Rootsy
10-21-2007, 09:45 AM
I finished her up yesterday and she was on the trailer headed back home by the afternoon. My father bought this tractor (1957 Farmall 350) at auction about 4 years ago. Someone had begun a restoration and had it pretty much disassembled. The owner had tried to remove the sleeves from the engine (apparently without any clue of how to do it) and had broken every bore in the block.
We picked up a Farmall 300 engine (same engine less CID & HP) at a swap meet in Portland IN a couple of years ago and got her assembled and running. In July my father and uncle decided to deliver it to me so that I could finish it up and repaint it.
So for the next 2 or so months I spent time replacing seals and getting it to run correctly as well as fixing all of the rigging that they did as well as previous owners. I used the heck out of it for the rest of the summer to verify that it was mechanically sound and wasn't going to leak like a lactating heffer.
As part of the deal of going through this tractor my labor was to be paid for by exchange of another tractor. My father and uncle had been to an auction at the end of July and bought a Farmall 560 Diesel. The unique thing about this tractor is that my grandfather had bought it brand new in 1963. My father and uncle had traded it to the local IH dealership in exchange for a 1946 McCormick (IH) W6 that had been redone. This was about a decade ago +/-. So from 1963 until the late 90's the 560D had been on the family farm. It was in rough shape when they bought it back....
So anywho after something like 150 hours of labor the 350 was finished... I was told not to make it a "movie star" so I didn't really get anal about it. She didn't get sandblasted but instead some industrial strength stripper and the power washer got most of the paint off and down to cast iron. I really don't know how to do anything half assed really I reckon... I've had a lot of folks stop to look at it over the past week... Even a few fellows from the local IH dealership.
I still think it came out pretty well. (BTW, the paint on the rear tires was already there when she came to me... )
We picked up a Farmall 300 engine (same engine less CID & HP) at a swap meet in Portland IN a couple of years ago and got her assembled and running. In July my father and uncle decided to deliver it to me so that I could finish it up and repaint it.
So for the next 2 or so months I spent time replacing seals and getting it to run correctly as well as fixing all of the rigging that they did as well as previous owners. I used the heck out of it for the rest of the summer to verify that it was mechanically sound and wasn't going to leak like a lactating heffer.
As part of the deal of going through this tractor my labor was to be paid for by exchange of another tractor. My father and uncle had been to an auction at the end of July and bought a Farmall 560 Diesel. The unique thing about this tractor is that my grandfather had bought it brand new in 1963. My father and uncle had traded it to the local IH dealership in exchange for a 1946 McCormick (IH) W6 that had been redone. This was about a decade ago +/-. So from 1963 until the late 90's the 560D had been on the family farm. It was in rough shape when they bought it back....
So anywho after something like 150 hours of labor the 350 was finished... I was told not to make it a "movie star" so I didn't really get anal about it. She didn't get sandblasted but instead some industrial strength stripper and the power washer got most of the paint off and down to cast iron. I really don't know how to do anything half assed really I reckon... I've had a lot of folks stop to look at it over the past week... Even a few fellows from the local IH dealership.
I still think it came out pretty well. (BTW, the paint on the rear tires was already there when she came to me... )