[AT] Tractor colors

Mike Sloane mikesloane at verizon.net
Thu Dec 10 15:04:09 PST 2009


My guess is that Henry Ford was following his supposed comment about the 
Model T: "you can have any color you want as long as it is black" 
philosophy. Remember that he was trying to compete on price as well as 
performance, and most farmers of the '30s weren't appreciative of pretty 
colors if it cost a penny more.

Judging from the histories of the Ford N that I have read, Ferguson was 
pretty much the "silent" partner in the production of the tractors and 
had little to say relative to styling and color schemes. The gray color 
of the 1939-47 tractors was considerably darker than the gray used on 
the 1948-54 versions. I gather that some dealers would repaint the older 
machines when they took them in on trade (or used two or three old ones 
to make one more less "rebuilt" tractor for sale). Owners and dealers 
had no reservations about mixing parts of different machines to get one 
working tractor to sell or use. Many a 9N and 2N got the "red belly 
treatment after a major rebuild in order to make it look "modern". In 
fact, when I was rebuilding my 2N, there was evidence of the remains of 
red paint in various places, but all the part numbers tracked with the 
1946 production dates.

As far as the name, if you look at the advertising and service 
literature of the times, the only place you will see "Ferguson" is when 
it is coupled with the word "System" as somewhat an afterthought. The 
advertising was strictly "Ford". Calling a Ford N a "Fordson" is really 
inappropriate - the US Fordson tractor had been out of production for a 
decade before the 9N was released and has nothing in common with the old 
Fordson. In the UK, however, the Fordson name continued on for decades.

Mike

Dave Merchant wrote:
> My, what an angry looking grille!
> 
> Most likely, Ford picked the cheapest available paint.
> 
> But I think I read somewhere that Ferguson wanted drab gray
> because he was just that kind of person.
> 

> 
> Personally, I think the Ford redbelly scheme is one of the best ever done.
> 
> Dave Merchant
> 
> 
> At 04:19 PM 12/10/2009, you wrote:
>> I was looking at Mike Sloan's excellent restoration of his 2N
>> Ford/Ferguson (We never called our 9N a Ford, it was always the
>> Ford/Ferguson).. A lot of my friends that moved up here from KY kept
>> insisting on calling it a Fordson. :-)
>> As I was looking at the pictures Diana walked up and looked and said
>> "Is that painted? It looks like it is just primed". When I indicated
>> that it was indeed nicely painted she responded with "eeew! what a
>> drab awful color!".



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