Just wanted to share a little story of a local auction I went to today.Went to a farm auction today to look at a supposed 54 Farmall Super C. Condition said one owner. Had many fast hitch implements to sell too. So I thought what the heck. Take a day off and go look anyway. I usually always have good luck at weekday auctions. Not as many hobbyists so old stuff usually goes cheap. Well, that was not the case today. As I drove up, I initially noticed the beat up grille and absence of decals. Lots of trees around the farm yard and many years of hitting them mowing obviously. As I got closer, the red paint started looking crappier with each step closer. Sure enough, the owners “decided” to give the old girl a paint job to sell. Found out the wife of the farmer had spent several weeks spray painting the entire tractor IH red. She used TSC rattle can red. So it matched the newer IH red not the correct red. Oh well paint comes off. Started it up and a cloud of white smoke bellowed out the stack. This lasted for several seconds. Rev it up, and more white smoke. Try the hydraulics next. Fast hitch raises at about the right rate, but it barley goes down. The rock shafts seem to work well. Didn’t drive it around as it was in a lineup and blocked it. Serial number was scratched off from the meticulous paint job. Everything was red. Sparkplugs, wires, wheels, tires and all. What a site. The best part of it was she painted right over many layers of chipped paint. Looked like a spackle plaster job. Torched off axles probably to get it in tight to the trees when mowing. There was absolutely not a straight piece of sheet metal on the entire tractor. After looking at it for several minutes, a guy came up to me and said he could tell me anything I wanted to know about it. He stated his sister-in-law had painted it. I told him that paint job had knocked off at least $200 off the price for me. Just more to sand blast off and thick sticky paint at that. It was quite funny listening to the old farmers talk about this tractor and what they all seemed to know about it. Many didn’t think it was a super C because the serial number didn’t have a SC in front of it. No one knew about the disc brakes, waterpump, large diameter steering wheel, higher front bolster, higher fuel tank, grill and hood that made this a super. They also has a 2 point platform box, 6 ft blade, and 4 ft mower. Had a set of front cultivators that I kind of wanted. Got to the implements first. Platform box with rotten wood went for $210. Cultivators with broken teeth went for $100. Then finally came the tractor. What I had been waiting three hours for. Beginning bid of $1000!!!! I figured on giving no more than about $800 for it. After several minutes of the auctioneer heckling the crowd to try and squeeze every dime out of them he could, the final bid was $1800!! I couldn’t believe it. I have seen them go on Ebay in better shape cheaper!!! It was funny, the auctioneer said go ahead and bid boys, where you gonna find another one of these anywhere. I thought to myself, many places and in much better condition.
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