Restoration information requested

[Dr Bert]

Were the generators and starters on the early HGs painted Oliver green or were they black?
     Secondly, was the oil bath air breather attached to the engine or bolted to the hood?
     Thanks for any info you can provide.  Dr. Bert

[walter hudson]

the starter and gen. were painted the same color as the crawler. The air breather mounts to the hood with four bolts.
                                                   Walter

[Andy]

Some were the same color as the tractor, most were not. The ones that were black came as an add on kit, this included battery, generator, starter and lights. I was told years ago by a friend named Bob Tallman that most dealers like himself would opt for the stripped down version when ordering, and order the kits, then if the customer wanted these options it would be cheaper for the dealer to install them than factory. Another thing you might find is a painted air cleaner with a painted precleaner, black air cleaner with a black precleaner, or a painted air cleaner with a black precleaner, but not a black air cleaner with a painted precleaner. Air cleaners, and precleaners were separate options, and could be installed by the dealer. Sometimes dealers would order tractors with air cleaners, then if need be,'throw in' the precleaner, which would be black, just to sell the tractor. I've seen several original tractors that never had a precleaner.

[John Schwiebert]

You asked if they were painted Oliver green on an early tractor. Define early tractor. Nothing from 1939 to sometime in 1947 was Oliver green as they were still Cletrac Orange. The tractors were only Oliver green the last four years of production. It is also a darker green comparable to what the Oliver tractors were before the end of World War 2.

[Andy]

You have a point on the darker green, it is about the same color as late Hart Parr green. As far as the year of the color change, that would normally be considered to be 1946, at the same time as the center strip in the grill was widened. I know for a fact the change occurred on or prior to Nov. 1945, as I own one that was made at that time, the paint was original when I got it, my Grandfather bought it. It was probably not sold until 1946, as it had to be shipped twice to get to our dealer. Once to the Columbus branch, then put back on a train to the dealer. I have lots of research data on this tractor, being a family tractor, and my first Oliver. Lots of things were happening back then, I have a hood that I believe to be earlier, it is green, but the marking are not ornate at all, they were water decals, very simple ones, but appear to be factory. I'm still trying to research this, but my guess would be that hood came from one of the very first green HG's. I bought it to use, but decided better, it would be a loss of history. I bought another one to use, and put that one up. I was discussing this color thing with some of the old guys several years ago, and was told that Oliver would paint a crawler any color for an additional fee. I was also told that many customers wouldn't accept the change to green, so, there were some that were shipped in Cletrac Orange, for several years, and that is what caused the confusion of today.

[Andy]

Another strange little thing I found is, did you know that only in 1951, Oliver painted the OC3 green? That was standard color for that year, all other years were Highway Yellow.

[walter hudson]

Is it not correct that only the early 51 model OC3 s were painted green ?
                                                 Walter