ANYONE IN THE TRACTOR RESTORATION BUSINESS?

If your paying to have it done, you will spend more than the tractor is worth... if thats important. Paint can be $200. plus thinner plus primer, plus sandpaer/ tape, etc. YOu can easily have $400 in supplies.  How long do you think it would take to clean the tractor, and sand it ?  A week ? 40 hours ? 60 hours ? Depends on what your paying-- $20 hour ? $30 ?  You can easily spend over $2000 for a clean and paint.

You have to use a little common scenes when restoring any antique tractor. I know of some people who find a B, C, WC or WD in a fence row pay $200.00 - $300.00 for it then hire someone to restore it and have $4,000.00 to $5,000.00 in a tractor that will never be worth more than $2,000.00 to $3,000.00.
On the other hand it is possible to pay say $800.00 to $1000.00 for a dissent tractor and do the work themselves and have a restored tractor that is worth more than they have invested in it.
The only tractors, in my opinion, that are worth putting a lot of money in are very rare tractors which hold their value.

If you take it to somebody that just cleans and paints it, you could have 4k or more into just the paint job. I don't know where Steve lives, but around here guys get 50-60/hour not 20/30. :( If you did a total restoration, you might be looking at 7-8K with a rebuild and clean and inspect everything else.


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 04 Jan 2012 at 10:16pm

When I do a paint job I make sure everything is in tip top shape and original condition before any cleaning or painting is done.  I will not do restorations for those wanting a cheap quick paint job because it can give you a bad reputation to others seeking a high quality restoration.  I am not a full time restoration shop, just do them in my spare time, and I don't plan to get rich while doing them.  However I do explain to my customers why it is important to spend a little extra money on things such as authentic decals to get them that quality restoration they are striving for.  A quality paint job on a WD-45 should be able to be done for $1500-2000.

John is his name Fearday  ?

To give an estimate on what a Tractor would cost to restore really is based on how nice a condition the Tractor is in to start off with. Especially if you're paying someone to do the resto for you. It amounts to T&M. Obviously, if the Tractor is in rough shape where it would need sheetmetal/sheetmetal work or a lot of mechanical repairs due to a hard life of usage, expect to spend big bucks if you want a pro job done. All good things take time, and the more work that's needed, the more time it takes to do the job if done the correct way. Time is money. If you find someone that does it as a hobby to make a few bucks for themselves and just enjoy restoring Tractors, (not to many of them around) you may spend a lot less. I also agree with the family aireloom or rare low production Tractor thing. Something that's been in the family since new to me would get a top notch job and I wouldn't care what I had in it. It would never be for sale. But that's just me. Soooo, as I said, it really depends on condition, the individual and what they want for an end result from their investment. Keep in mind also, there are a lot of different views of "restoration". Could mean anything from just a clean-up and paint job, to a REAL professional "tear-down" rebuild everything restoration. If you do restorations for a living, that's how its done by the pro's. The correct way. I used to build/restore Antique and Custom cars years ago for my customers. It was done by T&M. Depending on what the customer wanted, depended on how long it took me. Full blown resto's could take a couple years with automobiles in some cases... JMOHO

Let's see about 20 cans of Krylon will set you back maybe $100.  That would be the low end of the scale.  Several thousand dollars for the other end of the scale for just the sand and paint.  My ferguson is going to be in the $1500 range for just the paint/primer/sanding and misc other paint related supplies and me doing all the labor.

And as for me when looking to buy one of these old tractors I'd much rather buy one in "work clothes" than one that has had a poor paint job over dirt and grease that the owner now thinks is "restored"

  "restore"  has been bastardized in today's lingo to the point the term is just about meaningless. This is why we now need the new age terms, "totaly restored" "cosmeticaly restored"  "mechanicaly restored" etc etc. Half  restored is like being half  pregnant,  a tractor is either restored or it is not in my opinion and only about 1 in a 1000 are indeed worthy of the name,,, including none of mine.

Edited by Butch(OH) - 05 Jan 2012 at 8:23am

  Butch pretty much nailed it,  the word restoration has been abused and overused to the point of being nearly meaningless. I much prefer the term refurbished,  it  describes more accuratly  what has been done in most cases. A restoration done right is beyond the reach of most, a refinish with new guages, wireing and seatcover  is not  restored, IMO it has been refurbished. 

There are 365 ways to restore a tractor and days in a year, and every day someone is doing there own 'version'.

This restoration was around $3300 with all supplies, paint and parts.  Included in this bill was rod and main bearings and complete governor rebuild, and the head gone through.

I try real hard not to give a final price.  I ask what they want done, and I price that piece of the job.  There are so many things that can be uncovered when a restoration starts and I do like Fred and bill as I go.  There's a few tractors out back that are now salvage because the owner thought it would be an inexpensive job, and later we found larger problems.  D14 came in with a knock.  I tried to convince customer to think real hard but he insisted we move ahead on rebuilding the engine.  So after tearing down and discovering a cracked crank, bad clutch, and unknown transmission I totaled up what he owed if we stopped.  He asked what the tractor was worth as it sat, and I told about $200 less than what he owed me for teardown and machine work.  Never saw him again.

At one time I thought that I would start doing restorations for others. After I figured a price on a WD45, the owner insulted me after finding out that it would be more than it would be worth. Now I just tell them that they can't afford me.

Given that the economy is still on the downhill side, are you guys that restore for a buisness, seeing a decrease in jobs? Or are there still a few out there paying for a quality restore on old tractors?