Here She Comes

-Growl, snort, bellow, rumble…… growl….. Here she comes snow…. Old Allis is coming to kick your butt!!!!  With  dad with her you are in trouble for they will push you around and humiliate you once again…..   everyone bark their approval.. Go Allis!!!!!

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She has Heart

-As Annie and I go down the road we get lots of waves and ppl even stop us and comment about her and ask a few questions.  They always say she looks nice but the other comment which I never had before until her is “she runs great”.   She does too….. this old tractor does run great but I can;t take any credit for that.   That credit goes to the J.I. Case company for a great design.  After all, Annie  ran darn good when I bought her and at that time she had a leaky gas line, crushed carb floats, 2  burnt valves, a cracked head and 3 broken valve springs and shot spark plug wires….  That she ran is amazing in itself, but that she ran good enough to drive 6 miles home is … well.. beyond description.

 

I almost gave up on Annie for I hadn;t planned on the cracked head.  But, for some reason I stuck with her and now as I go down the road with her giving her throaty bellowy  sound I smile for I love to hear her run.  Obviously others do too and I get a lot of compliments on how good she runs….  I don;t mind saying I am proud of this tractor. But, not for what I did to her, but for she is.. well .. one great quality tractor that was designed well.  The amount of neglect and abuse she took and kept running was just unspeakable….  no machine should be treated that way.  But, she spends her days here at the Meadow now in semi-reitirement, ready to go back to work when I get a plow set-up for her in the next couple of years……  When she does pull something the sound that comes from her motor is beautiful….  reminds me of a old car with that deep sounding growl and just exudes power.

ONe really neat thing I learned lately and have now taken action to get is that the Case IH company has on record all the Build Cards for the tractors made by Case.  A build card was tied to the tractor when they started buidling it and along the way it was checked for passing each step or it was listed what was wrong and that it was fixed.  They tell you the date it was built, any special options it had, the rpm’s it maxed out at, the rpm’s the governor kicked in at, the dyno test where they tell you the horsepower it put on the drawbar and belt drive and other bits of info such as what dealer it was sold to and if it was already sold the name of that person also.  This is a dream come true for a collector like myself.   I plan on hanging the photocopy of the build card over Annie’s parking space….    Old tractors are great mysteries for who knows who had them, what they went through or where they had been.   Unlike my Old Allis most tractors are a mystery and we collectors always lament we wish they could talk.  Well, a build card takes us back to their movement of “birth” on the assembly line and we can trace it till it leaves the factory.  Annie left Racine, WI in 1949… now I at least will know what date she was built and when she was shipped and where too…….if the implement or tractor dealer still exists I probably then will be able to get her sales slip copy signed by the original owner….  and the address of where that farm was…. if I have any luck perhaps the same family will still own that farm…….  if not at least I can drive by and take pics… and stand there and imagine Annie going across the surrounding fields…..

Yes, I almost gave up on Annie…. for a while I wish I had.. then when I started her the first time I fell in love….  While Old Allis is still my first tractor and the apple of my eye… Annie has turned me into a Case guy…..  I like Allis Chalmers,,, I always will…. but from now on… the garage will be filling up with more tractors from the J.I. Case company…. with one exception… a Oliver…..but that is another story in itself…..

In closing, we will get back to collies tomorrow…. but today I thought we could take a moment to share about the tractor that captured my heart  because when I realize how badly she was neglected and then heard her run after restoring I knew I had a treasure… she has heart and she wants to run….. Roger Welsch wrote “We love old tractors for old tractors have souls.”  Yeah….. they are machines… but somehow, in someway they have some sort of a soul…..  and that is why I cherish my Annie………

-she might have heart but she has a wet tire now too… muwahahahahaha

 

 

 

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The Parade (Video Too!)

In the early morning dew and mist the old guy checked everything, flipped the on switch and hit the starter button.  Instantly Annie came to life and sat there purring with pure happiness.   He climbed up on her and put her in first gear and slowly pushed the hand clutch lever forward and with a throaty bellow old Annie rolled forward and rolled down out of the garage onto the driveway and up under the Maple where she sat idling for a few minutes as the old guy took pictures, cleaned her off with a soft blankie and loaded up some tools just in case.

Then the old guy jumped on Annie and increased the throttle and put her in fourth gear and let out the clutch lever and with a throaty deep bellow Annie rolled towards the road and onto it and away they went with Annie purring along unconcerned with the world around her, sounding happy with the old guy bouncing on the spring loaded seat from the big cleated agriculture tires running uneven on the cement until they gained enough speed to run smoothly.  Around the corner she went and began the long climb into town…Cars passed by but Annie just purred along happily.

Up over the hill they went and then the next turn came and Annie purred around it and headed up the curvy road to the meeting point.  Ahead he could see donkeys, other tractors, some cars and other floats.  HE pulled up and the people putting people in line smiled and laughed saying “so, they gave your 1949 Case the number 49….

As they lined up and Annie sat there purring up pulled a machine, a self driven baler the old guy had seen at a earlier tractor show and it was driven by a friend of his father and so he was able to sit there for a half hour talking to him and the people behind him who had a John Deere from 1941.  It was nice but then the WWII Navy fighter planes roared overhead signalling the beginning of the parade in the bright, clear blue skies with the soft west wind blowing.

Off they went heading for the main drag and the old guy grinned and patted Annie on her gas tank as they rolled along and then they turned the corner crawling along into a mammoth crowd of people on both sides of the road.  Children lined the curbs and waved and flags were waving and the old guy was in awe.  Watching the children, waving back at people, talking to people as they yelled compliments or asked a question as well as keeping his eyes on the flow of the parade making sure he had a safe distance between himself and the machine in front of him kept him busy.

Soon, he saw a few people he knew who cheered and yelled compliments about Annie which made the old guy smile and think about what a wreck Annie had been at one time.   Soon, he saw people show waved and called him by name and he felt bad for he could not at that moment remember who they were.

As they rolled along Annie never missed a beat running better than ever and the old guy felt very proud of Annie, not for anything her did, but that she was running so well because she was built so well, a true American piece on ingenuity.   Because they were going so slow the big treads on the rear tires kept the old guy bouncing up and down on the seat and someone yelled “like riding on air”?  Sort of…. the spring makes it soft the old guy yelled and he rolled on bouncing.

Soon, he saw a man and his family and their son who had sat on Annie a while back and they all waved and the son was yelling.. “The Tractor!!! The tractor! Hi chuck!”  The old guy waved back and smiled.   Then an old man in the crowd stood up and pumped his fist in the air and screamed “CASE!!!!!!!”  The old guy waved backed and laughed and then little kids along the way waved and people were giving thumbs up signals and the old guy patted Annie again… after all they weren;t cheering him, they were cheering everyone and especially those old machines who still get it done yet are so old.

 

As they rolled past the announcer the old guy heard someone yelling and it was his son and his friends and a few men nodding and pointing yelling “Nice!”  As they rolled on the end came and as they turned the corner the old guy stopped Annie and put her in fourth and off they went with a bellow and then he opened her up and let her fly down the road and then a couple more turns and they were back at the starting point and the old guy kept Annie rolling till they passed it and headed back onto the road home.

As they rolled along with Annie still purring steadily cars passed and people waved and he figured they must have seen Annie at the parade.  They rolled down the hill around the corner and up into the drive and stopped in front of the garage as Annie sat there purring and the old guy patted her hood for she hadn’t missed or sputtered at all.  Amazing is all he could think, just amazing.

He wiped her down and then put her in her spot in the garage and he idled her down and turned off the gas to empty out the carb and gas line so she won;t drip gas out of the carb onto her paint.  Finally she stopped and the old guy finished shining her up and then he looked long and hard at Annie remembering how bad of shape she was in.  He put his arm over her hood and sort of hugged the old tractor and said “Good job old girl… good job.”  Annie sat there and then her radiator gurgled softly as if she was saying thank you……

What was amazing about this whole thing is that as I watched the people they weren’t cheering on the people but they were cheering the machines and the people at most got cheers for the restoration they did on the machines.  I never saw so many people at a parade in my life and it was a lot of fun….  but the cheering for Annie, the other old farm machines, trucks and cars and such were because these old machines fed the world or enabled others to work to feed the world and still survive and it also brings back memories and brings a glimpse into the past that so many people fondly remember or have read about.   Myself, I came away from today with a deeper respect and love for Annie.  Despite her being a wreck, despite her abuse, despite her age she survived it all and today proved she still can run like new at the age of 65.  I respect her and am finally ready to say I am glad I bought her……  it was a lot of work, but I only put her back together, her quality and toughness helped her to survive and now shows as she purrs along contentedly.  Way to go Annie…. way to go….

Here is the Video of us in the parade…..

 

 

-here we come!

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-Annie is purring like a kitten….

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-rolling by…..

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0 There we go!  Collies tomorrow….

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Could be doing….

-I could be doing this…

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-we could be doing this….

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-I could be doing this, but dad is spending time in a parade with this…

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-wait, it is painted Flambeau Red right?  Well, Flambeau means torch…. I have a solution…

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-Tractor, meet Ginger’s Flambeau thrower… Muwahahahahahahahahah

 

 

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Moving Forward

Today, it was sunny but cooler so I played with the collies and spent the day stripping down the front bottom behind the axle, the frame around the radiator and the hood to get it ready to prime and paint tomorrow.   I caught gasoline at a low price and put some in the collies transport unit #1 and bought some stainless steel bolts, nuts, metal screws and washers so that in the future I won’t have to repaint these things if I need to take the hood off or the grill off.  Stainless is shiny and it doesn’t rust. 🙂  In time I will go to that on my two Allis’.

Apparently I read the schedule wrong for Football. Liverpool plays at 11 AM EST on Talksport.com not Saturday.  A win by Chelsea temporarily, until Liverpool plays, has put them in first by one point. So, a tieat least to tie for first or preferably a win by the Reds is needed.  So, GO REDS!!!!!!  Tomorrow is a big day with only 6 games left.

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GO YOU REDS!!!!

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The ground is showing again and the old Case SC is coming along…. so a busy and productive weekend so far.  Oh, my son and I also are cleaning out one half of the front bench for I figured if I rip that half out I can gain four feet in the Garage in length…..  🙂  I don;t need the bench so we are busy rearranging too…. as the collies frolic on celebrating the pools being full of water and not ice.. 🙂

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Collies-n-Hobbies

With more snow on the ground than I have ever seen at this time in March we are all going crazy waiting to get out and do the spring, summer and fall things like run with the collies all day, work om and drive the tractors and work in the garden.  So, today after fixing the garage door that tried to fall off its rails I took out all three tractors. 🙂 Old Allis ran like a champ like always.   Here she is showing off with Annie my Case SC.

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Old Allis has had a decent rest the past couple of weeks……

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Here is Molly my Allis Chalmers WC…. she sputtered a bit today and I figure she needs some spark plug wires and some new spark plugs…. then she will run perfect again.. she is due for a tune-up….

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Here is Annie, the Case SC running…. if you look at the left front tire and the axle post up to the turning arm you will see it is all new paint.  What color is it?  She started up today and ran really good. So, I snuck her out of the garage and drove her into the snow.  She ran great and this was her first spin out of the garage since her tune-up.  She is a lot more lively than before and she did something to day she never did before … she took off in 4th gear … before she never had enough power to do so.  So, I put the throttle down to just above idle and tried fourth gear and she took off even then!  We spun around for a bit and had a bit of fun before I put her back.

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Dad.. can we go play now?  Yes!! YAY!!!!

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YAY!!! We are having lots of fun….. all together now let run and bark uncontrollably…. muwahahahaha

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A song about Allis Chalmers…. its history and as it says the first tractors with rubber tires were Allis’…. the same year they became Persian Orange…. thanks for reading! 🙂

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Other things going on….

For those who would like to see a bit more of what goes on at the Meadow, you can read my other blogs here….

For Old Allis go here;

-16 Degrees, windchill -30

For other items from a tractor’s point of view.. go here….

The Winter Blues

For All things Ford go to:

http://fordsofthepast.wordpress.com/

Don’t forget our earlier Collie post from today where Skylight woos….. and schmoozes…..

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hmmmmm….. skylight is passed out… wonder if I used too much saltpeter!  Oh well….. more food for me…. muwahahahahahaha   Now back to world domination….

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