The project is pretty cool and really has my attention now. It's cool to learn about this stuff. The tractor originally was basically Red and Gray with just a few pieces of black... I'm using the ford factory red and gray that was used from 1939 to 1963 from the dealership. I'm stripping every nut and bolt, washer and screw down to bare metal and painting each piece separate. The tractor was taken care of and solid as a rock. Even runs great. But it did look like someone painted it with a pine top years ago... And they did not use the correct red and gray color. You can actually see brush marks in the hood Here is a picture before I stripped the front part after I removed the hood and front sheet metal and another picture after I stripped it. It might look like some of the metal parts still have red paint on them but they do not. I guess the paint "stained" the metal that color after all these years. There is also a picture of the hood and front side panels and the running boards are in that picture too. I've finished the running boards but have not stripped the hood and other sheet metal yet. You can see some of the parts I've finished, each was taken down to bare metal and primed and painted. One mistake I've made and will correct is that I painted the seat red. That's how it was when I got it. But according to ford the seat was originally black as was the radiator cap, hood latch and steering wheel. The rest was either red or gray. You can see some of the hood bolts in the work bench that I'm finished with and see the gray color the hood fenders etc will be. All in all its a pretty good winter project. It's stolen a bunch of deer hunting time so far but I really don't mind. Instead of sand blasting I'm using a really good paint stripper and painting that on, let it set for a half hour or so and pressuring washing the paint off. This is working well. Another trick I'm doing is I've sprayed all the caked on grease and oil with oven cleaner and letting it set an hour or so and then Hitting it with a pressure washer. That does a great job on the parts and removes any oil in the metal and really make them take paint well! I use to use that on gun stocks when I would refinish them as it pulls all the oils out of wood so I thought I'd give it a try on the tractor and it worked great there too!
Take Care, Captain
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