The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi,

Long time ago the discussions on this board were about the orange grills. Don’t want to get into that again but I’m involved in a paint job and started thinking about the colour of the hub cabs.

Were these be blue or orange on a tractor with cast front wheels?

Regards emiel

All hub caps were blue, the ford and fordson on film series is very good for seeing details like this. I've seen many repaints that are wrong in lots of ways (orange hub caps, unpained injector pumps, silver exhausts and many other similar cases). As for the grilles I found an old JCB film that could make the debate go strong again (I don't remember where this film was); I recommend seeing what is the original colour for each grill and then working out if the grilles are original or not and only then deciding what to do.
Sandy

Hi Sandy,


Thanks. I now know what to do when a paint job us to be done. Blue caps it will be.

As for the grilles, I most like the blue and grey colour. Not orange. I have one in orange, should repaint it, but never started that project.

Rgds emiel

I agree about the orange grills, although I remember reading that the Farm Major did have them. My favourites are the blue and silver ones used till 58 and 63, I find early Dexta's are not as bad with orange grills (that's what you see in Ford films) as all the other Major's and Dexta's.
Sandy

Interesting question! The sales brochures are little use on this topic as the illustrations are touched up by the artists. My 1951 Major brochure has orange coloured caps and orange coloured half shaft centres with the centre slot, the 1953 brochure is the same. My Power Major brochure has orange caps but blue half shaft centres, the 1960 Super Major brochure has orange caps and the half shaft centres cannot be made out!
The Ford and Fordson DVD's are a big help and as Sandy says they show blue caps and blue half shaft centres. My completely original 1952 Major has blue caps and blue half shaft centres, the other tractors have pressed steel front wheels and all hubs are blue as are all half shaft centres.

I think the wheels were painted in a different part of the factory, while the main assembly (engine, gearbox and rear axle including half shafts) was painted as a solid lump once assembled and tested. The brochures seem a minefield of variations, Ebro's first brochure was a Major that was artistically modified to look like what was first sold by Ebro, a rebadged Major. I think it could well be a Major with a handbrake which Ebro never specified.Here is a pic of one I found: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NBnXSqPLlS0/V ... 1322_n.jpg Old films are a fantastic reference, the Good Ploughing series in volume 4 is brilliant for the ploughs and the rear end of the Major's in it, as are the films introducing the Super Major and Super Dexta.
Sandy

Hi,

Just some thoughts on the subject.

I can imagine that the tractors were painted without their wheel in the factory.

Therefore half shafts and steel wheel hubs being blue makes perfect sense.

I thought maybe cast wheels and their hub caps were painted in the same proces, but apparently they weren’t.

Best source in my opinion is original tractors. In brochures specially dressed up tractors may be used and together with the imagination of the artist it can become quite different from factory standards. Are the tractors in films farm standard tractors or dressed up for the occasion?

Rgds emiel

I read somewhere that the artists who painted the brochures painted the grilles and other bits orange to make them stand out and try and make the brochures more colourful, and were encouraged to do so by Ford to give the pictures a bit more 'jazz'

If you look in the internal part of a cast wheel with the grease out the way you'll see orange there. Ford might have had spare hubs for pressed wheels that they used solely to keep the inside of the caps unpainted. The tractors in films are generally a pretty good reference for standard features as many films showed tractors that were already working in farms or industrial areas.
Sandy