Hello fellow tractor enthusiasts!
My name is Caylei Arnold and this is the story of my Farmall A:
I fell in love with Farmall tractors when I was an FFA student in high school. As the years progressed; my love for these tractors grew even stronger. I was a junior, studying Animal Science, at the University of Connecticut when I finally decided to go for it. I put a wanted add out on the local Criagslist listings titled, "Wanted: Cheap Farmall." I had been saving my pennies but I knew the restoration on any tractor was going to be pricey…especially for a full-time college student. After several dead ends I finally recieved a promising email. A 1941 Farmall A that had been in dry storage for the past 5 years. The guy had purchased it from the original owner in hopes of making it a father-son project. Unfortunately; that never happened. He was an honest guy who was more than reasonable on the price. The Farmall wasn't the "decent shape" I was looking for and the guy had never been able to make it run but the price was right. I was now the proud owner of my first Farmall.
Let me also start off by saying that I couldn't have done this without my boyfriend. He transports the tractor wherever it needs to go and he busted his knuckles on this tractor with me; to help my dream come true. He was a wealth of knowledge, skill, and tools to make this tractor into something nice once again. The tractor was no longer a father-son project but a boyfriend-girlfriend project.The first thing on our list of things to do with the "A" was to get it to run again. With some simple parts from Steiner, the tractor was running within one day. My boyfriend is a mechanic at a local garage and I have never seen a group of mechanics so happy over a tractor in my life. While I sat in class my phone kept buzzing with new pictures and videos of them driving the tractor around the shop on their lunch break. It was like a bunch of 6 years olds overly excited about their new pedal bike! My dad (who isn't into old tractors) even drove to the shop so he could drive it around.
Now that the tractor was running, we brought it back home and started tearing it apart in the garage. The engine was partially stuck and the we soon discovered that the oil was filthy and basically water. We still dont understand how the tractor ran so good. We fixed the engine and put all new gaskets in. I spent 2 full weeks degreasing the tractor as best as I could get it and then we spent the majority of the next several months stripping the entire tractor from its multiple layers of paint and scrounging for un-rotted parts to use on it. We had every square inch of the tractor back to bare-metal. Next in line was fixing the sheet metal. The grill was smashed in the front and took about a week to fix.A tree had also fallen on the hood at some point. My boyfriend spent about 2 weeks on both to get them as close to perfect as he could. All new wiring and tires were ordered and waiting. We spent about a week prepping and painting the tractor in the garage.
When we took this project on we were both in agreement that this wasn't going to be a quick re-build. We wanted to make something that was going to represent us and how we go about such projects. We knew we were restoring a peice of American history and we should take great pride in that. It's that sort of pride that we hope admiring "fans" can see through the appearance of this old Farmall. We worked every ounce of our free time to ensure it was done right, and we hope it shows. It took us a little over 1 year, and a lot of funds, to finish the project and I must say it was 1 year, and a one lump sum of cash, well spent. I was attending college full time and trying to graduate in-time the following year while also living on a farm at home. The tractor took a back seat to farm chores and classes but when those were not in the way…we were working in garage on the tractor.
My friends and family often thought we were nuts and quite frequently told us that we were never going to finish it.
When the paint had dried, the tractor was still sitting on stands in the garage, tire-less. We fired it right up in the garage and I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever smiled so big…except for the first time I was able to drive it in it's current state. When we finally brought the tractor back to my family's farm for its first real "drive"…the entire neighborhood showed up so they could see.
We bring the tractor to as many fairs as we can. It's fun to see people stand in front of the tractor and just stare at it. It's brought out a lot of great stories from the old farmers around the state and that brings the most joy to the both of us.
We now have 2 Farmall BN's sitting in the yard waiting for their turn. Unfortunately they will have to wait while we finish the current project : A 1950 Plymouth car. This tractor has brought a love for the old into both our lives and its restoring and preserving these things that we feel we must do in order to preserve them for the next generation.
fred says
just wanted to thank you for your love of old tractors! i am 33 now and my love started when i was 4 or so and have found a great girl to enjoy restoring tractors with here in rhode island and this story reminded me of me. thank you again!!