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I did my first tractor several years ago. It is a 1936 F-20, and it had been sitting for many years. I basically took everything apart and sandblasted every nut, bolt, washer, and fitting. Since it was a basket case to start with, I had to tear it down completely anyway. I sandblasted the block, head, radiator, etc, when they were apart for fixing/rebuilding, so I had no problem getting ALL of the sand out. I did leave the main carcass together (frame rails, front bolster, tranny, axle, drop boxes, and wheels). There are a lot of places rust can hide on an F-20. Sandblasting won't get into all the little nooks and crannies. On the Regular I am doing now, I broke the whole thing down even further since a lot of the frame bolts had rusted in two. For my M's, B, and SC, since they are basically a unit construction, I may leave the engine, tranny, and rear axles bolted together, but take off the manifold, starter, accessories (gen, mag, PS pump), radiator, frame rails, gas tank, seat, etc. I would mask or fill the intake/exhaust ports, and other such openings with greasy rags, then either sandblast or wire brush it. There are dozens of ways to do it. Everyone has their favorite depending on how much time they want to put into it, and how bad the tractor is to begin with. A good running tractor may not need much more than a cosmetic freshening, but like my F-20, it was a complete ground-up job. I have photos of the F-20 in progress if you are interested.
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