How does one "get into" old tractors (Case, Ford etc.) On a shoestring budget?
I've always wanted to rescue one and take my time getting the thing to run!
Are these automatically high-dollar things or are the old-timers looking to get them out of their field?
Farmall cub is usually a good place to start, Slippery slope. 
Ford 8n, 9n, 500, 600, Jubilee, etc.
They're about the cheapest buy in around these parts, and easy to work on.
I have a 53 Ford Golden Jubilee. You can fix most things with a hammer. Picked it up non-running for a 2 grand. Needed a fuel system revamp, which was more labor than money. You can still get EVERYTHING for these in terms of parts.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204239074685067&l=6839072195603469807
TRoglodyte wrote: Farmall cub is usually a good place to start, Slippery slope.
This is good too, I learned to drive, and wrench on a mid '60s Farmall Cub, starting at about 9 years old, it was our lawn mower, belly mower attachment and all. I had to stand up and pull up on the steering wheel to press the clutch in. Dad hardly batted an eye when I mowed over the Pecan tree, learn by doing, good times.
Folks had 3 acres of you-pick strawberries way back when too, that Cub had a little 3 or 4 row cultivator on it for strawberry work.
Just found an 8N on the local CL for $700. Too bad I live in town with nowhere to store or use it.
I grew up with John Deere's and the parts for the old twin-cylinder tractors are readily available from dealerships. I think there's a price premium for JD's which isn't totally deserved because a lot of old tractors were decent machines. The other issue is how many narrow front JD's are out there vs. the 8N, etc other makes. Unless you're wanting to run through row crop with the thing (and I really doubt you do) the narrow front isn't worth the inherent instability.
A few grand will get you a pretty good 1950ish A or B. It should also get you a rough non-runner and the money to restore it to running condition.
DaveEstey wrote: I have a 53 Ford Golden Jubilee. You can fix most things with a hammer. Picked it up non-running for a 2 grand. Needed a fuel system revamp, which was more labor than money. You can still get EVERYTHING for these in terms of parts. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204239074685067&l=6839072195603469807
What's the vice grips for?
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:
Holding the choke out a little. I need to get a new main jet for the updraft carb.
My sister just bought an estate in Lunenburg. There is a old Ford tractor (Ford 8n?)in one of the barns that supposedly runs. Looks like it has a flathead 4 cylinder in it. One of the other barns has several newish John Deere tractors, 6 wheelers, etc.
DaveEstey wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: Holding the choke out a little. I need to get a new main jet for the updraft carb.
Appropriate use of vise grips
Roger Welsch's books on old tractors are entertaining and also educational. I believe this is the first in the series, he wrote several of them. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Tractors-Men-Love-Them/dp/0760301298
Buy an old non ugly running one cheap and get wrenchin, try to buy one with good rear tires, those things are $$$$.
The old Fords have a couple of advantages, primarily the 3-point on the back for attaching implements which is essentially the same standard as now, so implements are easy to get, and the wide front end. They are low, easy to maintain, and there is always the Funk kit out there for a flathead v8 swap.
Farmall stuff, at least around here, seems to be a bit more heavy duty for a given hp range and in my experience a bit less temperamental when running right. As in if you are only going to use it 6 times a year to move snow and let it sit outside the Farmall will typically go 5-6 years before you need to do $75 worth of maintenance where the Ford in a barn will need something every other fall.
John Deere green is really just a funny shade of gold plating. At least it seems that way. Like a Harley, if you use it every weekend and run it hard it will be a great machine and aside from the initial buy in dollar per hour they are great and have excellent parts support. If you let one go, though, or buy a cheap one to fix up it will cost cubic dollars to get "right."
Beyond that you get names with very niche-y support and you might as well start restoring a Simca or Citroen if you like beating your head against the wall.
DaveEstey wrote: I have a 53 Ford Golden Jubilee. You can fix most things with a hammer.
From what I know of farmers, fixing things with a hammer is SOP. So that's something to consider when looking at old tractors
True story.
In reply to tr8todd:
Can I have one?
My 1949 Ford 8N on the day I brought it home. Came running with a bunch of attachments for $2,000. I haven't fixed it up at all except for basics to keep it going. Fun, useful tractor that I may restore one day.
Nobody ever cares about the most common, (at least around here) and likely the best, of the 40's-50's vintage tractors.
Find a Massey 44, and you can use it for real work, too.
Oh look- In 25 seconds, here's one: http://www.kijiji.ca/v-heavy-equipment/regina/44-massey/1017513267?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
Much like "How does one get into race cars", or "How does one get in to slot car racing"?
You go where they are, watch, absorb, ask, bring cash.
Every September there is an ATHS (Antique Historical Truck Society) meet locally, ALWAYS has a swap meet, dogs, blooming onions, powdered greasy E36 M3, you know the routine. Hit & miss machines that conquered America when it was new, old guys in overalls, hillbillies, housewives, garagesalers and of course Tractors.
Bigguns that do Tug o' War (I don't get it) to a showing of the latest 1940s - 1950s lawn tractor someone found and restored. Intersting stuff, and as an accused tinkerer I can see how one's head could be turned by such gee whiz equipment.
The one that comes around here at the end of Sepember costs $1 to get in. If you're showing, it's free. With a car corral!
Trust me, there's some weird stuff out there.....
http://www.hudsonmohawk.aths.org/
Dan
i had fun restoring a Ford 640. $2000 in running condition. Probably only spent another $1500 making it really nice, but untold hours. Have no use for it now though.
Look for the local farm auction and spend a few days there. We went to one in Maryland and bought a running Deer Model 40 from the 1950s, with a PTO and 3-point hitch and a new 60" mower attachment, for about $700 (the equivalent of maybe $1800 in current dollars). It was about 30 years old then. It was a narrow front, which probably figured in the cost, but that just meant I needed to pay a little attention to the terrain when driving it. Other than that is was a ball to work with. I wish I still had it.
We used the heck out of it: mowing, pulling stumps, towing and launching a 22' boat, grading, plowing snow. In 20 years all we ever did was put a clutch in it and 1 set of tires. It would even run on gasoline or kerosene. It was a beast and would easily lift the front end off the ground when pulling hard. I remember doing a lot of steering with the split rear brakes.
It looked just like this except a little rougher, and the OE seat was shot so we replaced it with a high-back bucket out of some 1970's car:
my mom's boyfriend has a 1940-something Farmall B that is in full working condition and has been repainted in the last 10 years or so that he was thinking of selling for $1k a few years ago... we talked him out of selling it because it's just so damn cool looking. and it's fun to drive, since the right side brake strap thingie (i'm not a farmer or tractor guy, so i don't know what it's called)needs to be replaced, so it pulls hard to the left if you mash the brake pedals hard enough..
just buy a running 8/9/2n and have at it. my dad has one that he pounds the crap out of. he had the motor rebuilt after a flood in 1989, and has been using it since. it has a brushhog for whacking down grass and trees and brush, a plow blade that he uses to plow the snow from his driveway as well as distribute new gravel, discs for tilling the garden, a boom for lifting crap with the 3 point hitch. it pulls logs out of the woods for firewood. it gets worked hard and is cheap to maintain and does not complain. i put a new carb on it a few years ago as the original seats for the mixture needles were worn beyond use, that was about $170 at TSC. we changed it to 12v with a 1 wire gm alternator, and i rewired it in under an hour.
patgizz wrote: just buy a running 8/9/2n and have at it.
I googled "8/9/2n" and found everything from Bible verses to organic chemistry compounds, but nothing even remotely tractor-related.
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