D12 grill color.

These little guys can be confusing and I didn't grow up around them which doesn't help. With chassis s/n 3001 and up on a D-12, you are considered a series 2 model. You should have a PTO clutch, if it has a PTO, and it is independent, not ground drive like a series 1 version. I say the paint scheme should have been Persian orange number 2 with creme wheel centers, steering wheel and a creme colored grille screen. The grille screening is horizontal screen like a D-17 series 3 or 4. Not the "X" bar screen. The grille was always separate from the grille/radiator shell, not welded to the shell. If there were early series 2's that were different that this, AGCO parts books doesn't show that. I have a D-10 also a 1961 model (don't have the s/n with me) and that is how it is configured.     EDIT:  I just found a U-tube video of a gentleman at an antique show with his 1961 D-10 series 2. He claims that the first half of 1961 the D-10/12's were still the old 3-horizontal bars/X-screen grilles (black/silver) and mid-year that got changed to the creme paint and horizontal style. It's almost like they had some left over 1960 build models sitting around and carried them over to early 1961. Technically, the chassis should have been persian orange #1, but who knows.  Like I say, the parts book doesn't reflect these differences well at all.

Edited by DrAllis - Yesterday at 10:46am

The grille screen was always removeable by factory design, regardless of which scrren it actually was. Never welded even tho it looks good.

Edited by DrAllis - Yesterday at 12:58pm

Not too busy at work today, so I've been doing a little internet smurfing.  It's interesting that the video I watched today about D-10's, by someone more knowledgeable than me, said the first part or maybe first 6 month's of 1961 still had the old grille. He also said that the engine was just a "CA" engine sped up a little and was about 26-28 HP. He also said his didn't have the independent PTO clutch with a rear hydraulic pump. Sooo, I found the Nebraska tests for each official series two D-10 and D-12. It is interesting that the D-10 chassis s/n was 3501 and the D-12 chassis s/n was 3001. Those are the first actual series two serial numbers D-10/12 models according to the AGCO parts books. These tractors also had the D-14 engine, the G-149 and were 33 HP.  I do think the tractor in the video had a G-138 engine, not the B/C 125 engine like he claimed.  What I'm trying to say is, it seems the transition from the early old persian orange/black/silver grille, non live PTO tractors to the official series two new orange/creme wheel models is a bit skewed on accurate information. I'm beginning to think my own "live" PTO D-10 with the clutch and the rear live hydraulic pump was an OPTION, and not standard equipment like I assumed. More research is needed.

it’s definitely a CA style, but my grill has the hump on top a place for an ac emblem.  So it’s not a CA grill.  As I said before the previous owner could not weld.   His repairs were very crude.   He touched up the paint with farmall red.  Maybe the d12 grill guy was sick that day & a CA Guy filled in

Edited by jjrosty - 22 hours 53 minutes ago at 5:00pm

the plot thickens… I was just looking at the radiator baffle it’s mostly gray with a small amount of cream paint overspray. It looks original.   Was gray primer used at the factory?

To add to the confusion, I have a brochure somewhere that has the mesh grill with the three bars all painted cream. The serial number breaks in the 1960-1961 era are not very clear in Norm's book 

Edited by Calvin Schmidt - 20 hours 35 minutes ago at 7:18pm