New to your red side (or grey)

We have just added a 10-20 to the yellow collection. It is red. Shouldn't it be grey? What color grey exactly?
Thanks a lot folks!
J

IIRC the 1937 were painted read, all others grey. It could be a serial break, but that is my recall. Jim

(quoted from post at 19:41:38 11/01/11) We have just added a 10-20 to the yellow collection. It is red. Shouldn't it be grey? What color grey exactly?
Thanks a lot folks!
J

Click to expand...

All tractors made after Nov. 1 1936 should be red as that was IH's physical year and the beginning of the 37 model year.

There are 2 schools of thought on the correct grey. There is the light grey crowd and the dark or blue grey crowd. These old organic paints did not last long at all and were made in small batches by IH. You pick the one you like and go with it.

(quoted from post at 22:41:38 11/01/11) We have just added a 10-20 to the yellow collection. It is red. Shouldn't it be grey? What color grey exactly?
Thanks a lot folks!
J

Click to expand...

Like others have said, it depends upon the year model. Also, if it is actually supposed to be gray, (IH called it tractor gray, all others called it Battleship Gray,) it probably still is supposed to have a red draw-bar, according to a paint committee memo dated June 5, 1930. This was in response to a request from the plant manager who said due to the layout of the plant itself, some time and therefore money could be saved by painting the draw-bars red like the wheels, instead of having to carry them all the way over to the gray painting area. Interestingly enough, the braces, which were produced elsewhere in the plant, remained gray, just the draw-bar itself got the new treatment. There was no mention of the actual implementation date of this change, but anything after the 1930 model year ended should be safe enough to paint the draw-bar red on and be accurate.

Another very interesting memo, (to me at least,) is one dated September 24, 1946, that states from then on all tractor weights are to be painted red like the rest of the tractor. Unfortunately, no mention is made as to what color they being painted prior to that decision! I have been trying to figure it out ever since.

Oh, and the gray color is DuPont number 27625 for acrylic enamel, and it is called Charcoal Gray, but most supply houses can use that number to cross reference any other type of paint you want to use.

(quoted from post at 00:55:35 11/02/11) Another very interesting memo, (to me at least,) is one dated September 24, 1946, that states from then on all tractor weights are to be painted red like the rest of the tractor. Unfortunately, no mention is made as to what color they being painted prior to that decision! I have been trying to figure it out ever since.

Click to expand...

I think that decision I29 from July 17, 1956 sheds a little more light on that one. It says to paint wheel weights the same color as the wheel it goes on. It also says that weights have been shipped "with only a prime or oil coating."

I have in the past commented (at least half seriously) that a lot of the spare parts seemed to have been shipped in whatever color happened to be in the gun at the time the parts got to the paint line. We know that many tractor spares came without paint, housings often had the glyptal coating, others had nothing. Since weights were typically NOT attached to the tractor, I imagine they got about the same paint treatment as the spare parts, that is not painted at all or painted with whatever was in the gun. Fortunately, in the tractor plants it would have almost always been red. I wouldn't be surprised if an occasional car load of red tractors got shipped with a stack of yellow or orange weights.

Happy Aniversiary red paint! lol

BTW,I agree with the fact that ALL Grey and Red paint would never be the same back in the day.

To this very day,Red is one of the hardest paints to match !!!!!

So, I will be in touch with you with serial number.
Thanks, j