I have worked in the It industry for all of my adult career, I'm 32 years old and since moving out of central London I am getting more and more into the rural way of life. I am always looking for new projects and have got into gardening and growing my own vegetables. My love of machinery though has had me looking for a new project...
....and so, a friend of mine suggested there was a tractor for sale. It was from a mutual friend of ours, called John. John had gone to a garage sale- to buy a garage. However inside the garage he had stumbled on an old tractor. He bought it with a view to selling it on. Now, you see- around where I live these are very sought after- and as soon as people realised John had one of these to sell- his phone was ringing off the hook. Fortunately I had bumped into someone else that knew John was picking it up and bringing it home- I was straight over there to take a look. The photo below is what I saw!
It was running, and I was overcome by the rawness of it - noise, movement and it looked like just the project! It was running, but there were a number of issues with it.
-No battery
-Alternator on it, but not working
-The radiator was leaking
-Difficulty in starting
-General condition/rust etc
Based on these minor issues, I thought I can fix them and fix the cosmetics- job's a good un!
Now the whole tractor restoration had got my attention. A farmer who I go shooting with, runs ploughing competitions- awesome. I also have a large meadow area at the top of my back garden that needed cutting. I had totally justified the purchase. John and I agreed, that I would go and do some internet research, he would hold it for me for the rest of the day. The price was agreed.
I nipped home, did some research and spoke to my dad. He was very excited at the prospect of being part of the restoration. He told me a 'little grey fergie' was what he learnt to drive on. I looked at the costs of restoration and was estimating around £1-2k... I had never restored a vehicle before and had very few tools- and very little idea of how to use them!
What could possibly go wrong!
I checked out my log shed, which would be my workshop- and arranged delivery for Saturday morning at 7am!
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