yellow B

primer

I have a 1945 C that was bought new by the Weakley Co. TN highway department in 1945. The man I got it from said that he painted it orange but when he first got it it was school bus yellow. When I started taking the orange off sure enough one heavy coat of yellow. The yellow had run down in between the parts and was the first coat. I have heard this discussed before and many say that AC never painted any C's yellow from the factory. But that being said. If this tractor was orange from the factory it was completely taken apart, the orange stripped off,  put back together and painted yellow. I don't think that happened. Or the tractor was primered at the factory in yellow and the highway department used it that way. Or it came from the factory in yellow. Joe

There wasn't any primer used on the tractors with the old lead paint. I'vce sanded and stripped 6 tractors from 39 to 57 and none of them had primer under the paint. One of the advantages of using paint with lead in it. If it is yellow, it was a raod dept tractor. Bob

I have never seen anything next to the metal on any B or C or CA that I have parted out except extreamly faded and discolored PO1 or rust. I would like to here what Ed in NY who has parted out hundreds of Bs and Cs as to say. He should recall if he ever saw anything resembling yellow primer next to the metal. I just do not buy the yellow primer first coat theory. AC did not prime tractors. They painted them assembled with a LEAD based paint that was a metal primer and finish in one coat in a shade of AC Orange known as PO#1. This goes for the cast parts, the forged parts, the nuts and bolts and washers, and the sheetmetal. What happend paint wise after they left the factory paint department is no tellin what.

As an option on the IB's you could pay extra to get them painted any color (within reason) you wanted.  A lot were sold to Counties and States for mowing on the roads and they wanted them painted their colors.

The yellow is most likely primer.

With that said, AC was like any other tractor manuafacturer......but enough tractors and the factory would have made em any color.......

 could it be from the paint just being so old or from sitting outside in the sun

I guess it's possible that batches were painted yellow for a large buyer, and then the order was cancelled before delivery, so they sent them back through the line for a coat of orange.

Murph-NC wrote: I guess it's possible that batches were painted yellow for a large buyer, and then the order was cancelled before delivery, so they sent them back through the line for a coat of orange.

I bought a CA that was yellow with no orange underneath. It belonged to a local highway dept. I'm also working on a D14 today and didn't find any yellow under the orange, Maybe they started using yellow primer when they started to use the PO#2. Bob