Leaving it the way you got it.

How many of you guys will buy something, say an old truck, tractor, and leave it the way you got it without doing anything to it? I can't stand to have a piece of equipment with lights smashed up,grill wrecked, wires hanging down and twisted together, other damage that doesn't effect the operation but just looks bad.It usually does'nt take much time and, or money to give it a little TLC.There is a lot of real good equipment out there that looks like a piece of junk. Just a personal phobia.

Always told the younger guys I worked with while training them in, you should not be able to tell tractor has been taken apart when you put her back together aside from some paint off heads of bolts etc. Tidy them loose ends.

Richard I'm a Big fan of leaving an Item in Work Clothes, albeit.. I will restore the Mechanical Wear to Good Cond. but if it's not all banged up and original... I'll always leave tnem that way! I have a JD H Tractor that is a VERY Good original with Straight Tin....I didnt even think of restoring it, It has TooooMany stories to tell the Life it's seen and it runs like a CLOCK, just My $ worth.. Larry KF4LKU

When you find a nice original tractor leaving it original is great. THere are only so many original tractors left and every time someone restores one there is one less. I do not mean some piece of Junk that should go to the scrap yard...I mean somethng that has original paint, decals, etc.

Making it better than it was, is a motto that applies to all things including equipment belonging to others and by extension your own stuff. We do not always apply the philosophy, but we should. Jim

When I purchase new to me equipment I always repair only what needs to be repaired. Other than that I leave it alone. Just return it to mechanical soundness.

Leonard

The first thing I do on anything I buy is paint the wheels. Seams it makes the whole unit look good just by painting the wheels. Then as time allows I fix and paint everything else. I never had to run junk and I ain't about to start now.

The biggest peave I have is the lights. If any of our tractors have bad lights, I try to fix them as soon as I can. If it's a simple burnt out bulb or a broken socket, it just irritates me to no end. Espescially if it sees any road use.

I came up on a big JD w/ loader this summer on a clear day, straight road, etc., etc.... and it still caught me a little off guard. Was on a black top road and from behind it was all black. No SMV, no flashing lights, nothing. As soon as I got to the farm I made sure all of our road worthy tractors had working flashers.

I see tractors at the dealership in for repairs with smashed out headlights, etc... To me it just indicates a hard life and something to potentially steer clear of if it goes for sale. If a guy can't keep the lights in working order, how is he gonna keep the rest in good shape?

Donovan from Wisconsin

I get carried away. Before I know it, it's rewired, new guages.Usually only 1 or two is broken, but they all need to match. Servicing and mechanical reliability is important

I fix what is broke,straiten what is bend,take off what don't belong and i don't need.Other than that i just use them.
I ain't quite looking the same now as i was when new either,so why should they.LOL

If i wanted a new looking tractor or truck ,i would've bought new instead of used.

my 2c

I find it downright entertaining to observe the equipment of others. My neighbor has a Ford 5000 that he bought used 25 years ago and he says: "It was all worn out then". He uses it every day. It sits outside with a tank heater plugged in. He changes oil periodically but that's all. That tractor could/might have 20 more years of life in it doing just what he's doing?? "To each his own.".

When your 20 yrs old you fix every light, when your 40 when you get around to it. When your 60 you knock them out with hammer, when it gets dark it"s been a long day.

I have enough trouble keeping what is broken to the point its out of service repaired, much less fixing something else. I do try to keep one tractor at each farm with working lights. Other than that, its not a priority for me, I'd rather spend time and money on something I really enjoy doing.

I definately agree with all of you who like to keep things up. Worked on a tractor for a fella who bragged it up as being such a good machine and he pointed out the fact that it was origional and hadn't needed any work since his dad bought it new in 1959. Well it was origional all right! It was so origional I don't think a salvage yard would find anything good to sell off of it. Jim

Man,,,AFRAID you would be all Phobied Out around here ,,, wish you lived next door , i would have you over for morning coffe and give you the hundred things to Fix List .. and i would give it My best to stay up with your new enthusiasm ... reality is $$$ is always a problem for Me ,, and someone summed it up best when you fix everything at age 20 , 40 when you get aroudtuit , 60 you go aroud knocking out the lites and When dark call it a day

I like to get things looking better than when I bought it. The problem is getting aroundtoit. I like to add little accessories that make things more efficient.
What bothers me is looking at some of my repairs on machines that I did years ago when I thought that I knew how to fix them. Some of the welds and cobble jobs look horrible but they got the job done.

you mean like this? Iknow I showed this not too long ago , but it works for this post too !! ,,lol

What i truly hate is when one comes to my shop for a repair on a tractor and the thing is so neglected and wore out, i can't tell what exactly he needs done cause i don't know where to start.
And when i tell them that,then they get all mad.

Well I guess I won't get drawn and quartered for what i am about to say in this forum. I am a small farmer in New Mexico. All I have ever had for equipment is new to me and old and worn out to most of the others around. I do custom farming and believe it or not, appearances are everything. The other thing is safety and now with the West coast moving in, the law. I read where many mentioned lighting and lights. The law here is now making the tractor operators, ( not classic parade tractors)but for the working tractors that use the road we must meet the automobile requirements and the towed equipment must meet the trailer lighting and signal standards. This includes warning flashers, SMV placards, Turn signals and brake lights along with tail lights and clearance lights as required by weight and dimensions. The only thing they haven't hit us on is emissions. So as I am in the middle of refurbishing not restoring a Farmall 1206 and it has some bad wiring I have decided to update things. Someone had already replaced a multi gauge with two separate gauges and two warning lights, I am going to add a few that I think are good to have. 1. Volt meter 2. Boost/Vacuum 3. Oil pressure, 4. Oil Temperature, 5. Transmission Temperature. I am replacing the fuel and engine temp gauges that are reading flaky and intermittent with new gauges and level sender. I will redo the lights so that there will be an easily accessible and concise light switch panel and with the switches will be the corresponding resettable circuit breakers like we use in the aviation industry. I was in aviation for 37 years and I just think I know the better way to do things. The wire will all be bundled and run through wirelume and be clamped into place with clamps and I will place connector plugs where regular disconnection is required. Do you guys think this is too much for an international 1206 and a Ford 841 power master? I don't think so. I need these machines to be reliable and meet the standards. I can't do that and keep them original. So If I cant keep them original I make them what I want them to be. Just food for thought. By the way the 1206 has a real nice set of air horns on it so that when these car drivers blow at me for going as fast as I can, I can be neighborly and honk back at them with just a few extra decibels. lol Merry Christmas, LarryT

Larrt@stinescorner. That is exactly what I am talking about.For the sake of discussion, lets say that I needed a tractor to do only one job all the time like pull a manure spreader. I found this tractor cheap. It was in excelent mechanical condition and would pull the spreader all day long without a hiccup. Would I leave it like that? I could not.I don't mean turning it into a trailer queen. That would not be what I would want to do but out of respect for the machine, after I had had it for awhile, It would not look like that.

I subscribe to your approach in some ways.

Tractors (or anything else) are put together in the most cost-effective way that will meet minimum requirements. That means components that are "good enough" not "the best there is".

So, yeah, I'll upgrade where I can see some benefit from it.

Like others, I keep it fixed mechanically so everything that is supposed to work does. I'll also keep it fixed cosmetically, tho I'm not quite so fussy about that. Little dings happen, big dings get fixed, and rust gets cleaned off and painted.

I'm not an originality freak tho. If I see a need to modify or add to the original set up, I'll do it, and I'll usually do it with what's laying around if I can.

Ferinstance, I needed some rear hydraulics and can't afford a power-beyond refit, so:





And I got tired of pranging the tierod on low stumps while bushhogging, so:

I have CDO.... thats OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) with the letters in the right order. Everything gets fixed, also like everything to work to the best of its ability when I need it.

Richard. Maybe I shouldn't respond by me not being a farmer,I feel even though I don't fall into that important field,I still do want to state that those against re-doing older equiptment doesn't damage it by doing so. After all ,It was new at one time, shiney,sparkeling proud looking factory furburished equiptment. why Not try and keep it that way?I've seen(we had) equiptment so badly mis-treated it should have gone to the scrap yard.Bringing it back was a chalange well worth the time and labour, and $$$ .We made it workable again for a very long time to come. Purist will ask,why not let a tractor set out in the weather without a covering ?, and why put a container over the muffler end to keep water from intering the engins and freezing it up. All because "It's a tractor and belongs outside" no need to cover the seat, gonna use it soon,Why wash it?The tractor should show that it is a work item. Lots of excuses for being LAZY. In my book, the GOOD LORD lent us the equiptment to make work a lot easier and we are truly obligated to maintain ,not only the workings, but the appearance as well. Oh well, I bet my writings are falling on deaf ears of the purist. Any way I'M NOT ABOUT TO MISTREAT GODS BLESSINGS. Reguards, LOU

I'm with Lpmm and Bison. when I was thirty-five I had one working tractor. Now I have 4 workers and about a dozen implements, and two pullers and another tractor that is in limbo. I try to keep the workers not only working good but also looking good, and my two pullers have each won best appearing at pulls. But with the time needed to keep implements up there is only so much time available to "keep everything in top working order". So yeah, sometimes I'm going down the road after dark with a light out, or I'm working something after a baling wire type of repair.

I could care less what they look like if its just a machine to do a certain job.Have a DB 770 I rake hay with never unhook it from the rake bought with a tree across the hood for $200 beat the hood out got a plastic fuel tank and been raking ever since.Runs and operates great why spend time and $$$ to fix it up when it won't rake hay any better? When something flies aprt on it I'll get another just like it and use it for parts

Never heard it put like that, but I think lpmm's 20-40-60 rule is just about right. Unless you can get an enthusiastic young 'un to help out when older OR old before your time. (I'm high mileage)

To Fawteen---I did exactly what you did with the hydraulic diverter on your loader, so that you could use it for rear hydraulics. I'm curious---Did you buy it from Burden's Surplus in NE? I built a two-wheeled, 3-pt towed grader with tilt capability to do gravel lanes. It's the best tool ever for doing that kind of work.

Got that valve from Surplus Center. Probably about the same idea as your place. They're online see the link
Surplus Center

As a mechanic by trade I have the opportunity to see equipment owned by alot of different people. Although there is never a hard and fast rule when it comes to peoples attitudes about their equipment, what I run into seems to hold true 99.99% of the time. What I see is that when someone keeps their equipment in good shape cosmetically then they also tend to keep it in better shape mechanically. Like I said that rule doesn't always apply but there is one rule that does. If you take care of your equipment it will take care of you....and this goes double for those that use their machines in a production environment. It amazes me to see guys that let their machine go without needed maintenance, be it lack of lubrication, lack of lighting (usually due to butchered wiring, etc) and say that they are doing it to save money. In the end these same guys are the ones calling me to repair the machine when it breaks down, right when they need it most. Funny thing when this happens that $5 that they saved by not fixing problem X winds up costing them $500 between the cost of the repair and the lost income from the machine being down.

While I understand that every machine can't be brought back to factory origional, cherry condition, in the end if you take care if your machine it will take care of you....

Depends on how bad it is. No more than I like doing body work on'em anymore,unless they're clean and straight and ready to paint,I'm only looking for nice originals that I can be proud of in their original clothes.
What I mean is,I've seen some real straight original stuff that just has severe surface rust,but is excellent otherwise. I'm looking for that or good straight stuff with 80-90% of it's original paint.

I usually try to get the machine in "safe" running condition. Usually that means the brakes work good and the electrical is all wired correctly with no bad connections. No leaks of gas and a good exhaust system. I can live with tires a little worn as long as they hold air and have some traction. Anti-freeze leaks need to be fixed and all oil gets changed,..i.e. tranny diffy,engine and hydraulics. That is just good preventive maintenance. Changing plus and wires comes about once every two -three years.

I did the same thing with my 841 ford Powermaster. You guys are making me feel better. and yes keep it looking nice. LarryT

A lot of very good points have been made.

Yesterday afternoon one of the mechanics that repairs all of our trucks and car came out to the farm to get the rest of the hay he bought from us.

He wanted to look at the tractor that I was working on.

Ended up giving him a tour of our "fleet" of tractors.

He was most impressed that every tractor started within about 3 spins and ran smoothly.

Since all of our tractors are working tractors, it is important to us that each one will start and is ready to go to work.

Once we bring a tractor home, all the fluids are changed and lubrication maintenance is done according to the operator's manual.

The electrical system is next either repairing or replacing parts.

Mechanical and hydraulic repairs/replacement for safe operation.

Cooling system repairs are last.

Most of the tractors are left in their workclothes except for the really ugly ones.

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A few of the ugly ones get "spruced up" along the way.

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Any implements that are brought home are also refurbished to work and function as they were designed.

Some get a cosmetic makeover and some don't.

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For us it all boils down to what we expect from our equipment and what time and money we are willing to invest to make it happen.