Allis-Chalmers B Value

Welcome Robby!  The B is a great & fun little tractor.

 Similar to the antique car world, you will find differing definitions of "restoration".  For some, it is new paint and decals.  For others, it is a rebuilt engine, magneto, carb, wiring harness, tires.  You get the point.

 

For a good running tractor, with only decent paint and tires, I would say that $1500 is not out of line but would be near the high end.  With rebuilt components, new tires, a through restoration, it would be a great deal. 

 

Welcome to the forum.

This is Richard and parts of a whole lot more tractors.... (if you want the fun of it)

Edited by GlenninPA - 19 Feb 2010 at 2:22pm

Robby H.,  First welcome to the Allis Chalmers Forum.  You will find a most helpful group of people here who are very willing to share information.

This is the same one posted about earlier and on craigslist. The guy was asking $2500, probably knows he was asking way too much.
http://westky.craigslist.org/grd/1600871000.html

Welcome to the family of Orange Rob. Being a B guy myself, from looking at the pics, that little dude looks well worth $1500. to me. I came from the antique car/street rod group, and love messin' with these AC Tractors. And, they are a heck of a lot cheaper to build!!
With that, I say "go for it"! Looks like a nice little B model with some upgrades...
Steve@B&B

The value of certain tractors can vary quite a lot depending on the number of them in your area and the demand.  That 'B' for $1500 would be a very good buy in my area of the country. I paid $1200 for my original '39 B twelve years ago and it was a good buy then. All I've ever had to do to it was clean and paint it. I have done road tours, parades, and put many hours on it with a belly blade and a mower, and it has always done the job. You couldn't get it away from me for $2500!!
I'd say go for it, it looks like a good unit.

As my father was in your same situation (sort of, always had the tractor, but was more tuned to cars for a while), you will always have the definition of "restoration" and "original". If you are bothered by old guys coming up to you at a tractor show and saying "this, this, and this is wrong", and not hearing anything else from them, this isn't the tractor for you. But if you don't mind it, there are still plenty of people who I'm sure would love to talk, especially about a '43. You learn a lot just from talking to old guys at tractor shows. I'm 17, have been in the boat for 4-5 years, and enjoy it quite much. Theres many things I could be nit-picky about (I am somewhat of a purist) but I promise you no matter what the B is a great little tractor. Lots of implements, parts are easy to find, and its easy to operate. Since you work on cars, you should not have any problems working on the tractor. Other then the magneto, which some people can get the hang of, and some people can't, you can tear this thing apart in to every piece and be able to put it back together by yourself. I say go for it as a starter. It only takes 1 to catch the "Persian Fever" as I like to call it. (Persian Orange was the "offical" color name of the orange Allis painted their tractors with. Now referred to as PO1 and PO2, changed shades sometime in the 60s with the D series, I don't really know much about tractors that new.) There you go, you learned something today.

I went to a local farm sell last Sat. and they had a B with cultivaters. It had been parked in a barn a few years and the rear tires looked like they had been put on just before it was parked and the were NOT dry rotted. It had electric start and hyd lift and would have probably started and run with a little gas and fresh battery. Motor was loose and paint was average for using tractor. It wasn't bad. It brought about a thousand and that really surprised me for this area. I was hoping to get it for about six or seven hundred, but someone else took it home. JP

Looks like a good price.  Sometimes hard to judge by photos.  If you chase all over for parts...  B parts are plentiful but total price can add up quick.   I bought mine with cutivators and some extras for $925,  really planned to just mess around in the yard with it for a while.  but got the resto bug that winter and immediately started to tear into it, it was laid up for almost two years and I refuse to add up what I have spent on parts alone.
I learned a bunch tho along the way and had fun.  
I like restorations that keep the hardware as it would have been originally but I like to let them look like they have been used and cared for too.   I have the most fun just using mine for whatever I please so it has scratches, paint wore off the pedals, gas stains, etc.  That is what they looked like on the farm anyway.
My father in law always did model T restos and he would talk at length about things he had fixed that probably no one would ever know about except him.  I found myself spending time (and money) on little details like that too.   I still have 6V unregulated electrics and have all the same issues they had with that in the 50s, but that is part of the fun.

This is how it looked when I bought it...

Then this mess...

this was last week...




Edited by Rick of HopeIN - 20 Feb 2010 at 9:43am

Rob, welcome to the forum. I have to agree witha lot of the others on here that what do define as a restored tractor. I can tell you from experience that if you buy a running tractor and simply do cosmetic restoration by the time you figure tearing it down, prep work and body work on the sheet metal, prime and paint you would be hard pressed to do it any cheaper. Add going through the motor or tranny, tires and all the other things like the electrical system you couldn't touch it for that. If it's as good as you decsribe it and it suits you, go for it... but be warned, once it gets in your blood you'll be hooked. Good luck and thanks for posting, Darrell