Knowing that the tractor would be reduced to a pile of parts during the total restoration he had in mind, Ted put the valve cover in a safe place. Too safe, apparently.
"Now I can't find it," he said. "I've looked all over... we've moved since then, and I'm afraid I left it at the old place. You can get replacements, but they re just not quite right.
Ted followed his standard procedure in restoration. First, the tractor was taken completely apart, and everything on it was steam cleaned. Next, every piece - "wheels, everything" - was sandblasted and primed. And at every turn, he took pictures.
Nor does he regret trying a different paint. He just wishes he'd read the directions first.
"You've always got to try different and cheaper paints," he said. "$700 is a lot of money... that takes up buying a lot of other junk. If you're going to use some kind of new paint to save money, try to check with other people who've used it, so you can learn from their experiences."
Ted and his son have a collection that includes 15 Caterpillars and another 15 tractors. "It's nothing really fancy," he said. "We do have a Case cross-mount, and a big Huber."
Their real numbers are in engines. "I don't know how many engines I have," he said. "There's more than 200, and less than 400. Some are real jewels. There's eight or nine that there's only one or two - maybe three - known to exist. A lot are torn apart."
A '44 coupe got Ted started on antique tractors. "We were looking at this car. Behind the building there was what I thought was a JD GP. I asked the guy if he wanted to sell the tractor," he recalled. "Well, I got it for $75. And I never did buy the car.
"I took the Deere home, and later I got a Fordson, and put it on some rental property next door. But my wife was not crazy about it," he said. "So, I told her I bought it for parts, and then it was okay. Later on, somebody was over looking at the tractors and said 'I don't understand how the parts on these are interchangeable', and she overheard. That sure blew my cover!"