 Worth reading... leading to a question. So you are 14 and your friend is 15... and wanting another make and model to restore. Well, I have something up my sleeve which I am getting ready to launch. You see, I get a few e-mails now and then and watch the forum page every day and ever so often and happening more, there are people in a quandry as to what is the best make and model to restore. Old iron good for restoration projects is getting harder and more costly to come by. Parts are getting harder to find (original, that is). More people looking for implements now to restore and pull in parades behind their finished jobs. Very young people, people in wheel chairs, kids in 4-H, youths, teens, 20-30-40-50-60-70 & 80+ year olds all want in on this very rewarding hobby. I have been prairie-rustoleum-gold-surface-mining for going on 12 years, I find I am spending more time in the junk piles looking for parts and implements. I keep finding all sorts of old iron... and wood. It come by mere chance that I happed one day to find something that really got me going and has now become a passion and I am getting it all ready to launch. But first I need input from all ages, boys, girls, ladies, lads, women and gentleman that honour this hobby tradition and preservation of our pioneer heritage. You see I came by a shop the other day and there was a little tractor, one like I never seen before. Long story short, it was made from a whole array of miscellaneous parts and pieces from all makes and models... it looks like a Case. Well boys, the owner told me he and some freinds were cleaning out the shop one day and one asked the owner what he was going to do with this old junk? The owner siad "scrap it, toss it, I don't know". Another fellow mused and said, lets make a tractor... six hours later they have what is now in front of the store. It lures collectors and makes them stop, and they kick the ground and leave knowing they have been had. But what really got me going was the owner said "well you know what I like about it is when people come here to get things fixed and they bring the little ones, the little ones play on it for HOURS, pull the levers, spin the steering wheel, climb up it, climb down it and generally imagine they are operating it. So the brain went ot work, and this is what I am up to... have a look at the little tractor pictured here, that is it, the little road side wonder. I took pictures from different angles. I measured it, lenght, width and height, I looked at what they used to put it together... I now have specs for a invent your own tractor! But there is more... You or anyone can scour the junk yards in your region, find parts and parts that look like parts of a tractor. Put your mind, imagination and heart to work and make a tractor of your own dreams... but you will have to follow the specs to enter into the DREAM WEAVER MODEL SPIDER I challenge. I am posting on my web page the challenge, just working on it right now. Its going to be cheap, if not next to free. Entrants (anybody, can enter) will be provided with a DWM Spider I unique Serial Tag and Serial Number from me. Then you go out and built it from your dreams. You will have one year to build. Then I will work to have state fairs, pull offs and rodeos lined up to bring the tractor regionally in for judging. The winner of the best contraption tractor will move into the finals and hopefully to circuit events for further judging and on to nationals and internationals (like the Calgary Stampede). The DWM Spider I, MUST NOT run, (stuck and ceased engines only accepted) does not have to be connected to a transmission... it just has to "look" like a tractor, have a few gizmos to twirl and pull, lights that work, fan blade that turns and so on. And an invented implement behind... I think the junk yards will be mined to full extent and it will be very interesting to see what old iron and wood will be saved from the scrap yard AND what people will invent. What do you boys think or any one reading this... will it fly? I am up for it because I have a ton of old parts.
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