Dan Severson has at least 20 tractors. And heās working quite diligently on all of them ā with tweezers, in the dining room.
āI start with a plain toy out of a package from any store,ā explains the Chatfield, Minn., man whose hobby is reconstructing, detailing and building 1/64-scale metal and plastic toy tractors. āI strip all the paint off, add lights, handrails, interior details like levers, and repaint it.ā
Though heās never lived on a farm, Danās passion for painting and detailing miniature farm machinery fills his spare time. It began with a battered toy tractor he had as a child and a suggestion from his wife, Angie, to find a hobby that would keep him busy and give him a breather after a long dayās work as an air conditioning and heating installer.
āThere used to be a Minneapolis-Moline dealer in town that my dad worked for when he was 18 or 19, so that piece has sentimental value,ā he says, eyeing his collection. āSome of these were toys my brother and I had when we were younger. The paint was chipped, and they were all beat up. I decided to restore them and add all the details.ā
Before finding that there were other toy-tractor enthusiasts in the area, Dan kept his hobby to himself, thinking it was nothing of consequence. āI had a large collection and I found some guys that do custom detailing kind of like this, so I started doing this about four years ago,ā he says. āIāve just gone from there. Even my parents said they didnāt think this would turn into this big a hobby.āĀ Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
Small-scale workshop
The Seversonsā dining room has become a regular repair and restoration shop, as well as an original tractor body shop. With Internet connections made to other toy builders, Dan has begun perfecting details on even the most abused and resurrected toys, and making his own toys of styrene plastic.
He depends on online parts suppliers for the tiny pins and rods he needs because there are few miniatures shops in southeast Minnesota, but he likes being able to confer with suppliers as he starts and finishes a project. A toy in Danās hands can begin its transformation either as a neglected sandbox tractor or as sheets of styrene, but when itās finished, it has working wheels, a steering wheel, mirrors, doors, plastic āglassā windows, hitches and working implement parts.
Tweezers are his primary tools. āI also have what would be considered dental instruments, like dental picks,ā he says. āI have a lot of real small files to file pieces down once I cut them. I also use knives and digital calipers.ā Each toy is painted with aerosol paints. āIf you go to a dealership, theyāll have an OEM International paint and John Deere will have theirs,ā he adds. āYou just have to try to find something fairly similar if you canāt find the OEM paint.ā
A small parts junkyard has taken over Danās tool chest. āIf I want the wheels off one tractor to put on another, Iāll buy it, tear the wheels off it and Iām stuck with a toy with no wheels on it,ā he says. āThat gets tossed in a drawer until I need a steering wheel or something. I have a very large bin of otherwise good toys missing wheels or other parts.ā
Decals can be difficult to remove from manufactured toys and are often hard to find through suppliers, so Danās lucky to be married to a graphic designer whoās willing to print tractor brand names and model numbers on clear plastic inkjet labels. He recycles what he can. āI reuse some of the decals from the tractor that I originally tore down,ā he explains. Planning is an important part of the process. Waiting for parts shipments in the middle of a project ācan be real tough,ā he says.
Time-intensive work
Each purchased metal tractorās overhaul can be a long process. āYour basic tractor can take anywhere from 5 to 12 hours, depending on how intricate you get with the details,ā Dan says. āA lot of them come out of the package put together in two halves and thereās a seam down the middle that Iāll fill. Then itāll have to be sanded and re-painted and the details put on.ā Eyestrain isnāt an issue yet. āA lot of times Iāll work for an hour and then take a break because my hands get sore from dealing with such small pieces,ā he says.
Custom-built plastic tractors require many more hours of concentration because, as Dan points out, āthey have about 300 separate parts that all have to be cut, assembled, sanded and painted. They can take anywhere from 25 to 30 hours each.ā
Mechanical and functional correctness are carefully considered. āEverything has its own challenges,ā he says. āWhen building a loader, I have to get everything lined up straight so that when the parts go up and down, the moving pieces donāt bind. Once you get them painted, if they bind up, the paint comes off. You have to try to avoid that. Working with anything of such small scale, like the pins you have to use, can get really frustrating, especially if you have to piece everything back together.ā
Ideas for Danās plastic tractors originate from photos heās taken at tractor shows or pictures supplied by people who special-order replicas of tractors and implements they own. Green tractors dominate the orders he receives. āI could build any John Deere tractor and know it will sell,ā he says. āAny other color, I make it with plans to keep it.ā
Each project is detail intensive. āIāll take lots of pictures of different tractors and measure them down to scale,ā he says. āThen I make each piece individually. A lot of times, even if I measure things, once I get them scaled down and put the specific pieces on, it wonāt look right. Then I have to go back and find a picture and try to find a happy medium between the right size and the right look.ā
Customers sometimes request specific details. āThereās a little added pressure when somebody has an exact model in mind,ā Dan says, ābecause there are certain things they notice that I wouldnāt know because they look at it every day of their lives.āĀ
Perfecting the process
Now that heās a father, Danās time is at a premium. At the same time, heās planning to move his workshop from the dining room and basement to the garage. āI spend probably a couple hours a day and maybe three to four hours a day on the weekends working on this, so it could be anywhere from 10 to 15 hours a week,ā he says. āThatāll change now, with a baby. In the past month, Iāve started resin-casting the parts, which means Iāll take a tire or a rim and make a mold of it so I can pour plastic resin so I donāt have to buy so many toys and tear the wheels off. For some of my scratch-built pieces, Iām planning to make molds so I can make them out of resin.ā
Expediting the construction process could make more time for him to spend with his daughter, Dani Jo. Heās certain sheāll want to play with Daddyās tractors someday. āWeāll deal with that when sheās older,ā he says. āWeāll probably have to have some other toy tractors for her to play with because these arenāt exactly toys.ā
Not exactly toys; not exactly work. āI could see myself doing this as a business, maybe, but I would have to do things, like resin casting, to lessen some of the time I spend on the models, to get enough done,ā Dan says. āFor now, though, Iām pretty content to just keep it as a hobby.ā
He advises anyone interested in dining-room tractor-body repair to be cautious about how much they take on. āBe patient,ā he says. āIf I go back and pull out the first pieces I built, they donāt look anything like the ones I make now. Try to learn at least one new thing from every model you build. Keep learning and be patient. Enjoy it.āĀ
FC
For more information: Dan Severson, 509 Park St., Chatfield, MN 55923; (507) 272-1580; e-mail:Ā
Daniel.Severson@gmail.com
;Ā
www.tractortinkering.com
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Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy is a freelance writer in Spring Valley, Minn. E-mail her atĀ
twistwriter@hotmail.com
.