I’ve Got One I’ll Give You If You Come and Get It

By Staff
1 / 3
Restored, sitting in the sunshine, running!
Restored, sitting in the sunshine, running!
2 / 3
Fresh out of the Boondocks.
Fresh out of the Boondocks.
3 / 3
Torn down to this.
Torn down to this.

RR 4, Box 1043, Eufaula, Oklahoma 74432

It was a cold, rainy day in November, 1994. We were visiting my
wife’s cousins in Fort Worth. The girls had a party planned
with some high school classmates.

The man who is married to one of the cousins, Mr. Hi Welborn,
asked me to go with him to his place where he has some long horn
cattle. There was nothing in the way of work we could do in the
rain, so we went into the barn and had a cup of coffee and watched
some young long horn bulls eat their daily ration.

Back in the pickup he began to show me the fields, some of his
equipment and the place where the old house sat and later
burned.

About noon he stopped the pickup and broke out some sandwiches
and drinks. Nearby were several old antique cars, a Morris Minor
and a Buick. While we were talking about the cars I rather idly
observed that I had ‘thought some’ about getting an old
tractor to work on, through the winter months. Then he looked at me
and said, ‘I’ve got one I’ll give you, if you’ll
come and get it!’ I said, ‘I’d like to see it!’

Mr. Wellborn drove me to where the tractor sat unprotected, and
I recognized it immediately as a John Deere Model B. I said,
‘I’ll come and get it!’

The tractor had been sitting in all kinds of weather until both
rear wheel brakes were seized up, causing both wheels to drag as
the tractor was pulled out to a road. I also found that rain water
stood in the left cylinder until that piston had to be driven out
with a sledge hammer.

As I began to look for parts, I stopped at a neighbor’s
placehe is a farm equipment dealer on a small scale. He also
rebuilds tractors and equipment for resale. Mr. Davidson reached
for a catalog and found a remanufactured Model B engine block with
rust removed, re-bored, and new pistons and rings fitted. Parts
have come from Iowa, Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma. Every parts
dealer has said that parts for those old B’s are really getting
scarce! And I believe it.

This John Deere B started again with hand cranking on July 19,
1995 and moved out on its own power.

  • Published on Jan 1, 1996
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