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I agree with you 100% Paul. You can find dozens of "factory correct" tractors with perfect paint looking like they're fresh from the factory, and there's countless pictures of them available in books and on the net. What I personally find really INTERESTING is to look at a tractor that's still in it's work clothes with all the owner-applied "modifications and upgrades", no matter how crude, that have been done to it over the years. Wondering what that torch-cut bracket was inteded for or just what was going on when the owner added whatever is really interesting to me and gives a tractor a "personality" all it's own in my mind. I have an F-14 with an old narrowed car straight-axle "wide front end" under it, complete with "Buick" dust caps on the front hubs. The axle setup would no doubt go in the scrap pile if any collector bought the tractor to restore, but it's still neat to look at how they did it. Kind like in the old-car hobby with the musclecars. For years they all made a big stink about cars having to be all original, right down to the "correct" hoseclamps and factory chalk marks on the firewall. These days though there's a swing towards what they call "restification", which is basically a car restored to the condition that it would be in AFTER the original owner put his own personal touches on it back in the day(mag wheels, aftermarket guages, headers, etc). All boils down to just what everyone else has said- it's YOUR tractor, do it how YOU like, and heck with anyone else.
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