The Delphi FFA had a very special assignment for this year’s National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.
“This year is the 75th anniversary of John Deere being a sponsor for FFA,” said Delphi FFA Ag Educator and Adviser Doug Walker. “With our experience in tractor restoration, the National FFA reached out to us and asked if we would be interested in restoring one as a gift to John Deere.”
Not backing down from a challenge, the group went to work in putting together a special gift.
“We ended up with a 1945 John Deere B,” said Walker. “It was an interesting project just because a ’45 is considered a war year tractor. It’s a little more challenging to find parts. There were not quite as many of them made and it’s an unusual year for John Deere as it was a switch over year from the more modern versions.”
Delphi FFA member Wyatt Snyder talks about the restoration process they used.
“It starts from getting the tractor,” said Snyder. “Then we take a before picture to get an idea of what it looks like. As we start taking pieces and parts off, we take pictures. That way when we get new pieces or when we go to put it back together in the end after we’ve painted it and cleaned it all up, we know how it goes back together.”
Snyder added what happens before the tractors are painted.
“We start taking pieces off,” he said. “Once we them all stripped down to the frame and the engine with the transmission with the tires off of it, we put in our paint shop at our school and paint it the color of whatever tractor it is. After we paint it, we start putting it back together.”
Snyder said Walker’s passion for tractors is fantastic. Snyder said they have several types of tractors in the shop from Oliver to International to John Deere.
Walker said this was the 40th tractor they have restored in the last 10 years which means they restore an average of about four tractors a year. He said someone asked him recently how long it would be before he could get to his tractor for restoration and Walker said they were three to three-and-a-half years backed up.
“This is job security, I guess,” said Walker.
Walker talks about the process that the students usually go through during the tractor restorations.
“There’s not a textbook for them and there is usually not a guide for some of these old tractors,” said Walker. “There’s a lot of problem solving involved and a lot of on-the-job figuring it out. If there’s an issue, it’s usually trial and error and figure it out.”
The tractor is headed to John Deere headquarters in Moline, Ill.