{"id":43162,"date":"2013-03-08T09:30:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=43162"},"modified":"2013-03-07T07:23:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T12:23:39","slug":"vintage-tractor-gets-facelift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=43162","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Tractor Gets Facelift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted Photo\/Franci Valenzano, public relations associate<\/em><\/p>\n

Charles \u201cChip\u201d Ax III, and his agricultural mechanics students stand with the 1925 Fordson Model F they restored as a class project. Pictured from left are; Ax, Nathan Geertson, of Penn Yan, Austin Goodwin, of Morris, Travis Huttar, of Middlesex, and Caleb Day, of Smyrna.\"Vintage<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

(Morrisville, NY \u2013 March 2013) Some would have considered the 1925 Fordson F tractor only for its scrap metal value. But when Charles \u201cChip\u201d Ax III, took a look at the vintage farm tractor, he saw an opportunity.<\/p>\n

Ax, assistant professor of agricultural engineering and diesel technology at Morrisville State College, and four of his students set out to restore the tractor, donated to the New York FFA Foundation by retired agricultural educators Daryle Foster and Donald Farrand, as a class project.<\/p>\n

The extensive undertaking involved more than 1,000 hours of manpower and included a complete overhaul, metal work, paint and a set of new rubber tires. The fully restored antique was raffled off at the New York Farm Show in Syracuse Feb. 22 with proceeds going to the New York FFA Foundation to benefit students across the state.<\/p>\n

The winner was Ray Adamson of New Berlin, a retired dairy farmer who works for the USDA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to make it the same or better than when it came out of the factory,\u201d Ax said of the relic gleaming with a shiny new coat of paint and red-steel rims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tractor is as old as it gets,\u201d Ax said, recalling its similarity to the first tractor ever used on Morrisville State College\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

The condition and age of the hand-crank tractor, which is known for taking the place of horses in the field, raised initial concerns, but Ax and his students were up for the challenge.<\/p>\n

Finding parts for the 20-horsepower, four-cylinder antique wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parts were hard to find due to its age, and things didn\u2019t disassemble too easily when we were working on it,\u201d said Nathan Geertson, 20, of Penn Yan, one of the agricultural mechanics students who worked on the project.<\/p>\n

Also working on the project were Austin Goodwin, 20, of Morris; Travis Huttar, 19, of Middlesex; and Caleb Day, 19, of Smyrna.<\/p>\n

A second tractor donated by Foster and Farrand and another donated to the department by Ax supplied many of the parts, while others had to be custom-made or reproduction-modified. When they couldn\u2019t match pistons, they modified the engine block to fit pistons from a 1936 tractor. Additional engine block machining included new valves, valve seats and guides so it could run on today\u2019s fuels.<\/p>\n

Age also factored into getting the ignition system working, but a custom-made part helped spark the tractor\u2019s tired engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, we work on tractors owned by students or student family members, and we rebuild them,\u201d Ax said, as opposed to restoring them. \u201cThis is the oldest tractor ever restored in our department.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its educational, hands-on value, the project served as a history lesson for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brought awareness to our students about where we have come in terms of ag equipment and how things, namely technology, have changed over the years,\u201d Ax said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole process of taking the tractor from nothing to something that runs was certainly interesting and was a great learning experience,\u201d Goodwin said.<\/p>\n

Funding from various sources, including the New York FFA Foundation and the Morrisville Collegiate FFA, helped absorb some of the cost of the project. There were also generous donations from Titan International-Tires, Gary\u2019s Carb and Magneto Repair,\u00a0 Syracuse Crank and Machine, Zeigler Machine Shop, Steve Bono of M&S Restoration in Bouckville, Fred Marshall and Marshall Farms, Inc., of Munnsville.<\/p>\n

Faculty and students in the college\u2019s automotive programs also stepped in to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in pretty rough shape and needed metal patching, dent removal and filler work,\u201d said Ryan Tabolt, instructional support assistant in the automotive technology department.<\/p>\n

Auto Body Technology students in Tabolt\u2019s labs worked on the sheet metal parts, smoothing out the fenders and the hood.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the unique aspects of this project is that the sheet metal components of this tractor were made out of mild steel,\u201d Wistrup said. \u201cIt is very different to work with than modern cars students are used to working with, and it gave them experience learning other metal work skills and techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tabolt and auto body students also pitched in with prep work \u2013 first sanding, priming then painting the Fordson in the autobody program\u2019s Garmat paint booth, matching its original colors with DuPont ChromaBase colors they mixed in lab.<\/p>\n

The refurbished classic has become a showpiece at various shows and events including Empire Farm Days, The Great New York State Fair, the Western New York Farm Show and most recently at the New York Farm Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt generated a lot of interest because of its age and uniqueness,\u201d Ax said.<\/p>\n

Students\u2019 dedication played a vital role in the successful completion of the project that took nearly a year and earned them college credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir work ethic was laudable,\u201d Ax said. \u201cIt was challenging at times, but they remained focused and their skills and ability saw it to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

History of the Fordson Model F<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fordson Model F was rolled out in 1917 in limited production and scaled up to mass production in 1918 to meet the urgent need for tractors by the British government. Fordson was a brand name used on a range of mass-produced, general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son, Inc., from 1917 until 1920 when it was merged into the Ford Motor Company, which used the name until 1964.<\/p>\n

The original Fordson used a 20-horsepower, four-cylinder vaporizing oil engine, a three-speed spur gear transmission (the three forward speeds ranged from approximately 2.25 to 6.25 mph), and a worm gear reduction set in the differential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted Photo\/Franci Valenzano, public relations associate Charles \u201cChip\u201d Ax III, and his agricultural mechanics students stand with the 1925 Fordson Model F they restored as a class project. Pictured from left are; Ax, Nathan Geertson, of Penn Yan, Austin Goodwin, of Morris, Travis Huttar, of Middlesex, and Caleb Day, of Smyrna. (Morrisville, NY \u2013 March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[23287,14880,14889],"class_list":["post-43162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charles-chip-ax-iii","tag-morrisville-ny-news","tag-morrisville-state-college"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-bea","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}