Looks like they went with the Oliver green,but used what they had on hand for the white. When I started sanding,they were DB yellow under the white.
 

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