Re: How did you get your tractor?

Posted by dp on January 04, 2002 at 08:23:28 from (138.87.47.57):

In Reply to: How did you get your tractor? posted by Mike on January 03, 2002 at 16:41:59:

Don't know that it was an odd way or not. . .

My grandpa died in early summer 1999. After that I began to seriously think about owning the tractor he bought new in 1950 -- a John Deere MT. He'd sold it in 1986 when he sold the farm and moved to town. The man who bought the farm also bought the tractor. Well, I didn't make up my mind to actually try to get the tractor until the summer of 2000. At that time I called the man who bought it from Grandpa. He didn't have it anymore. He'd sold it several years ago to his ex-wife's ex-father-in-law who was Amish and had no phone. So, a couple weeks later he gave me the phone number for the son of the man to whom he sold the tractor. After I finally got ahold of the son, he said his father no longer had the tractor, that he'd sold it to somebody else. He said he'd try to get the name and number of who that was from his dad. Well, I had to keep calling the son over the next many months because he just didn't seem to have the same motivation as I did. He finally got the name and the number of the guy who bought the tractor from his dad and gave them to me.

I called that guy (he lives about 100 miles south of me in Pana, IL). Yeah, he said, he'd bought the tractor but he didn't have it anymore. He sold it to somebody in Centralia, Illinois (150 miles south of me), about 3 or 4 years ago, but he didn't know the guys name. He said that the guy was a school teacher and the MT was his first tractor, that he wanted to start collecting. Well, I was getting closer. I called schools and talked to secretaries and principals in the Centralia area. No luck. I sent an email to all the male teachers in the high school asking for help -- 2 teachers replied with some suggestions about who to call. One was the local JD dealer, which I had intended to call but thought since the guy was supposedly a school teacher he would be easily found through the schools. So, I called the JD dealer. Talked to a guy there, explaining my situation. He thought for a minute and then gave me a name and phone number of an individual, Bob, who had an old 2-cylinder which he thought was an MT.

I called Bob. Yes, he had the tractor. He'd bought it from the guy in Pana. I explained how I tracked him down. He was surprised -- he wasn't a school teacher and never had been. He asked me if I wanted to buy the tractor. I said yes, if he was willing to sell it. He said he would be. He wanted time to figure out what he'd need to get for it. He called back a few days later and explained to me that he'd paid $2,600 for the tractor and had put $3,100 into it (new tires, rebuilt radiator, rebuilt starter, rebuilt generator, new seat, rerubberized the steering wheel, and various other things). What would I offer him? I gave him a figure, he said he'd have to talk to his wife to see what kind of loss they could take (I only had so much money to work with). He called back shortly and said he'd have to have $3,500. I said I'd give him that (that's exactly how much money I had to work with). So, on September 9, 2001, I brought the tractor home. I only need to do some sanding on the sheet metal to get out some runs, repaint it, and apply the decals for it to be a finished restoration (not including the engine which is still in fine shape and hasn't needed attention).

I count it a blessing from the Lord in terms of how the situation worked out. It's a special thing to have Grandpa's tractor.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Re: How did you get your tractor? rickm 09:45:00 01/04/02 (0)

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