I own a 1953 WD that was bought by a man who died shortly after purchasing it new and before he could use it. It was then purchased several years later by another man from the widow. I then bought it from that man after a lifetime of use. It was run hard and put away wet. Still an interesting story and I wish I would have written it all down. It's on the list for restoration some day.

PaulB wrote: At any auction it’s BUYER BEWARE!!! If you understand that almost all auctioneers are crooks, you’ll be careful accordingly.

This type thing, helps a lot. I can only assume that it came from a family that cared about this owner but, I don't know! But, it's a prized possession to me. (note the cost of antifreeze in 1955) This tractor (even though it's a Ford) is exactly as it came from the dealer, with the exception of 14.9's on the original wheels.

I bought this tractor, last April and curiously, there was no mention of one owner by the auctioneer (one of the more reputable in my area) but, there is one auction company, that I would not believe a word they said!!! They scammed me twice and I never went to another auction by them!



Edited by frnkeore - 06 Jun 2019 at 10:52am

A lot of folks on here, when mentioning a recent acquisition, refer to it as "my new tractor, at least new to me tractor".  I guess that would make them the first owner!  I feel that way about my D14, especially with the amount of fixin I have done on it!

That was certainly a high price ........... must be why my grandpa always drained the water every day in the fall

HoughMade wrote: $40 for engine coolant, billed separately on a new sale, in 1955?  No way. Just because we commonly call engine coolant "antifreeze" today doesn't mean that's what that invoice meant.  Tires, I can understand.

There of course no way to know for sure but, alcohol was used a lot for "antifreeze" at and before 1955, maybe they used JD, not the tractor but, Jack Daniels Maybe that was why it cost so much!!!

I was 10 years old, most of 1955, My Dad was born in 1908 and was a mechanic, before me. At 15 years old (1960, I was way into cars by then) I had never heard of Ethylene Glycol but, when I started as a mechanic (1962), it was in the newer cars. I think MOPAR was one of the first to use it, in production cars.

That's why my assumption that if it was Ethylene Glycol, it may have been very expensive.

Another point is that why would a farmer use Ethylene Glycol in tires that could spill in the field and maybe cause problems with crops or animals.

He bought wheel weights, maybe instead of loading the tires and if it where me, I'd op for calcium for the tires for more weight for my buck. I'm sure that calcium would have been cheaper at that time, too.

But, who knows.................

So what if bill of sale  has 2 names on it , and " one owner " means from time it was bought new from dealer .  Then that means from time it was sold from dealer it was not a ONE OWNER PURCHASE  

Edited by Fred in Pa - 07 Jun 2019 at 8:47am

Probably regular old anti freeze for one year.  I mean it is for a FORD!!!