Refurbishing a Tractor Part 3 - The Before and After Pictures

The final installment of my three blogs documenting the process of refurbishing a Ford Jubilee for the Kiwanis Club of Statesboro.  Part 1 gave a brief  description of the cleanup and all of the wacky things that were wrong.  Part 2 expanded on that and gave a little talk about the cleanup process and the mechanical repairs.  We finally got to the point of painting.  the first order of business was attempting to salvage the sheet metal.  You can buy and entire hood and side legs for this tractor for about $1000.  However, that was my total budget for this project.  That meant getting out the grinder, hammer and giving it what I call "violent encouragement."  There were areas that had been welded back together and other areas that had rotted away.  It wasn't pretty and it didn't really fit back together properly.  Dad and I aren't really very talented body work guys.  We could have taken it to a body shop, but again......budget.  We did a lot of banging and bending until we got it in place and somewhat straight.  When we started the tractor did not have a grille.  We found one, but the original mounting tabs had long rusted away.  We needed something so I went digging.  When we moved my youngest son to a bed, I disassembled his crib and kept some of the parts.  (see my May 15 garden update for the potato drying rack that I made from the base)  I dug through and found two brackets that worked perfectly!  A shot-coat of ford medium grey paint and they were good to go!  I would like to have done a $3000 restoration, but then folks would have felt guilty for using it.  By putting $1000 into it it gets it looking decent, running great and ready to work.  It's going to get dinged and scratched.  It's going to have things break again.  That's okay.  That's what it's for.  It's meant to work.  so now the before and after pictures..........the old Ford came a LONG way!

Front Before

Front After

Rear Before

Rear After

Left Side Before

Left Side After

Right Side Before

Right Side After

I had a blast refurbishing a Ford for the first time.  can't say that I'm ready to give up on my trusty John Deere's, but it was fun to learn the nuances and differences with another brand.  We returned the tractor to its home Saturday.  I was a little sad, but happy that I could get my baby back in the shop out of the elements.  Next project...... making my Dad's lifelong dream a reality.  We're restoring a 1949 John Deere M like the one my Grandfather bought new when Dad was a kid.  He says it might be his last project.  I hope not, but if it is, I'm going to make the most of it.

Y'all take it easy,

Alex