I completely rebuilt the JD 4020 diesel that my Grand Father bought new. I do mean completely. Completely bare to the casting. All new bearing, seals, engine kit and etc. If any machined holes where egged shaped they got bored out and a bushing made so the hole was back to factory. Control rods either replaced or welded up and machined down to fit tight. I kept track of all the parts. I did the labor record keeping like you would a shop ticket. I had just under $22K in parts and 460 hours of labor. This was over the winter of 2004-5. So the parts would be higher today too. If you just paid yourself shop mechanic wages that would still be $20-25 and hour. So that easily could be another $7500-10,000 in cost.
I pondered the cost and such for some time. Then I decided to do a JD 4440 two years later the same way. My reasoning was that each of these where working tractors not show pieces. The actual paint job was just the factory paint with some hardener in it with me spraying it. So very far from perfect. How I looked at it then and now is both these tractors where just about the same as new. I had less than 50% of the cost of new in them. Neither one has any electronics or pollution equipment on them either. So in the case of these two I can/could argue that there is a good business reason to due the work and cost.
Doing the same thing on a collector or parade tractor really would rarely make good business sense. How I look at those deals is the person doing it is fulfilling his/her enjoyment of doing the work. So it is their hobby/interest. It would be no different than the people that buy high dollar fishing boats or motorcycles. Would be like people that take trips around the world too. It is all in how people chose to spend their time and money.
Then maybe an answer your indirectly asking on tax deducting the expenses. Well I do. I can not speak for others. Since I do have farm income I consider it a farm expense. If you do not have farm income I am not sure on how you would do it.
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Today's Featured Article - The Day Mom Drove the 8N - by Brian Browning. My Dad was wanting to put in a garden but couldn't operate the 8N and handle the old horse drawn plow he had found and rigged up to use with the tractor. Well, he decided to go get Mom out of the house and have her drive the tractor while he walked behind the plow. You got to understand that while my Mom is a hard worker who will always help whenever she can... she had never operated farm machinery before that day. Dad got her out there, explained how the clutch was the same as in our o
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