When I was 5 years old, my parents moved to a farm that had a Farmall Super A tractor. When I was old enough to reach the pedals, my father taught me how to operate the tractor. I enjoyed plowing with the A-151 disc plow, cultavating the corn, cutting the hayfields, raking the hay. The other workings of the farm activities my father did himself with the Super A. He planted the corn, baled and hauled the hay in a converted horse drawn wagon.
I started looking for a Super A to own about 15 years ago. It was funny at the number of tractors I looked at that were advertised as Super A's but when I went to look at them, they were either not Super A's or were converted A's with hydraulics. About 3 years ago, a local free paper had a Super A listed in it. I had about given up finding one but my wife told me I had better look at it because if I didn't, that would be the one. I made an appointment to look at the advertised Super A and when I got there, the lady walked me behind the house to the machine shed where it was parked and my mind went "YEAH, FINALLY!!!" There was a real Super A. The lady said other attachments went with the tractor but all I was hearing was "Blah, blah, blah" as the only interest I had was in the tractor at that moment. I bought the tractor and brought it and the attachments home that evening.
The first photo I enclosed is the condition the Super A was in when I got it home that late August day. I was like a kid in a candy store. I wanted to ride it and find out all the flaws it had. My son talked with me and we decided we would fix all the problems and restore it. I found Steiner Tractor on the web and started ordering parts. My son helped with the repairs. When we had the tractor in shape, we started making plans to repaint it. The second photo shows the tractor in the mode of cleaning the 47 years of field dirt, dust, oil, grease, etc from it. As the photo shows, we removed all the sheet metal, I sand blasted, and my son painted it and the tractor. The final photo shows the finished product. I took the tractor to the Red Power Roundup in Columbia, Missouri, in June 2008.
Thanks go to my wife and daughter-in-law for letting me and my son spend all that time restoring the tractor. My hats off to my son for the excellent job he did in painting the tractor and helping me fix the mechanical issues the tractor had. I also know my Dad and Mom are looking down and smiling.
Jim McCracken
Saint James, MO
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