[AT] Getting Allis done (Looooooong) was Finally done.

[Rob Wilson]

Thanks Gene,
 As some of you may know, Gene was the one that 
restored my 1944 Allis-Chalmers C for me. My tractor
was my Grandpa's first tractor that he bought to 
retire the horses on the farm back around 1949. 
It was bought originally by the State of Ohio to 
be used as a mower on the Ohio Turnpike. Since it
was built during the war farmers couldn't get new
tractors. The state found a way around this by
buying tractors using them for a season and sell
them. My tractor was originally painted white as
far as we could tell. We know this because when
Gene stripped it it had white paint under the rust
er I mean Persian Orange :) I lived on a small 
farm owned by my father in law and my Grandma sold
me my tractor since I lived on a farm. Well it sat
outside behind our garage for quite a few years.
Every time my parents came to visit my Dad would 
tell me to get it inside. Problem was I was already
storing one of his cars in there as well as my show
car 1987 Buick Grand National. My Dad sells tools
for a living and stopped at the Rockwell Axle plant
on a regular basis. He got to know Gene and they 
talked about tractors and Gene's love of restoring
them. My Dad and he worked out an agreement to fix
the old girl up. The day Gene and Dad came to get 
it we had already moved into our new house and they
were having a lot of trouble getting in out of the 
holes in had worked it's way into. The rear wheels
were loaded and had rusted through on one side and
the other wasn't far behind. We couldn't get it up
onto Gene's trailer since it had a belly mounted 
sickle mower and the tires were flat. We got the 
assistance of the local tow truck/gas station owner
to help with his roll off. We already had the front
wheels on the trailer so he used the roll off to 
lift the rear and push it on. Well the other rim
finally let go and out gushed 50 year old calcium
onto Gene's trailer. Gene shook his head wondering
what he got himself into and saying that my Dad 
told him that it was in a lot better shape than it 
was. As from the pictures I have a link to you can
see it wasn't exactly in pristine condition when I 
got it. But Dad remembered it as it was when he 
used to drive it to the neighbor's house to listen
to big time wrestling on Saturday nights. Gene took
it home and started in. Man what a mess. He said
it was the worst looking parts tractor he'd ever
seen :) He had it stripped down to the torque tube,
engine and final drives in no time. He blasted, 
ground with wire wheels, needler and hot wrenched
almost all the bolts out. A body man buddy of mine
took on the sheet metal. He made the old parts 
look like new. Luckily for us Gene had a parts C 
at his place and he used a number of parts from it.
The hood, gas tank and grille were saved and Gene
located a good set of fenders. He pulled sleeves 
from the parts tractor and busted his butt getting
our C looking as good as new. To be honest I was 
interested in it but not really into tractors. 
Well that was then and this is now ;)
My Dad paid for part of the restoration and I paid
for the rest. It took a long time for me to get 
the rest of the money I owed to Gene but I got him
paid. By the way it was no way near what it was 
worth to have it done. Gene lost money on this deal.
It also took a lot of talking to convince my wife 
why I needed this. Now there's no question.
She's the best and she understands why it was so
important. When Gene was done I went down and helped
put the hood on and brought it home to decal it. 
Before I took it home my Dad came out to see it at
Gene's place and he started to cry. He was so happy
to see it done he couldn't believe it was his Daddy's
same old tractor. My Son Robby was one of the first
to drive it and was also hooked on tractors right 
off the bat. I met Duke Stambaugh through a woman 
that I worked bingo with when I was looking for a 
headlight lens to finish it. Duke didn't know me 
from Adam but he loaned me his dually and trailer
to bring our newly restored tractor home. I soon 
found out that most tractor guys are just like Duke
and Gene. They'll help you anyway they can even if
they don't even know you. I got it home and I put 
the decals on it, then it was done. Man did she look great! 
The Plain City Threshers show was featuring A-C's 
so I loaded it up on Duke's trailer and headed out.
My first tractor show. Gene was there and he was as
proud as a new Daddy. Seeing it there was as 
exciting for him as it was for me. My brother in
law stopped by to see it when Gene was there and
made a comment on how good the old pig looked. I
thought Gene was going to blow a gasket. He told
my brother in law that this was no pig and those
were fighting words (or something to that effect).
My brother in law was very apologetic :) The 
icing on the cake was when my Grandma finally got
to come up for a visit to our place. She was so
happy to see it. She said it looked just like it
did when they brought it home from the dealership.
She too had some tears to shed. Memories must have
come flooding back seeing it new again. My Grandma
is now 91, my Dad 69, I'm 42 and my Son 15. Gene's
work truly did touch 4 generations of my family 
and opened up a deep seated longing for the farm
life for me. My Son as you saw from his WD45 is
hooked too. Thanks Gene for all your work. 

Here's a link of just before I got it from my 
Grandma around 1985.

http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~rowilson/UDonald&c2.jpg

Here's it is done.

http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~rowilson/acbarn1.jpg

Rob Wilson 



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Gene Dotson
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 7:55 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Finally done


    Rob;
    Thanks for sharing the results with us. This is a fine example of
dedication and a lot of hard work. It will be a proud big brother to the
"C".
    Knowing the 3 generations of the Wilson family involved with the
restorations of these 2 tractors gives me a special pride in the
accomplishments.
    If you have time to write the story, I would imagine the list would
be interested in the family history and restoration of the "C".
    Good luck with your future plans on the farm.

                        Gene