[AT] 14 questions to ask yourself before you begin a tractor restoration

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Tue Jun 19 12:18:24 PDT 2012


Here's the way I look at it.  Do I have the excess cash to buy it?  Is it 
worth more parted out than I have to pay for it?

If the answer to both of those questions is yes then it's an 
investment.......... right?  What I do with it after I drag it
home is another question all together.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Bruce
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:55 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] 14 questions to ask yourself before you begin a tractor 
restoration

Pretty darn smart to me!

I have two questions I answer - do I want to tackle the job and is the
destination worth the pain of the ride.  The rest is more or less BS to
me.  Granted being safe is #1 but sometimes the journey is the
compelling reason ...

David
NW NC



On 6/19/2012 1:58 PM, Spencer Yost wrote:
> I have never been a fan of stuff like this because not being prepared, not 
> being ready, not being experienced enough is how you get prepared, ready 
> and experienced.  The article says nothing inaccurate, but has a general 
> tone of discouragement.  So  I hope some of the readers answer like this:
>
>   1: Heck no. That's why I am doing this
>   2: Define worthy in a way that doesn't involve opinion or conjecture.
>   3: No. I stuff it all in my suburban garage and then pull it out on the 
> driveway to work on it in sunny days.   I'll make do.
>   4: Probably not.   But between work and the kids, I'll be spending slow 
> and can swing it.  See#5
>   5: Probably not.  Little Jenny needs braces, my boss wants me to work 
> overtime and my wife says she'll ship me back to my mother if I don't 
> paint the shed.  But all these pressures is why I need desperately to work 
> on magneto at 11:30pm when everyone is asleep.
>   6: Are you kidding?  I'll buy what is available and affordable when I 
> need the part.
>   7: Probably.  If not, and after I learn the hard way, I'll write the 
> manual.
>   8: No, but I can beg, borrow or fashion them as I need them.  Plus, yard 
> sale-ing on Saturday morning is marriage enrichment for me and the Mrs. 
> I'll find the tools.
>   9: They make spray cans don't they?
> 10: See number 9 and then really ask this question again with a straight 
> face.
> 11: Old man Brewer  comes by, drinks my beer, laughs at my tractor and 
> then maybe shows me one little thing.  Or not.  Is that a mentor?  If so, 
> I have one.
>
> What burns my britches is the one and only valid question is safety. 
> "Are you ready to read labels, talk to suppliers, use googles, etc." is 
> the question I was looking for.  Not all beginners are aware of the risks 
> and this should have been stressed.
>
> In short, these are not questions:  they are the talking points of 
> existential angst for every hobbyist.   Approaches to resolve or reconcile 
> them would have been more helpful.  This kind of stuff is why I wrote my 
> books.   Not sure I did better but I at least recognized the problem in 
> our literature and tried to correct it.
>
> Just my two cents and worth less than you paid for it. (-:
>
> Spencer
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jun 19, 2012, at 12:38, Mike Sloane<mikesloane at verizon.net>  wrote:
>
>> I found this interesting, although I never actually asked myself these
>> questions - I just tore into the job and hoped for the best. Some came
>> out better than others. (I just want to forget the ones that were half
>> done and sold for parts because I could see that no amount of time and
>> money were ever going to result in a whole working machine.)
>>
>> <http://www.farmcollector.com/restoration/questions-before-tractor-restoration.aspx?newsletter=1&utm_content=FCM+eNews+06.19.12&utm_campaign=2012+ENEWS&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email>
>>
>> Mike
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