H in a fire

A barn burnt near me with an H Farmall tractor in it. Tires and all wiring burned off. Battery melted. What parts are not salvageable in a situation like this other than the obvious? Would the rear rims be usable? The sheet metal? Any experience salvaging a burnt tractor?
 

We had a load of hay bales catch fire. Burnt everything right down to the ground, including the tires. We cleaned up the wheels, fitted them with new tires, and used them for spares for the grain wagons. 2 of those salvaged rims made exactly 2 trips hauling shelled corn in from the field before giving up and collapsing and pretty much just flattened out. The heat from the fire had taken the tempering out of the steel
 
I was given a IH584 last summer that had caught fire. I hauled it home and drove it off the trailer the same day. Really depends on how hot it really got. If the engine is not locked up I might be able to be saved. I would check all the fluids and see if it still has oil etc. in it
 
If the engine oil is still oil, and the tans oil is still 90wt, the engine/trans might be salvagable. But... The effort will be heroic. Unless I had an H that needed the parts, I would scrap it. Jim
 
Our Super H burned in the mid 1970s when an electrical short created a fire under the sediment bowl and broke it adding gas to the fire. It burned the tires and the wiring off but the motor oil was okay so we fixed it. Lots of work and from a money standpoint I don't know if it was worth it but we still use it today.
 
There have been a lot of nonsense replies here.

For one, it's not true that heat is heat is heat. Temperature means a heck of a lot in how it effects metallurgy. However, it's going to be pretty hard to know how hot that fire got.

One thing that IS possible to know if how heat effects certain parts of the machine compared to others. For one, the most valuable parts of an antique tractor are the irreplaceable. The irreplaceable are those that aren't made aftermarket and those are almost always the cast iron parts.

Cast iron's metallurgy is not nearly as severely effected by heat as steels. Steels, especially hardened ones, will likely have their hardness effected *if* the fire was hot enough, but those steel components are often the ones that are replaceable -bolts, bearings, pistons, springs, etc. Even bolts may be fine given the amount of over-design in these old machines.

It may not be economical to replace all those steel parts and rebuild the enigine *if* the fire was hot enough to ruin them, but there would be value in saving the components that are least likely to be effected, and the least available -the unique cast iron parts.

It's not 1970 anymore. These things are getting unnecessarily scrapped every day. If it's not worthwhile to you, it might be worth 5-10 minutes to let a boneyard owner know it's available so it gets saved.

And that's just my two cents
 
I would add: sheet metal is not a stress bearing component whatsoever. It's definitely salvageable.

Anything you save should be acid cleaned, to remove rust and prepare the surface for new primer and paint. At the very least, ensure you use "etch primer" in order to deal with the underlying rust.
 
As older collectors downsize and liquidate their tractors, the prices are falling on the most common pre-1955 tractors. You can find H's in running condition for under $1,000 and restored for not much more. Unless it has great sentimental value, or you don't put any value on several hundred hours of labor, will it ever be worth the more than 1/3 the cost to restore it?
 
Except, the castings are cast STEEL, not cast iron. Cast iron would never hold up to the abuse that these tractors are subjected to.

Rule of thumb I've always been told is, if the tires burned, junk it.
 
I have drilled into, and welded broken IH castings and seen several final drive housings that were broken out. I think they are cast iron. They powder when drilled, crack before
bending, and break in the traditional grey cast iron pattern. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 04:19:34 10/30/18) Except, the castings are cast STEEL, not cast iron. Cast iron would never hold up to the abuse that these tractors are subjected to.

Rule of thumb I've always been told is, if the tires burned, junk it.

Very few, if any of the cast parts are steel.
 
Like Jim said if the oil is still oil probably fixable with heroci work and time. Most of the castings are probably good. The tin work including tappet cover and oil pan may be shot. Doubt but if the water is still in the rad then might be good. Your call.
 

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