Farmall Regular paint colors

[mgonitzke]

Alright, I took some pics of dad's Regular...there is red paint under the grease. It is highly unlikely that it has been sandblasted, as it has been in the family since 1947ish and was for sure not repainted since then, and most likely not before that, either.

Fan belt idler has red paint on it.

There's red paint behind the mag...

This looks like the remains of a stencil to me...what do you guys think?

More red paint on the front of the transmission.

Red paint on end of gas tank, with bare metal underneath.

I'm thinking this was originally red...what do you guys think?

 

[dross]

Matt, red?

 

[thoffman]

Matt, That's a water transfer decal. The stencil would not have the background for the "FARMALL".

 

[mhomrighausen]

Matt G. Thank You for posting the pictures. I asked Angel to evaulate your pictures also. She used to work at the Des Moines, Iowa ...Iowa Paint Company. From the pictures here is my observations. GAS TANK.... It appears to be stenciled. Do you see telltale signs of how a decal reacts with aging and paint. Does it seem like paint instead of a decal? My guess is the gas tank may have been replaced because by 1947 decals may have replaced the stencil however a dealer or someone may have still had a stencil.

PAINT.... original color was gray. The things that give it away: Remember how I mentioned the way the gray paint seemed to be applied in a somewhat "thinner" manner? Those light blue spots if you look closely are actually the faded gray still showing. See them on the gas tank?

Next picture of the inner shaft cover under the tractor. That brownish red paint is how the FARMALL tractors were painted with a red paint that my Dad said they used fish oil to make the paint and that the tractors of that era would fade to. My Dad's 1946 H purchased new did exactly that. The red paint of that era was mixed to compensaate a red pigment shortage caused by the war. Now.... you see that blue gray on the clutch linkage showing very clearly in the picture? THAT is an excellent example of the tractor's original color. More examples ar the straps holding the gas tank... again the aged blue.

In the picture with the magneto.... Up around where you add oil in the gasket area... is that grease or again bluish gray paint? That somewhat silver area with blue on it behind the magneto... paint or ??? Remember magnetos could be masked or removed.

Where some collectors/enthusiasts have trouble accepting the blue gray color and tend to use a gray called Machine Gray is due to seeing the faded blue gray or seeing an old black and white photo of a FARMALL or McCormick tractor taken in bright sunlight when the tractor was either new or fairly new. That color is pretty deceptive in that respect. Bright sunlight, black and white camera picture makes the tractor appear a light silvery color. Take a color picture of the same tractor in the shade or an unlighted area and the color can appear almost black. Shiny and yet almost black. A good camera in the sunlight with a color picture... pure sweetness.

I asked a LOT of old timers when it seemed that IH didn't want to release the paint number or any information about the FARMALL blue/gray paint in the late 60s and throughout the 70s. The partsmen and a couple of dealers couldn't find any information on the paint. It seemed to somehow disappear from their books. George Erbe had to pay an IH chemist to duplicate the paint so that he could correctly paint his 9/16s scale model 1530. That was in 1974-75. Finally around 1979 Economy Paint Store in Savanah, Illiinois was able to help me. I took in a faded but "usable" F20 part to Bill and Carol Welk. It took over a month before Bill showed me a paint chip sample from a paint chart for tractor colors dating back to 1936. It was an old chip sample.... it was the correct color. I asked if the paint had a name. Now THIS is where I'd like someone to help verify just what IH called that particular color of paint other than gray. Bill said the color of the paint...... VULCAN GRAY. It cost me $60 plus tax for one gallon of that paint.

I hope this helps. Seeing all those telltale blue paint signs sure brings back a lot of memories of seeing FARMALL tractors when those paint colors were still pretty visible. BTW... are those straps or spoke wheels in the back?

 

[mhomrighausen]

Tom H. is correct on the decal. I forgot about that detail. It's been way too long since I've seen a stenciled tractor.

 

[thoffman]

Another "tip" on the old IHC gray. When the Case skidsteer went from the orange and the puke brown to the orange and gray, the gray was very, very clode to the IHC gray. Did the buying of IH have anything to do with the using of the gray????? Maybe they bought the rights to use the gray?

 

[thoffman]

Hey Marlin,
What do you this about the color of my 1933 F-12 that I used to own? Note the Waukeshaw wheels. It was one of the early IH engine 12's. I should have kept that one! 8-(

 

[mhomrighausen]

Matt G. Seeing Tom's F12 magneto.... you need an E4A magneto on the Regular.

Tom H. Did you use a flash on the camera? The picture reminds me of one taken with a color flash camera. The blue would turn out like that. Am I correct to say that is the blue/gray showing some of the illusive qualities it has?

YES>>> you should have kept that tractor. As a mechanic at Cline Implement in West Liberty, Iowa once said about those tractors. "They were so slow in road gear when I went through an intersetion in town the light actually turned red twice before I got through the intersection." My youngest brother had an F12 and an F14. I know he managed to crack the block on one of them after I left my mom's farm. They are neat tractors.

 

[thoffman]

Hoping that this F-20 stuff isn't getting old.....
Yes, I used a coloc flash, but crap camera. Here is a photo of the pinstriped F-20's I was talking about.

Note the stipe on the radiator sides and lower hood/radiator tank.

 

[thoffman]

Marlin,
I think a 27' is too early for a E4-A. I think the one with the open magnit and "International" on the cover tin would be the right one.

 

[thoffman]

Here you go, a 1927 in all it's glory!! Photo taken May 8th 1927. Note the magnito.

 

[mgonitzke]

Dad picked 2 E4-As at Red Power...they look like Tom's most recent picture. I'm going to look for more gray tomorrow...I think the gas tank gray is just the camera...I'll scrape some paint in a few areas and see. There is red paint inside the clutch housing IIRC. I still think it was originally red, but we'll see.

 

[dfrisk]

MATT - My guess would be the tractor was repainted red sometime after IH switched from gray to red in '36 but before Your Grandfather bought it in 1947. A lot of those old Regulars & early F-20's were repainted red to make them look like the newer models.

SON & I had Dad's '51 M at RPRU on Saturday. I know for sure it has been repainted three times and I think it actually was repainted Four times, Twice before it was twenty yrs old.

We had a discussion over on the RPM forum about special Dealer promotions back in the late 1950's & early 1960's where salesmen from dealerships would actually go door-to-door looking for over-haul work to keep the shop working in winter. The first rebuild and repaint on Dad's M was from one of those promotions.

 

[mgonitzke]

I'm gonna revive this thread...some of you might like to know that today this old family heirloom Farmall Regular started, ran, and drove for the first time today since the early 1970's. Here's my Dad and his tractor:

We got the first start on video...I just gotta edit out a few things, like when the belt from the 'helper' tractor fell off 3 times in a row.

 

[wmiller]

When I was a kid in the 50s I never saw one that was still grey. There were a lot of that generation still in daily use. I remember the local dealership having posters/signs promoting paint jobs and a walled in stall in the shop where they painted them. We had a 1941 "H" that I remember we took to the dealer for a paint job. Back then most tractors sat out and the paint that they used didn't weather very well.

 

[mhomrighausen]

Matt G. Sweet looking tractor there. The rims are French and Hecht. My 1936 F20 had those on it. Should I ever get to my brother's and pick up the Bob Gray toy F30 that I painted the true Blue Gray color then I'll post a picture of it for you. Just don't settle for that generic Machine Tool Gray that lot of fellas settle for.