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1950 Farmall M tractor.... Attempting to determine value Picture added
William81
Member Posts: 24,603 ✭✭✭✭
We have a 1950 Farmall M Tractor. My father in law was a mechanical engineer and when he retired, he started rebuilding old tractors as a hobby. This one was taken completely apart and rebuilt. It is in excellent condition but has sat idle for the most part the last 10 years. Mostly it sits in our shop covered in plastic and needs to be passed on to some one that will drive it in parades and enjoy it.
I have been trying to come up with an appropriate value in order to start the process of moving it on....
Any one out there know of a website or pricing guide to figure this out. Thanks for the input...
That is my FIL.....Tractor maybe has 50 hrs on it since the rebuild....
Comments
This may help. We had several of those old M's on the farm
INTERNATIONAL M Auction Results - 124 Listings | AuctionTime.com - Page 1 of 5
Thank you !
Tires can be a determining factor. New ones are outrageous.
Try www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/boards.cgi It has a Farmall subforum
Thanks all for the info...
They are in demand around here.
Loader on it?
Wide front or narrow front?
Power steering?
M T/A?
With good rubber, wide front, power steering, T/A, and a loader that is a $5,000 tractor here.
No Loader, Good rubber, Narrow front end...
Rebuild to exact standards in 1950....My FIL was disappointed to find the block had a cracked block during the rebuild of the motor. Other than that almost all original parts. He wanted a Parade tractor so this was his baby...
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. We had an "M" and a slightly newer "400" when I lived on the farm up until ~1987. Our 400 had front end loader and it was a balancing act. Literally. In the wet times, you had to take off the front big round bale first or the narrow front tires would burrow into the mud. But, then any bumps and the tires just skimmed across the ground giving very little steering. We learned at a young age to steer by the brakes.
We rebuilt our M after the glass sediment bowl inexplicably broke while in use one day and it caught fire. Thankfully, we were in the cow yard after a fresh rain so no shortage of wet mud and other, er, um, stuff. LOL It messed the paint all up, ruined all the wiring and the battery but thankfully it was all fixable.
Those International Farmall's were our cyclebar mowers and rakes mostly. Our 400 could square bale too, but every ram compression stroke on the baler the tractor slowed and surged with it. After a while it was somewhere between annoying and soothing depending on the day I guess.
As you know the where a bouts does matter. And like above the rubber must be good cause it is insane cost to replace. I was at a auction this spring and one not as clean but nice as yours went for 1100 and an H brought 700 in nice shape in southern Il. No help I know but add it in the paper maybe at $1500 ? and see where it goes. And as above wide front, PS. adds so much.
You have to love old tractors to restore them.Very few will bring enough to even cover the restoration cost.That being said,I can't stand to see one that I can get running just setting rusting away.If I can I will get it running and put in the dry.They are part of our history and deserve due respect.
I have already turned down 4K.....It is a hard thing to think of parting with it, but I am getting older, my sons are not interested in it and it needs someone that can keep it going and will enjoy it. A cousin has started talking to us about it and I hope to work things out with him....
I had a guy try to buy it for 3K a few years ago......He told some folks he thought he could get 5K for it. I should just truck it down to the State Fair next month and set it up near the Annual Tractor Parade....The last few times I watched it, ours was far nicer than the ones there....
Truly I hope to make a family friendly deal with the cousin, I know he would not turn around and sell it....
I appreciate all the input !!!
Very C😎😎L
It would have been gone for that money and have a new home. Maybe I should have bought that M at the auction but they are a LOT of vintage tractors in our area. Yea, we have a lot of parades also but like to truck it all around it would be for the love.
In retrospect I should have....just was not ready to let it go then.....but ready now.
I restored old tractors for 40 years. You never get out what you put into them, and the market has gone down in the last few years. I sold off my last four and bought a new Kubota. Should have done that 20 years ago.
Vintage tractors with 'provenance' are far more valuable than 'just another old tractor'.
I have a 1951 FORD 8N that's borderline 'rough' cosmetically but is mechanically sound and field ready. The valuable part is the original owner's manual AND the bank note where it was paid off $43.75 a month. Been in my family since 1957.
I also have the original manual and bill of sale. My Father in law bought it from the original owner. All the service records and detailed pics of the rebuild/restoration process..
Unrestored in western Iowa they bring $1000-$2000. Restored $3000-$4500 on a good day. Coincidentally I traveled to Ames Iowa yesterday and saw 3 of them heading west on trailers. There must have been a tractor show somewhere.
Some years back there was a group from Iowa called the Farmall Promenade. It was group of guys on Farmall tractors who "square danced" with their Farmalls. The men drove Farmall H's, and the "women" drove C's. The women were actually men in drag. They choreographed their show and it was quite entertaining, boring though it sounds.
"I also have the original manual and bill of sale. My Father in law bought it from the original owner. All the service records and detailed pics of the rebuild/restoration process.."
That makes a BIG difference(to collectors).
I believe we had one just like that when I was a lad. I spent a few hours in that seat. One odd thing that I distinctly recall was the little iron bar that linked the two brake pedals. You swung that up to use each pedal/brake individually, or dropped it into the slot so both brakes worked together.
Collectors will pay wild prices for them. Some buy just to drive in a parade.
I have a good running IH Super C that I use quite often. (making deer food plots pulling a disc)
Can snake the tricycle front end through and betwen trees using the one wheel lock brakes (for 0 turn)where i cannot get a regular tractor.
Some interesting stuff if you review IH's history all the way up to today, names changes, etc.
A lot of those Super C's were built here in Louisville.
My grandfather retired from IH (WWII vet) and had one of those on the old farm in Missouri. Used to tow us cousins down to the creek in a trailer behind it to go perch fishing
Mever had an M on the farm but did have a super c ,a 200 and a super a . Still have tge super a . Dad bought it new in 1951 .
I started putting up hay with a 9n Ford. I still remember the gall and hemys that steel seat caused.
Folks had a small Farmall when I was a kid. Don’t remember the model.
I restored this old Fordson and had it for years. Would sit outside all winter and would fire right up in the spring after about 3 revolutions of the crank. It was quite the yard art and got lotsa comments.
No worry about ''rubber'' on that Fordson of yours Merl. l see some newer small tractors are going back to solid wheels. They look like some form of plastic/polymer. My Grandaddy farmed 14 acres outside Conway SC from the Twenties thru the Depression and WWll with a MULE. He made virtually all his money off his 'Tobacco Allotment' of 2.1 acres. He did ok for the family. Grandma got electricity and an inside bathroom. He also put 3 sons thru Wofford College. And all with that mule. The boys finally went together and bought Grandaddy a 'Gravely Walk Behind' tractor.
I also had a Gibson tractor. Fun little guy!
I put this picture together with the airplane I was building because one of the guys on the S-51 forum accused me of being a backyard tractor mechanic. This pic proved him right!
Tractors are cool!
I would take that as a compliment
Merlinnv12, my first job after retirement was working at a FBO as a mechanic . Frequently customers asked if I was an A&P . My reply was that I was a tractor mechanic that my boss was trying to turn into an A &P . Most appreciated the joke .
Yeah, I was not offended. It was sort of a compliment. I learned a lot in my younger days by working on the Gibson and the Farmall. Later graduated to cars and trucks, motorcycles and then on to aircraft. I remember the Farmall as kind of gutless but we never asked too much of it anyway. Mostly dragging the pasture knocking down road apples and spreading cow pies.
My first job out of college was working for the Medium Voltage Motor Control Division of Allis-Chalmers.
Old friends and relatives would ask what I did there.
I told them........"I test drive the tractors 🚜. "
My two farmer uncles actually believed me............for a while. 😀