'48 cub

I bought a '48 cub, in the blind and it was delivered today. It has a manual lift,rather than hydraulic. Were all of them manual lifts? Does it have enough value to justify a first class restoration? I've had newer Cubs but they never impressed me as a tool. Words of wisdom,please.

They were all manual lift until some time in '48 when hydraulics became available. Aftrer that, hydraulics were backfit onto many of the older tractors.

A lot of people have done first class restorations of Cubs. You aren't going to make money doing first class restorations, so you better do it because you want to. If you don't really like Cubs, I suggest you find something you like better to restore and pass the Cub on to somebody else.

No way to know if it justifies a high end restore. But probably not (from a financial perspective)

Cubs are the "everyman's tractor" justified to wives all across america as a cool lawnmower. So there's a huge market for it, and they do command a premium over larger tractors - pound for pound.

But if your motive is profit, you'd need to have gotten a very good deal on the tractor to begin with.

And if that IS the case, you'd be MUCH wiser to turn it around right now and sell it at a fair market price and take the profit.

Otherwise you're going to assume quite a bit of risk, for very little potential gain.

These are old machines, living well beyond their life expectancy. Technically speaking, every part that moves needs replacing or refurbishing.

Start tinkering, and who knows what you'll come across.

Every dollar you spend on it raises the asking price. Every dollar rise in the asking price shrinks your potential buyer market.

God forbid you find a crack in the block, or some other major flaw, suddenly you're into the land of no return on cost. That's the risk.

Why take it?

Not to say there's not a sucker born every minute, and you can always find SOMEBODY who will give you more than it cost you...

But if you're going THAT route, you can STILL sell it now to a sucker without doing anything to it at all, without risking more money into it.

But I hope you wouldn't.