Early Dexta

David in Wales · Post by **David in Wales** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:12 pm

1st version Dexta, this one has live drive pto & hydraulics.

David

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:43 am

David,
What do you mean when you say "first version?"

Post by **Oscar** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:07 am

He means that the Dexta's specs are those of the first run of Dextas made. However, that is not the case. The very first run had an underswept exhaust. See this page for details about the various Dexta models. Still, I'd say that David has a lovely Dexta.

Post by **Brian** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:30 am

Oscar,
Dextas came with either vertical or horizontal exhausts from day one. The prototypes all had vertical ones according to the published test pictures.

Post by **Oscar** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:56 am

Brian wrote:Oscar,
Dextas came with either vertical or horizontal exhausts from day one. The prototypes all had vertical ones according to the published test pictures.

If that's the case then I need to change the info on the main site. Seem to recall that various books indicate that the production tractors started with underswept exhausts, but then again I could be wrong

. If David has a prototype, then wow, that would be a tractor with quite a bit of historic relevance!

Now, about the colour of the grilles......

npaisnel · Post by **npaisnel** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:19 am

What about the colour of the grilles??? I am just about to paint mine. Have not bought the paint yet. What should I buy?
Are you saying the early ones did not have orange grilles?

Post by **Oscar** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:51 am

npaisnel wrote:What about the colour of the grilles??? I am just about to paint mine. Have not bought the paint yet. What should I buy?
Are you saying the early ones did not have orange grilles?

The colour of the grilles is the oldest, most worn-out debate on this forum

. They were not orange, they were light grey.

There are lots of discussions on the old forum on this topic, such as this one.

By the way, my Dexta had orange grilles. Not historically correct, but it looked good. When Brian brought my Dexta to Britain, he removed the grilles. He couldn't stand to be seen with orange grilles!

Regards,
Oscar

npaisnel · Post by **npaisnel** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:04 am

Will have to look at the pile of old grilles that I have, they are certainly a reddish colour, but not that bright orange.
Must get up in tha attic and look for the old farm slides!

Thanks

Post by **Brian** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:18 am

The exhaust systems were optional so either is correct. The underslung ones were not used often in England, usually it was tractors in the fruit areas that had them. They were a fire risk in arabal areas and a posioning risk to anyone riding on rear mounted implements.

Fords pictures show both Dextas and Majors right through to New Performance tractors with underslung exhausts. In practise these were in the minority of builds.

The grill debate will go on and on and on

I have not shown them yet but both the petrol Dextas that I saw last week have SILVER grills and both are original and date from January 1961. I think it was just the can of paint that was open at the time

Not a serious problem, I only comment when I see tractors being awarded prizes at shows for originality. Yesterday I saw a tractor awarded a cup for best restoration and it looked really smart and well done.

Was it only me that noticed it had all the wrong name decals for that year?

Also remember that the colours used by Ford in pamphlets and films are not necesssarily the ones that arrived on the tractors at the dealers and farms. One day I will post a picture of the PINK Fordson Major on a Dinkum digger!!

Aussie Frank · Post by **Aussie Frank** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:26 pm

I have to lend some support to Brian on this one. In all the time I have spent in tractor grave yards I have never seen a flake of orange paint on any grille. Usually they were black from oxidisation or had faint traces of blue on them. Mind you our tractors tended to have red wheels rather than orange so the whole color thing must have been a local market thing. The local E1A majors with their red wheels looked quite wonderful, I can't understand how anybody would put orange on the wheels or any other part. All of this probably happened because the tractors exported to Australia arrived minus wheels. The wheels were supplied locally and the wheels were painted red. None of the grilles were ever painted orange. Obviously the choice of color on the grille or any other part of the tractor is up to each tractors owner, but I can not see ford painting the tractor minus the grilles then painting the grilles with the wheels and then bolting them on the tractor. That is simply too much labour. My apologies to our Dutch friends, I have no doubt that your tractors were mostly supplied with orange grilles, thanks to the dealership network, or possibly a special order put into the factory. Just my two cents worth, but orange grilles just look wrong to me.

Regards, Frank.

BarryT · Post by **BarryT** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:34 pm

Hi,

Brian is correct, this grill colour debate could go on for ever and no doubt will pop it's head up every now and then to get us all going again.

But since Brian chucked the orange grills over the side of the ferry coming home I now have blue grills and I can spot my Dexta a mile off in a row of other Dexta's as it's usually the only one with blue grills.

Here's another one!! what colour should the Dexta vertical exhaust be?? mine is blue, again I have not seen many around the shows painted blue.

I think I must have the only Dexta painted in the proper colours, unless of course someone can tell me and prove otherwise!!

Regards,

Barry

Post by **Brian** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:55 pm

You are exactly right Barry. All Fordson tractors from 1952 to 1964 came out with Blue exhausts. The silver exhaust was the colour of a Ford service part exhaust which had not gone through the paint shop on the tractor. Everything was painted blue except the wheels and wings on the later models. And I mean everything! The knobs got screwed on last.