An All Red 22-36?

I'm still not committed to colors to use on my 1931 McCormick-Deering 22-36.
I don't think it was originally all red.
However, one or more persons has told me that this tractor WAS all red.
I have seen some restored examples in all red.
And, the Ertl model I recently bought is all red.
Thinking about it, all red might look pretty cool!
Your thoughts?
Bottom line I guess is, "It's your tractor so you can do what you want," but I'm interested in the opinions of others.
Thanks,
Tom

it would have been all gray from factory, They did not start using red until late 36.

Andrew

no such thing as red from factory in the 22-36, as red was official nov. 1936. i have a factory red 1938 10-20 though.but i guess each to his own,and i would go original grey with red wheels.
since it is a more desirable tractor than the 15-30 and originality counts in the end product.

Since IH stopped making the 22-36 in 1934 and IH did not switch over to red until Nov. 1 1937, then all 22-36s would have been painted gray at the factory, unless, of course, someone special ordered one painted another color. It has been pointed out before that the original gray paint was poor quality compared to today's standards and it did not take long for sun, rain and snow to remove the paint entirely. I doubt many tractors in that day were stored indoors out of the weather.

Yes, Tom, it is your tractor and you can paint it any color you want! My own personal opinion is to paint it gray.

They do look pretty red. And very many were repainted to look more "modern" I don't know what I'd do. Kinda depends on the tractor and condition. More and more I am watching for nice originals and leaving them unpainted.

Here's a 10-20 painted green. It's owned by a man in IA. When I called him several years ago he told me his dad bought the tractor new. He said he was a WW2 vet and doesn't farm anymore. He rents out his farm land. Hal

There's a man called RustyFarmall that has a Farmall tractor painted red except for the hood that's painted yellow. It looks nice too. When I did this Farmall A back in 1975 & 1976 I painted the rims yellow. The engine was a basket case. I painted the plow yellow too after it was sandblasted. It's your tractor you can paint it any color you want, but the red paint is about the most expensive. Hal
PS: Back then we didn't have a digital camera and used a Poloroid. So I took a picture of the
old photograph with a digital camera. It improve the quality a good bit.

Thanks for all of your comments. It's great to see the variety of option that one might have. Going from leaving unpainted (which is really a thought that I can also appreciate) to original gray and red to all red to who knows.
Thanks, again, guys!
Tom

They painted a tractor in whatever color the customer wanted. I have heard of people finding green and black paint on Farmall Regular Fairways. My opinion is, if it's a nice western tractor with a nice patina on it...always leave it alone! Otherwise, for me, grey.

No doubt factory standard color was gray. Here is a tidbit that might be interesting. Some years ago, I had seen a Farmall in the Henry Ford Museum that had been painted red and labeled "F-20." I wrote the museum about this, describing the differences between the two tractors. The curator wrote me back a nice letter saying that they knew about the problem and were going to restore the tractor to original colors and labeling. They even thought it was a very early model, about 1925. He said that he had heard that some dealers repainted tractors taken in on trade, to make them more appealing, and he said he wouldn't be surprised to learn that some dealers mis-labeled the older tractors. I can tell you from my own experience with the old stuff (I "grew up" on gray IHC tractors, a 10-20, a "Regular," an F-20 and an
F-12) that the "new" red stuff looked really great, but that most farmers weren't much interested in the sexiness of their tractors. Work was what mattered. I like authenticity and if it were my tractor, I'd paint it the original color. Still, what could be wrong with "customized" paint? It protects something that every year gets more-and-more scarce.

(quoted from post at 05:27:51 02/19/10) They do look pretty red. And very many were repainted to look more "modern" I don't know what I'd do. Kinda depends on the tractor and condition. More and more I am watching for nice originals and leaving them unpainted.

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Another great example of this is copycat 450 tractors. Most of you 400s have been painted to look like 450s and I have even seen some Ms that are sporting a 450 paint job. It was a cheap way to make things look modern from the road.