1947 H model SSN FBH257451X

We operate a road district here in Northern Illinois and were recently given a 1947 H Model FarmAll for Restoration. We were told it was a former right of way mowing tractorowned by the Towwnship in the early days. It is not red but is yellow! We were told International sold some of these painted yellow to government for road work which makes sense. Yet as we pressure washed it we realized it had red paint under it. Does anyone know if international would have taken red tractors and painted over the red before sale?

I have read that once they left the factory and went to the dealers. That once at the dealers, they would paint the tractors any color they could just for they could try to sell them. Farmall never produced a Industrial H. They made the M in a industrial version though. Yes it could have been bought form the dealer painted yellow. If I was you though I would go ahead and paint it yellow just because you never see many of them that way and it would be a tractor with a nice little story behind it.

There is a fellow on here who has a military H that is yellow.

Here

(quoted from post at 10:47:42 12/13/11) We operate a road district here in Northern Illinois and were recently given a 1947 H Model FarmAll for Restoration. We were told it was a former right of way mowing tractorowned by the Towwnship in the early days. It is not red but is yellow! We were told International sold some of these painted yellow to government for road work which makes sense. Yet as we pressure washed it we realized it had red paint under it. Does anyone know if international would have taken red tractors and painted over the red before sale?

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Most likely it was repainted by the township, or at least the township paid to have the dealer repaint it.

I have a 1940 Farmall M that was originally red, and was used by a farmer, but was then traded in and resold to the county roads department. The county repainted it highway orange, and then later repainted it construction yellow. After using that M for at least 20 years, it went on auction of surplus equipment, and I bought it. While stripping off that paint, I found at least 17 layers of yellow paint, then a layer of highway orange with decals, and under that was the original Farmall red with the original decals. I repainted the M red and yellow, to preserve the full history of that hard workin' ol' M.

IHC would paint the tractor any color the customer wanted, other than the standard color, for a slight fee, at the factory. In the 1940's, red was the standard color for farm tractors and either red or orange were no cost standard color for industrial colors. Yellow did not become a standard industrial color untill about the mid 1950's.

Harold H

Back in the '40s, I doubt that very many road districts were willing to pay extra for the factory to paint a special color. Even fewer would have been willing to pay the cost of repainting a new machine.

If they had spec'ed a color, it was more likely to have been orange than yellow. The practice of frequent repaints was also much more recent than the 1940s as well. That tractor was probably several years old before it got the first coat of yellow paint.

Now that the steam cleaning is completee I'm wondering if maybe what we have is a very fasded orange, it's sort of a funny looking yellow. I do know its the only coat on top of the red, don't know yet if there is more then one coat of red.

What ever color it is everything is painted including the impossible to reach places

(quoted from post at 08:51:12 12/14/11) Now that the steam cleaning is completee I'm wondering if maybe what we have is a very fasded orange, it's sort of a funny looking yellow. I do know its the only coat on top of the red, don't know yet if there is more then one coat of red.

What ever color it is everything is painted including the impossible to reach places

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There were a couple of years where IH had to change the pigments in the paint. Don't know if it was because of certain shortages during the war years or maybe just the un-availability of certain pigments, but I do remember seeing more than H and also Ms that had a tendency to fade to an orangeish hue, and there were also a couple of years when the paint would fade to sort of a pinkish hue.

(quoted from post at 11:51:12 12/14/11) Now that the steam cleaning is completee I'm wondering if maybe what we have is a very fasded orange, it's sort of a funny looking yellow. I do know its the only coat on top of the red, don't know yet if there is more then one coat of red.

What ever color it is everything is painted including the impossible to reach places

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Well, keep in mind red and yellow do mix to make orange. Could be some bleed through going on.

If it were me, I'd restore it back to what it looked like in use - yellow.

Even if was born red, it went into a yellow fleet and, in my mind, is "supposed to be" yellow.

(quoted from post at 11:51:12 12/14/11) Now that the steam cleaning is completee I'm wondering if maybe what we have is a very fasded orange, it's sort of a funny looking yellow. I do know its the only coat on top of the red, don't know yet if there is more then one coat of red.

What ever color it is everything is painted including the impossible to reach places

Click to expand...

Well, keep in mind red and yellow do mix to make orange. Could be some bleed through going on.

If it were me, I'd restore it back to what it looked like in use - yellow.

Even if was born red, it went into a yellow fleet and, in my mind, is "supposed to be" yellow.