Best barn find/ fence row find

The inquiry about the value on a Fordson got me thinking. There was a Fordson at an area show a few years ago that had a pretty nice paint job on the sheet metal and body. The back story was that it was found in a barn back in the late 1970's or early 1980's before the collecting bug took hold. The owner got it for basically taking it off the property as dealers back then did not want trades that were not on rubber or lacked electric start. Scrap was not worth much either then. Heck, I can remember people being mad because a dealer would refuse a trade on a H or M because the dealer was already sitting on a half dozen such tractors. Anyways, this guy got a pretty straight tractor other than the back wheels sat in the dirt and even they cleaned up respectable if not perfect. Probably the biggest cost this fellow had was in prepping the tractor for paint and then applying the paint. But that is not the only example of picking up something for the cost of loading and transporting.

I got a Case LAI with Lull loader for $125 fixed the Mag and it ran. Was given a Cat D7 because the guy knew I would keep it and fix it not scrap it. Bought an Economy tractor from by the road for $50 got it running ended up selling for $400. Was given a couple doodlebug's. About 1950 GMC truck tractor also for nothing.

I don't know what the best one was , but I got ALOT of them back in the late 70's and 80's. I pretty well collected up all the stray 2 cyl. JD from my area. Sure didn't get rich from it but had a lot of fun ! I restored some and parted out others and resold a few. In hind sight I should of hoarded them all until when the collecting craze really topped off in the early 1990's and then sold them all off.

Dad got a John Deere LA for 75 bux about 1969.from a guy that liked to tractor jockey ,.. we did not know if it ran,we pulled a horse drawn 1 row cultivator thru all the tobacco , tomatos, potatoes ,sweet corn ,my youngwr brother and i cultivated bout 10 acres that way for about 5 yrs .sure was fun ,,.. ..couple yrs earlier before the toy deere , Pop bought from the same guy a STRONG, DC Case for 125,.that had nearly flat tires,. aired the tires up,changed the oil , gassed the ol Gent up, and i disced all spring with it,. i was wirey but small for my age and i would engage the hand clutch with my foot.This May ,there was a 300 Massey Ferguson combine way back up in the barn at auction ,i knew about this combine for 15 yrs .. auctioneer said machine was like new, BUT , motor was stuck ?, 3 tires flat , hadnt been moved for 25 yrs .He auctioned the combine to me while we stood 500 ft from the machine . i got it and 2 corn heads ..bought a new starter.spark plugs, cleaned points, reset the timing and put on a new fan belt. drove it within site of my driveway when the ailing main drive belt went flippitieflopity -flop -trashed nuthin . i guess i will earn this one in sweat equity.. i have along list of sweat equity finds,,.. the best one was in 1974 , rite after the 1st gas shortage ,Dad Bought a new F -250, and i told the salesman i was looking for a 67-69 Montego MX Fastback or Convertible or Cougar,. He Showed me a 69 MARQUIS that was triple black. said he traded for it a couple weeks ago from a dentist in KY , their clean up man was recovering from a bad wreck and the boss wanted the BIG Marquis gone,saidit lookt bad tohave gas guzlers sittin on the lot .it was as dirty as my truk is now , i got it for 6 Ben Franklins. 68,000 original miles ,the top and power windows worked perfect,.that fine lady has gone over 300,000 miles with me in the last 43 yrs .

Your barn find/ auction situation worked out better than mine. Around 1979 there was a JD 630 tractor that had been sitting in a barn for 10 or more years prior to that point. Plenty of talk about it needs to run first before making a big bid or how nobody was looking for two cylinders and how it would go cheap. The tractor went to 2,000 pretty easily and stopped at 3,000 dollars. As a naive high school age male I was crushed that I did not get it at 1,000 dollars as was the talk on it. It had factory WFE but the three point was not with it. There was some other JD stuf there and there might have been an A as well.

In 1972 dad bought a straight but non running 1948 SC Case for $100. I put a used mag and carb on it to get it going. That SC is still running around the farm doing odd jobs nearly every day. I replaced the mag with a distributor years ago and threw on a hydraulic system but otherwise it is unchanged from what it was way back then when it rolled off the truck.

Dad bought our '49 G from the Deere dealer in the early 70's for $100. Only ran on one cylinder at the time, and over the years the dealer probably made more in parts sales on it they would have ever imagined!

My dad tells tales of going to farm actions in the late 1970s and they could barely get a bid on old tractors. I guess at that point in time most farmers already had a couple old tractors sitting in the shed collecting dust so why get another one. No one thought much about collecting and restoring tractors as a hobby back in those days.

I started buying up old tractors back in the mid 70's lots of $100 and $200 tractors,had some old Farmalls given to me just to get them moved.Bought a DC Case w/loader a long about 1978
at an auction for $45 and drove it on the trailer,right much of a load for my 1968 Ford 3/4 ton truck and home made trailer.Went look at a buck goat with a friend and ended up buying
and Oliver 1365 in good condition with a loader for $500 back in 2002 at the same farm that had the goats. Back about 98 bought non running Oliver 99 6 cylinder 6 speed,Oliver
880 RC and an Oliver 77 standard for $1000 for all 3 non ran but all mostly complete.The real fun over the years has been finding the tractors and making deals on them and going to auctions.

Dad sold out in 1973,JD gas 70, rear tires were a year old,late model JD A good tires and brought around 950.00 for the pair. We farmed 300ac with them.

In the '70s, you could buy a Farmall M at a retirement auction for $500. Drive it 20 miles to get it home, hook onto a disc and go to the field.