The Rustier The Better!

By Staff
Published on February 1, 1994
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97 Red Mill Road Peekskill, New York 10566

My husband, Denis Holmes, has a real love for rusty old
tractors. In his eyes the rustier the better! The most amazing
thing is what he can do with these rusty piles of junk on wheels.
He is a welder by trade and the things he can do with metal are
unbelievable.

He’s been eyeballing our neighbor’s junk tractor, a
rusty 1942 SC Case, which was lost in a field of weeds four feet
high. Finally our neighbor told him to take it. He would never get
it to run and was glad to get rid of it.

Once Denis started to take it apart, it became like a sickness.
He didn’t think of anything else. Piece by piece he would
scrape, sandblast, weld and repair them, taking every part down to
bare metal, then priming it. There were parts all over the place in
the garage, the shed, in the car and truck and even on the kitchen
table! It was like an artist sculpting a statue.

I took all the restoration pictures and sent for some new parts.
This magazine was very helpful for that. The SC Case tractor had a
cracked block and a broken sleeve. The engine overhaul and
restoration seemed to be a welcome challenge. Denis loved it.
Finally, all the parts were done and he assembled it back together
which truly is an art in itself. Then, the final coats of paints
were sprayed on. The research we did on the color said it should be
all orange, but he found no traces of orange under the cream color.
We believe this two tone to be the original colors. The new decal
kit was applied. That really was the finishing touch. When he
turned the crank on that old Case tractor, she fired and wanted to
run. A little fine tuning and two turns on the crank and she putted
like a new tractor.

The best part of all this restoration was the smile of
satisfaction on my husband’s face when that old tractor
started

up for the first time. I’ll have to keep that picture in
mind, because he’s al ready looking in the weeds for another
old rusty tractor, which surely isn’t only a pile of junk!

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