The framework I made from old oak planks that I bought from an old saw mill in Ledyard . The wood is as old as the tractor. I would like to mention an interesting point. Back in the 1940's when my father built the tractor, he went to that same old saw mill and bought from the owner the LaSalle rear end and transmission that is now in the tractor. 60 years later I'm there buying wood for the same tractor. The planks looked great after I cut them to size, drilled for bolts, carefully sanded not to remove old saw blade marks and the "old look". Lots of charm still in the wood! I then sealed and put on three coats of marine polyurethane.
how they looked from saw mill.
cut and sanded to size
The planks were all installed (except the back one is missing in photo) exactly where my father bolted them down. the only difference, he used carriage bolts and I used bolts with nuts and washers and I countersunk each so the heads were all flush.
after everything was fitted, I disassembled and sealed and polyurethaned.
now onto the wooden ammo box seats.
The seats were old wooden ammo boxes. If you go back to the first photo of the blog with my father on the red flyer you will see he is sitting on a ammo box. It was very important to me to find two old boxes to use.
I found two real nice ones in my Uncle Lester's garage which he had collected from
my fathers store "Campbell's Hardware and Sporting Goods". My father had a large gun store above the sporting goods store in Norwich Connecticut from the late 1940's till the 1980's.
I completely tore them down very carefully not to split the old wood. Next I had to cut 3 inches off their height so I could fit my legs under the steering wheel.
I was very happy how they came out. One is a Winchester box and the other a Remington box. I built inner frames so the lids would be flush and removable(for storage ) and rugged enough to hold my weight. If you notice I made sure I left the price of a box of shotgun shells my father put on with a grease pencil. Marked down from .98 cents to .89 cents per box. What a price! In the 1960's my father was the biggest Remington gun dealer in Connecticut. I can't imagine if he was alive today how upset he would be with this country and especially this state doing all they can to make life miserable for gun enthusiast's, hunters and collectors.
After the wood frame was reinstalled, I refinished the boxes carefully not to remove any original printing and screwed them down only after I sat behind the wheel to make sure I could reach the pedals comfortably . Yea, we are going for comfort thats for sure :) May need to take a boat cushion when I head to the tractor shows next spring.
Note, my fathers store name and address still on the lids.
I collected original Model A Ford tools and grease gun and will display under the drivers seat.
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