Tractor fire purchase wisdom needed.

Found a 600 Ford tractor 2 hours from my location that caught on fire and is now for sale. $500 It is supposedly complete except for the following items: rear wheels/ tires, starter, hydraulic pump, radiator and water pump which were salvaged by the owner for his other tractors. I suspect it was not in great shape to start with but thought it might be worth the $500 and time just in case I ever needed extra parts. I have a 18 ft trailer with a wooden floor to haul it with but was needing some suggestions on how to load the crispy critter. The owner said his little tractor would not be big enough to lift it so I guess it would have to be chains and a come-along with some sacrificial boards to slide the rear stump on? Any suggestions welcome...

In the long run it will be less costly to
buy a running tractor.

Forget it.

First off you need to know how hard it burnt. IF there is oil in the engine and transmission housing then the internal gears and such will be alright. If it burnt hot enough to burn the oil out then the whole thing is junk.

Any sheet metal that was burnt may not take/hold paint. I had a Ford 861 twenty years ago that had a smashed hood. I found a real nice hood that had been burnt. Not a single bent in the whole hood. I lightly sand blasted it and acid etched the hood before applying a good primer. I then painted the entire tractor. In about 3-4 weeks the paint on the hood started to bubble and eventually the paint all came off in big sheets. So I thought it was just my painting. So I took it to a very good local body guy. He told me it just might not ever hold paint because of the heat of the fire effecting the carbon content of the steel in the hood. HE repainted the hood and it once again peeled in a month or so. I found another hood and fixed/painted it for the tractor.

I later sold the hood to a fellow and told him what was wrong but he insisted he could get paint to hold on it. I never heard back for him so I do not know if it worked or not.

So since then I just do not buy burnt sheet metal.

As for your loading issue. If you have a set of tires and rims that hold air just take them along to put on the back of the tractor for loading.

IF it is burnt hard then $500 is too much money for it as parts. Also scrap steel is down now too so it value is under $500.

You can buy running ones for 1000 bucks or less.
I've seen some with new paint and tires in the 1500-1800 range.

Never worked on a burnt tractor, but back in my days in an auto body shop we pretty much refused to touch any vehicle that had been burnt anywhere, no matter how small the area or how repairable it looked.

Problems appear exponentially once you go to work.

I'd say save yourself a lot of grief and walk away from it. (Maybe run!)

Guy I used to work with used to be a manager
at an engine reman facility, and he said they
had built quite a few with burnt core blocks they
had purchased. He said they only did that for a
short time as 90% or so came back with
cracked blocks after getting a few hours on
them, even though they had been fully checked
and machined. Same deal with the burnt core
heads they had bought then built and sold.

Ross

I'll join the chorus- its going to be more trouble than its worth.

Buy it if you like throwing money away.

It depends on how badly it was burned.
I brought this one back with little trouble.
It was a 3600 with the loader so worth more. And I did have a parts tractor.

If he salvaged these parts to repair another tractor it did not get very hot. Do you need any of the parts that are on it?

Remember that there are some NASTY chemicals in the residue left from the ashes. Wear a mask and gloves when dealing with stuff that has been in a fire. Phil

As JD Seller said it depends on how much they were burnt if totally burnt up you're probably only going to salvage some internal gears etc.A few years ago I bought 5 tractors still in a shed that was burned with the tractors in it two were basically for scrap only.The two on the outside were very fixable and one good for parts.I bought them as a package deal and ended up with the two good ones for free.

I believe that is the one from a fellow just out of Aitkin on #12. I have often wondered if you were able to get that Ford up and running again. Good work!

What would it cost to buy a good running Ford 600 in your area, $1500 to $2500? I suspect if this one was only lightly burnt, given to you for free and delivered to your site for free, it would still be a money pit to get it fixed up.

Figure it will cost $500 used to $1000 new for rear wheels and tires, maybe $500 for the other missing parts, $1 per mile for your time and truck to get it home, plus something to fix the burnt sheet metal, wiring harnesses, rubber hoses and belts and then start fixing the pre-fire problems. Scrap value is only $80/ton here x 2 tons = $160.

I always had to scratch my head at the sale in Archbold. There was one row of tractors called Skid Row,where the tractors all sold as is. The tractors that were burned right down to nothing,obviously the remains from a building fire,would bring as much or more than tractors that were up on rubber.

Yes.
Turned out the PO was a guy I went to high school with. Small world.
It was a good tractor still. Fire burned off some of the peripherals but didn't hurt the insides at all.
I showed it to him about 6 months later. He was glad that I had saved it.

Guy I used to work with used to be a manager
at an engine reman facility, and he said they
had built quite a few with burnt core blocks they
had purchased. He said they only did that for a
short time as 90% or so came back with
cracked blocks after getting a few hours on
them, even though they had been fully checked
and machined. Same deal with the burnt core
heads they had bought then built and sold.

Ross

Sometimes when sale prices of junk matches the price of a good merchandise, some money laundrying might be involved, but not always.

I saw a pretty decent 660 that had no fire issues sell for 1050 dollars at an auction here in Feb 2015. The biggest issue was the tinwork was dented, dinged, and lightly rusted in spots. I don't know that I would want that 600 you are talking about even for 50 dollars.

Scrap metal prices are way down. In some places
$200+/ton down to $50-80/ton. You are going to
drive 2 hours, fuel cost, work your butt off
loading/unloading and you don't know the
condition of motor.

The person should be happy to get scrap prices,
not $500. He salvaged all the meat: rear wheels/
tires, starter, hydraulic pump, radiator and
water pump which were salvaged by the owner for
his other tractors and you are buying the bones.

Don't you think if the rest was good, the owner
would keep them?

Perhaps scrap price is paying too much.

Sounds like too much money to me especially when you have to go so far to get it. That will cost you some fuel money too.

Thank you for the advice. I will pass on the burned out 600. Did not know how fire messed with the block, head or the sheet metal. Thanks a bunch...