995Lugmatic:

I like what you are saying about perfectly restored tractors. Before I got turned on to Olivers by my father-in-law, I belonged to the Two-Cylinder Club for a while. If you wanted to bring a tractor to one of their Expo's, you had to send in a picture and get pre-approved before you could bring your tractor. To get accepted your tractor had to look better than it did when it rolled off the line in Waterloo. One thing that drew me to the HPOCA and my state chapter is that we can have great summer shows with lots of tractors, some of which might be perfectly restored, some owner restored good but not prefect, and even some tractors in their "work clothes." Your average Expo kind of guy can only take his tractor to Expos. I like taking mine to shows, parades, tractor drives, pulls, plow days, etc. If my tractor gets a scratch life goes on. If we weren't having fun with it, it probably wouldn't have gotten scratched. 

As far as color goes, when my son built our 77 puller tractor he wanted it to stand out from the other Olivers. He had always admired the XO-121 so we painted our 77 Red with Green wheels. Probably not the best for an Expo, but it sure looks nice pulling the sled down the track for a full pull.

--Marc Sletten--