Bringing grandfathers John Deere A back from the field

This is my 1949 John Deere A. My grandfather bought it in 1954 when he started farming and has been in the family ever since. Eventually once his farm equipment got bigger he didn’t have much use for it, so it sat out in a cattle pasture hooked up to a feeder wagon over the winter and when we came back in the Spring the engine had seized up. So it sat there in the cattle pasture for probably around 20 years.

About 15 years ago my dad loaded it up, brought it home and tore the engine down and rebuilt it. He got it running and put new tires on it, then it got passed down to me about 3 years ago. The radiator was leaking on it, so I took it apart to swap radiators and decided to just repaint it while I had it torn apart. I still wanted to keep the tractor as original as I could even though it was in rough shape. I straightened and fixed up the original hood and grills as best as I could get them. I found the fenders at auction while I was painting the tractor, knowing that grandpa always liked having fenders on his tractors.

Justin Ryan
Iowa

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