C and Super C paint?

jhilyer · Apr 30, 2010

Why is it every Farmall C or Super C I've ever seen in real life (not the Internet)is brown (rusty)?

Did they just have a bad batch of paint? A's, H's, & M's go to a faded red, but C's always look brown to me.

3 in a 5 mile radius (including mine) are brown. My dad's (before he sold it) was brown.

This is in NW PA. Maybe I'm crazy.

I see a bunch of red C's on Ebay, but some look re-painted.

Anyone own a brown C?

rustyfarmall · Apr 30, 2010

You just haven't been around very many Farmalls. I have a 1950 H that is completely brown. There is no paint that will hold up to 60 to 70 years of setting out in the weather. The tractors you see that have faded paint are those that saw very little work, and were stored inside when not being used. Either that, or they have been repainted a few times.

Mark W. · Apr 30, 2010

Where in NW PA are you? I'm in Edinboro.

gene bender · Apr 30, 2010

You need to read up on what red paint is made of and how it can over the yrs setting outside what happens.

jhilyer · Apr 30, 2010

That makes sense, rustyfarmall. The C and Super C being a nice size for general work, all the ones I've seen have been mostly outside. Being used.

There's one we pass regularly that looks like it has just about every attachment you could put on it - we call it the "hard workin' Super C".

I'm over by Bradford, PA.

dhermesc · Apr 30, 2010

The fact they are 60 some years old might have something to do with it.

Harold H · Apr 30, 2010

The C's & SC's were painted with the same red paint as all of the other red Farmalls of the time. The tractors that fade brown were just outside most of their life and faded or lost their paint to look like that.

Harold H

ScottyHOMeY · Apr 30, 2010

All just according to time, how the tractor was kept (shedded or outdoor) and whether the older Hs and Ms and the like might have been repainted along the line.

My SuperC was shedded for he first fifty-five years and was a rosy pink from fading, with the clear on the decals turned white. In the few years she's had to set out, she's taken a different tone, though a long way still from the familiar brownish hue you describe.

Only difference, but its would be limited that I can think of showed up on my '47 BN, which came into the family when new. There was a spell somewhere in the '46-'48 timeframe when there was a strike at IH's paint supplier (or one of them) and there was a shortage of the pigments for the usual mix to make their red. They went to a different mix of pigments to get the same color, and those tractors faded to to something more like an Allis Chalmers rusty orange. But it was for, I'm pretty sure, a stretch of less than a year.

Jim Becker · Apr 30, 2010

The pigment shortage red was cut 50% with yellow. It started out as some sort of orange.

CNKS · Apr 30, 2010

According to Guy Fay, the orange was supposed to last 60 days and was authorized on 12/11/45, but it lasted until 4/11/47.

mkirsch · May 1, 2010

There was a Super C at the plow day I went to this morning. It was freshly painted and pretty darned ORANGE if you ask me...

ScottyHOMeY · May 1, 2010

I remember at a show a couple of years ago just after my BN was done, there was a gorgeous 450 parked two away from me. The 200 parked between us had a real definite orange cast to it compared to either one. Not to take away from it, though. Recent and good paint job, but a solid working tractor cleaned up for the show.

C and Super C paint?

jhilyer

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rustyfarmall

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Mark W.

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gene bender

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jhilyer

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dhermesc

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Harold H

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ScottyHOMeY

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Jim Becker

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CNKS

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mkirsch

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