Working Clothes

[Patrick M Livingstone]

Now a topic that I am sure will result in differing views; The definition of 'working clothes'. It is one that is seen and heard a lot these days but the definition seems fairly fluid.
From engines I have seen in their original working environments it can range from immaculately maintained to covered in muck and held together with bits of wire.
Any opinions out there on 'working clothes'?

[MoRo]

The term "working clothes", in my mind, conjures up an engine, tractor, etc. that looks "used". It's greasy and the paint's worn or weathered.
Wired together parts and such "repairs" fall under my terms of "Neglected".
We've all seen alterations made to a piece of equipment. If one were to totally restore a piece, these would be changed back to original. If you were to leave an engine in working clothes, you might well also leave the alterations in place to show the ingenuity of the previous owner.

[Paul Spence]

1).To me, "working clothes" means the engine is as found in its last working place, or moved at some point to a protected area, in it's original condition with makeshift repairs etc.. and just left .

2). Moved, neglected and left outside for years, for the elements to do their dirty work is as found and that's a different story .

Of course it could be a combination of both 1 & 2 if the environment changed (building roof fell in, etc) .

Just my $0.02 after the great July 4th. weekend .

[Marc P]

To me, working clothes means the condition it is in after working for a long time. If there are small or moderate defects, ect this can often times be called character, but not to accept abused and neglected items as character and how much of this is acceptable is in the eye of each collector. As Paul said, some damage happens while these engines are "at work" such as a roof collapse ect.
Now if you can find an engine with its' original paint and decals in some decent form under the grease dirt and years, the original clothes, you have an extra special piece to preserve and not ruin with new paint. I myself don't see any reason to ruin good working clothes, I even more don't like the idea of ruining original paint, but if it is a rust bucket, it often times isn't working clothes, but rather early abuse or neglect.

Just my thought

[Craig DeShong]

Nothing wrong with keeping an engine with it’s original patina, even if every speck of paint is long gone. I’ve seen some good looking engines that are bare metal, showing a fine covering of brown oxidation (like the browned finish on the barrel of muzzle loaders). There is also nothing wrong with a new paint job with fancy frills and decals either.

What I don’t like to see is a filthy dirty engine, covered with grease and grime; with an accumulation of years of caked on dirt and filth. When it was maintained properly it was never allowed to approach that state and as an antique or show engine it shouldn’t look that way either. If you run it, it’s natural for it to show a little grease and dirt, but that can be cleaned off at the end of the show or at the end of the day’s run, just as it would have been by a competent engine man that maintained it back when it was working for a living.

[Oldsiron]

Here's my Farmall H in her Hard Yacka workin gear, Straight from the cockys shed, no kero and linseed crap on this just working rust patina



chris

[Jon Nessel]

I am and always have been a work clothes guy. The way I see it, once you sand, sandblast, paint, etc., you can't get that original patina back again. The weathering that took years to take place tells just as much the machines story as anything. I have a JD D that you couldn't pay me enough to restore, but on the other hand, my AR was looked after it's whole life. There is layer upon layer of brush painted JD green and even 3 sets of decals under the paint. Those are work clothes too, in a sense, but it looks like heck. That one I'll restore.

[Luke]

I think this engine qualifies as being in its "working clothes"! It is a 3HP Associated 3 Mule Team engine that I picked up recently after many frustrating years of trying to buy from the elderly owner. I have not touched it yet but plan to degrease it, mount it on a transport, repair and plumb up the original fuel tank which came with it and rally as is. I may change it back to ignitor ignition and put an original muffler on it if I get carried away.

Cheers, Luke

[WilliamInOz]

I have most of my engines still in working clothes. you can do what ever you like to the working internals a full resto/ rebuild of them and leave everything else on the outside with that old yesteryear charm!

Cheers, Will

[Patrick M Livingstone]

I like to leave engines with a lot of original paint and features alone. If an engine needs a major rebuild I will do a full paint job on it. It is nice to see a mixture of both unrestored and restored engines.