Like grandfather, like grandson

buying another Farmall H, from 1945, and using it to restore the rst one.

“I managed to extract the main jet out of the combustion chamber with a piece of wire, so I never needed to dismantle the engine.”

Tony had enough engineering gear to complete the restorations himself, including repairing and making parts, panel beating and spray painting.

His uncle said that Tony’s maternal grandfather had exactly the same Farmall H as his rst ever tractor. His mum found a black and white photo of her father driving the Farmall with a baler attached.

“When I started my Farmall up, my uncle smiled and said that it made the right noise!”

Although it isn’t the same tractor, Tony likes the fact that he has ended up with the same model and it brings happy memories back to his mum’s side of the family.

Tony has since moved to a lifestyle block and has a few sheds with an ever growing collection of engines and tractors. e second Farmall H is itself two thirds restored now.

Waikato Vintage Machinery

Club member Tony Hancock was born and raised in town, but his mother was brought up on a dairy farm.

Tony remembers holidays and weekends on the Walton farm. His father had a “fairly decent workshop” at home.

“I’ve always been inclined to do engineering and used to play around with machinery. When I was around 16 or 17 I built my own legally roadworthy vehicle and drove it for a few years,” says Tony.

He studied mechanical and plastics engineering after school and learned all about hydraulics and pneumatics during his rst job.

Once married, Tony still lived in town but had a house with a large basement and that was where his collecting started. His rst piece was an old engine he saw outside the shearing shed on his wife’s cousin’s farm.

“I needed help to restore it and I found that there was a whole club of likeminded people called the Waikato Vintage Machinery Club!” e club are keen tractor trekkers, so Tony decided he needed a tractor to join in.

In the late 90s, he bought a 4 cylinder, 23 HP, 5 speed gear box, petrol, 1942 Farmall H tractor.

In its prime it was a row crop tractor, but it had last been used as a boat tractor in Kawhia.

“ e main jet from the carburetor had been sucked into a valve - so it was game over engine-wise.”

It only had three wheels and needed lots of parts. at was solved by