White H???

I've been restoring a 1940 model H and while cleaning off the paint on the belly of the transmission, (the only place there was paint still on the entire tractor) I made an interesting discovery. As I sanded off the first layer of paint, an obvious respray probably from the bomb, as it was very thin, I found what should have been the original paint, I thought, as it was the correct old number 50 tint, and was nice and thick, but when I went through it, I got a real shock. The next layer was a layer of WHITE paint! It was nice and thick too, just like factory paint, then when I went through that layer, there was another layer of number 50 tint, again nice and thick. Anyone ever heard of this on a 1940 model IH anything? I know about the mid-century demo models, but that was a full decade after this old work-horse left the plant, and assuming it sat on a dealer's lot for an unreasonable amount of time before selling, I just cannot believe it would still be there ten full years later, and getting a white paint job, then a repaint in the old 50 tint, instead of the (then) newer 2150. That would just call for way too many coincidences. I mean, first there would have to be a '40 model left on a dealer's yard, unsold for a decade, then that same dealer would have to make the decision to actually use the older tractor in the mid-century promotion and have it painted white, then have enough of the old 50 tint paint left over somewhere in the dealership to repaint the tractor back to red with when the promo was over! Like I said, way to many variables in my book. I have heard RUMORS of white tractors from the early '40s but never seen any, nor met anyone else that has seen any. I posted a photo of the thing as found, and as you can see, not much left in the way of visible paint on the top or sides. Anyone have any ideas what may have been going on here? I for one am stumped.

I don't know anything about white, but am intrested in hearing from those in the know..
But I just had to say..
Man when you take on a restoration project you make it hard on yourself.
I have parts tractors that look better than that one. hehe

Would love to see it when it is finished white or red.
Ken

Yea, it was in pretty bad shape! But the price was right, $200, and I just HATE to part out one of these old beasts, since they aren't making any more of them, every single one parted out is one more goner!

Here is a picture of it in its red undercoat, before the final spraying. It is still sitting on the tires/wheels I took with me to retrieve it with. Yes, it is running already in this photo. This represents almost one year's work at the point in the photo. I was very lucking in that mechanically, it was in really good shape, all things considered. The engine was stuck in two cylinders, and I had to soak it for over a month to get the pistons out, but the sleeves pulled right out once the pistons were gone. The tranny was usable, but has one bad bearing that you can hear ticking whenever you climb a hill, or put it under some other kind of load. Brakes were great. Just cleaned them up and re-installed them. The pump actually works, but it had no provision in the tranny to run a PTO, thus it didn't come with one.

If I can find any info to prove that the white is legit, I'll go back over it in white, or maybe do a sort of custom looking, split color scheme on it, half red, half white sort of thing. I don't know yet.

Looks pretty nice already. Hate to spoil your hopes but the white would have been a primer of sorts way back in the day. Even if it had been built in 1950 during the Whie demonstrators, it would have been Red, only the smaller ones (Cub, Super A and C) made at Louisville plant were white. However I personally think it would be even more fun if you added white to it in some way as you mentioned, personally I think they are more interesting if they are not always the same.

-Jordan

As Guy Fay said in his Letter Series Originality Guide... IH would paint any tractor any color, as long as it paid. So, maybe it was painted as part of a fleet that was ordered white?

I'm going to venture a guess that it wasn't painted white at the factory, and was repainted to white at some point for some reason. If you are sure it's not a primer you are looking at, and indeed white paint.

Mysterious find, any way you look at it! Too bad you don't have the tractor's history available to help shed some light.

Here's a picture of one of my SM's that I pictured from a friend who was 2nd owner of the tractor. He purchased the tractor at an auction back in the late '50s. He claimed the tractor was red when he bought it & hadn't been repainted.

When I bought it I noticed patches of white showing thru the old red & this is what I found when I pressure washed it. Underneath the white is a gray primer & the red was painted over the white without a primer. The white is only on the hood, grill, gas tank. The engine, frame rails, transmission, rearend housing & axles are red.

I know the history of the white demostrators & the models that they emcompassed & I'm not claiming this tractor to be one of those. Obviously the tractor was painted white very early in it's life. Whoever done it either took the time to strip the original paint or it was done at the factory, I don't know positively which.

I had an old IH partsman who worked fo a local IH dealership from the early '50s till he retired in the '90s that claims there were several SMs painted this way for a dealer show at the IH proving grounds at Hinsdale, IL in August 1953 then taken to the original Farm Progress Show held in Armstrong, IL in September of that year where they were used to pull "people movers"and then repainted red after that show.. This tractor was sold new by the factory owned stored in Danville, IL which is about 15-20 miles from Armstrong & much of the IH equiment for the show was handled thru that store. Unfortunately I cannot verify this SM is one of those tractors as IH never kept a serial # list of tactors used for special occasions or what colors they were painted. So basically all I have is an old man's faded memory and a couple faded pics from the from the '53 FPS.

There was a short video on one RFD TV a few years taken at the '53 FPS that supposedly showed on of these tractors pulling a "people puller" I contacted RFD about obtaining a copy of the video but the only reply I got was that I would have to purchased the complete series & that they could not verify that the clip I was interested in was even in the video. If anyone has this series of videos I would be interested in obtaing a copy of the segment on the FPS or any information or pics of any SMs painted this way.

TIA, soybeanjoe

Having sandblasted sever over the yrs you never know what you will find inder the dirt,rust and so on. White tractors were done in March 1950 at the Louisville plant and the Hs were built at tractor works in the quad cities

All we can do is guess at this point, so mine is that the white is primer from an early repaint. Odds are it wasn't done at the dealer as part of an engine rebuild, though. I would expect a dealer to just steam clean the tractor and douse it in a thin coat of red. Cheap as possible.

I vaguely remember reading that somewhere, possibly on this forum--IH did a lot of things for publicity so it was certainly possible, but not widespread either.

i found that on 3 different m"s i have painted. a 42, 48, and 49. i am kinda of thinking it has to be a primer coat. it was on cast parts, not sheetmetal.

Hello,
Yes I know what your talking about, as I have
a 1967 IH Cub that is yellow and white.
And on the castings I now can see red where the
yellow is coming off . mostly on the block and
drop boxes and it used to belong to an IH dealers service manager
Who knows the history behind these tractors and
how they were painted and repaired
Harry

Looks GREAT..
I can't begin to imagine the effort to make her look and run so good...
Nice job and I am glad you saved another one...
Ken

(quoted from post at 02:43:41 11/02/09) As Guy Fay said in his Letter Series Originality Guide... IH would paint any tractor any color, as long as it paid. So, maybe it was painted as part of a fleet that was ordered white?

I'm going to venture a guess that it wasn't painted white at the factory, and was repainted to white at some point for some reason. If you are sure it's not a primer you are looking at, and indeed white paint.

Mysterious find, any way you look at it! Too bad you don't have the tractor's history available to help shed some light.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, I have that same book and considered that possibility as well. I plan on contacting the IH Archives over the winter to see if they can dig up any history on this thing. If I can at least get the original buyer's name and the date of the original retail purchase, that might yield a clue as to what most likely have occurred. I'm thinking that it may just be a primer coat like JJ said. I forget the source right now, but I do remember reading of white H's from about 1940 or so, as an introduction to the first full year's production run, as the letter series models were introduced rather late in 1939. Then there are the 1939 pre-release ads that show the tractors with the wider horizontal grill bars painted white. I may just do that, as I like that look.

Thanks for the info. Now I am really thinking it is just a primer for a professional repaint. That would make sense to as when I got it, all the castings had date codes that matched within two months of each other except for the rear casters; they had date codes of 1946 on them, signaling that it was most likely converted to rubber after the war. Maybe it was repainted then, as IH50 red would have most likely still been on some local dealer's parts shelf? The parts I found on this tractor tell an interesting story in itself already. It had the afore mentioned '46 casters, a mag, add-on lights (the ones with the black buckets), an electric starter, the hand crank had been totally removed, (very unusual), an oversize generator with the regulator mounted separately down on the belt drive block-off plate, no provision in the transmission to drive a PTO, a gas carb, (the serial plate is plain, no X codes at all) and a gas head from the middle 1950's that the casting code (362533R1) shows to be used on very late model H's, and SH's. This tells me that it was converted from a distillate tractor to a gas tractor sometime after 1953 when this head became available as a dealer parts item. An interesting side note on the head is that it is a factory rework head, as evidenced by the casting number between the valves being ground off in the middle, as was done to factory rejected heads then, and later the casting number was re-[i:5e150d9bc3]stamped[/i:5e150d9bc3] on the plug side of the head after it was reworked and found acceptable. These types were almost always sent out to the dealer parts network. It also still had cut-off wheels on the front end, as can be seen in the before picture above, but the rear steels were long gone. Too bad.

Thanks! All it takes is lots of time and lots of $$$$! At the point in the second photo, I was up to 10 months worth of spare time, and approximately $3500. Still had to buy the correct tires with 45 degree lugs, one new rim, and one new rear caster as the original one broke on its second time out! I figured it would be the other one that broke first, as it had visible cracks in it, but of course, it was not!