Price Check Worth of a Ford 8N (that caught itself on fire)

[RickB]

I'm not the one who brought up classic cars, but you're still wrong. Even with a production run in the hundreds of thousands there is still a strong demand for original parts.

You could easily part out that tractor for more than scrap value, and the OP actually did get more than scrap value for it whole.

8Ns weigh 2400lbs, and scrap steel is going for $.07/lb here....that would be $168. The OP got close to double that, and parting out almost always means more money.

Sure seemed like your post I quoted comparing a toasted 'N' to a GTO.
A dead 'N' isn't at all like a GTO chassis, I'm not wrong about that. Low production tractors ALWAYS have more value than a model built en mass. Fire damaged tractors don't generally have much good except major castings which have the least demand. For Joe tractor owner to part out one tractor is a long and time consuming process. I know, I've done it and I care little what you believe about the enterprise of selling used parts. Those that think it's a great way to cash in a tractor haven't done it, or have been lucky when they did. The OP did well at $300 with little or no effort or time.

 

[rsallen]

Again, it depends on how hot the fire was.
If the fire was hot enough there's very little other than scrape value left.
Now if it were a very rare single piece buried deep within the trans or within the engine block 'perhaps' the machine would be worth something more than salvage. Otherwise it's just junk be it GTO, Rolls, Bugatti or Ford tractor.

 

[GManBart]

parting a tractor is a TON of labor. then you have to find buyers.

I have about 1/2 of a parted 8n in my garage taking up floor space right now.

i used the front and rear tires. trans has good casting.. but has bearings out. most gears good.

still got 1 trumpet, 1 center.. etc..e tc.

it's not like you part one and all the stuff comes apart and all the parts are good, then a line forms at your door with people with handfulls of cash. you sell a piece here and there... amd most of it needs shipping. some parts are gheavy. many times you barely make any money.. then you get returns.. 1 too many rust spots.. etc.. etc. you usually eat that postage.. means you many times LOOSE money.

then there are the common fasteners.. you end up with a bucket of them. people rarely buy those. then the wear parts.

can't sell used brakes or worn out clutch.

ten you have the other worn out parts.

who buys a clapped out steering box. means you either have to spend money to rebuild it then keep it in INVENTORY till someone beats you out of it. or you sell the ballnut out of it and set on sector arms and gears and the housing forever.

parting a tractor is best left to large yards with hundreds or thousands of machines.

rick's right on top of the deal.

Well, the OP still got more than scrap value, so maybe Rick's bad at math.

Would you have sold that 8N for $170? Didn't think so.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Well, the OP still got more than scrap value, so maybe Rick's bad at math.

Maybe the fire wasn't as bad as we're all imagining.

 

[Soundguy]

Well, the OP still got more than scrap value, so maybe Rick's bad at math.

Would you have sold that 8N for $170? Didn't think so.

scrap goes up and down.. I guess if you are **** retentave enoug to want to figure out the dollars and cents. then you need to reduce your 'shipped' weight by the weight of the tires too.

bottom line is. a 'fully involved'; bbq job is worth a few bills if someone will haul it off.

So you presume to tell me what I will and won't sell my stuff for? really? wow.

I have used a few parts myself, GAVE a few parts away, some parts are JUNK, and I sold a small HANDFULL OF PARTS.

If it wasn't for the fact that I actually USED the tires and rims..then I'd have less than 170$ of income from it.. If I don't count the tires and rims. IE.. compairing it to a burned unit. then no.. i havn't gotten 170$ out of it.

and I DID put many (free) hours into it taking it apart.

This conversation deffinately sounds like it comes from someone whos' never parted a machine.. especially a BURNED ONE...

 

[GManBart]

scrap goes up and down.. I guess if you are **** retentave enoug to want to figure out the dollars and cents. then you need to reduce your 'shipped' weight by the weight of the tires too.

bottom line is. a 'fully involved'; bbq job is worth a few bills if someone will haul it off.

So you presume to tell me what I will and won't sell my stuff for? really? wow.

I have used a few parts myself, GAVE a few parts away, some parts are JUNK, and I sold a small HANDFULL OF PARTS.

If it wasn't for the fact that I actually USED the tires and rims..then I'd have less than 170$ of income from it.. If I don't count the tires and rims. IE.. compairing it to a burned unit. then no.. i havn't gotten 170$ out of it.

and I DID put many (free) hours into it taking it apart.

This conversation deffinately sounds like it comes from someone whos' never parted a machine.. especially a BURNED ONE...

I'm not presuming to tell you what you would sell anything for, but your point was ridiculous. Scrap value for steel hasn't changed by a penny in the last three years that I've been selling it to the local scrap yard. That puts the scrap value of an 8N at the outer limits of $200.

You're the expert....what would you expect to pay, fair market value for a useable block, or cylinder head, or transmission case, or axles, or wheel (he said they were okay), or differential, or hydraulic pump, or 3pt parts? $10-20 each? That would be crazy, but that's what you'd have to sell/buy at for the math to equal scrap value.

I've actually parted cars from as old as the late 1920s to early 90s....none seriously burned.

If parting machines out didn't generate more money than selling them for scrap, nobody would do it, but they do....all the time.

Besides, people can debate this all they want, but something is "worth" what someone else will pay for it. In this case, it was worth $300, and it sounds like they buyer knows 8Ns....and the price is about double what scrap would be. There really isn't any way to argue around those facts.

 

[GManBart]

Sure seemed like your post I quoted comparing a toasted 'N' to a GTO.
A dead 'N' isn't at all like a GTO chassis, I'm not wrong about that. Low production tractors ALWAYS have more value than a model built en mass. Fire damaged tractors don't generally have much good except major castings which have the least demand. For Joe tractor owner to part out one tractor is a long and time consuming process. I know, I've done it and I care little what you believe about the enterprise of selling used parts. Those that think it's a great way to cash in a tractor haven't done it, or have been lucky when they did. The OP did well at $300 with little or no effort or time.

I only replied to someone else's comment about a burned GTO.

Nobody said a dead N and a GTO were the exactly the same. All I said was that there is still a demand for 8N parts, and they add up to more than scrap value. People part them out for a reason....they generally make more money than selling them at scrap value. You said it was worth only scrap....evidently not and the buyer certainly sounds like somebody familiar with 8Ns who would know what they're worth.

 

[Soundguy]

Maybe the fire wasn't as bad as we're all imagining.

No pics were provided.

sounds like the tires burnt off the front.. rad is gone. wp is gone.. gas tank gone. probably carb.. anything with a seal.. probably.. burnt tin is dicey.. usually warps.. stretches.. draws. and rust like crazy.

castings under weight in high heat can sag.

I've seen hay barn tractors that had nothing useable in them.. not even the crank or pto shaft.. everything turned blue.. i'd worry about temper issues.. etc.

if I'm a buyer? there are other gambles I can take . why would I spend 500$ on a burned unit and hope I got some good parts.

I can buy stuck engine jobs with the rest of the tractor good for 500.. for 750 I can get loose and not running.

hit 800-1200 and you can get ugly runners.. or runners with a known minor or medium issue. Hit 1500$ and you are into working tractor teritory.

As was mentioned. there were over 520000 8n's alone made. add in ? near 300k 9n/2n

that's ALOT of parts and machines available...

I can personally atest to the fact that the cheaper you buy a tractor.. the more $$ it takes to make it a runner.

one of my cheapest tractors I have that is running is a ford 950

so far it's made of about 10 other tractors. and a couple BIG boxes of parts for it came from rickb himself.

not Counting my labor, but counting parts and service chemicals and lubes.. I have roughly 4x the purchase price into that machine. if you add labor.. it becomes astronomical. that cheap tractor required a couple weeks of just taking apart and drilling out broken bolts and studs.. I went thru a total of 4 drill bits.. 2 carbide, and 1 cobalt and 1 lefty, getting all the broke and stuck bolts out. There were days I got home from work and just sat in a cahir with ear plugs in and sat with a drill working on bolts in a 1' area. then move tot he next area.

then you get to do the nice ones.. in hard to get to spots. or ones that already had broked off extractors in them.

chiping out extracotrs with pin pricks, a welding out parts.. torching parts.. etc.

front pedistal someone buggered the drain up so bad and had previously tried an ez out and broke it. by the time I got the ez out out.. the plug was welded to the hole. I had to drill out oversize, tap and install a large pipe plug, then grind to contour of original pediastal, then drill the center of that and retap for the oem drain plug size.

had to do other sast repairs like that on the head and the lift cover . head actually had a broke out corner hole/ear/mount for the front bracket I had to get creative and fix.. not to mention some stripepd bolts that i had to oversize and hope I stayed out of the water jacket.. or else eat a 500$ head..

parting and rebuilding these old machies is not a wave of the checkbook.

if you ain't btDT and have the grease hands to prove it.. it's hard to understand some of this maybee.

My next cheapest tractor.. a farmall C seemed like a steal .

I didn't have it a few days before it's picked clean carcas was up on timber in front of my shop with the front end laying on the concrete and the front of the engine open.. busted parts laying on the ground all over the place.

had a hood with way too many extra holes. manifold was an old distilate/kero type and was busted just below the riser for the stack, thus non repairable.

starter was packed with mud. no alternator.. ( that old ford had no alt or gen either. just a bracket and pulley and some rope to kinda hold it. fuel tank was tied in with GARDEN hose too ).

it's all fun n games till you have to dump 2000$ and 150-250 hours into an 800$ tractor. to end up with a 2000$ tractor..

 

[Soundguy]

realy hard to compair a car to a tractor that, looked at as a series. near a million were made.

The funny things about parts is they can be worth more if they don't roll.

I can go down the road from mty house right now and buy a non running 8n with a tarp on it listed at 500$ I could probably get it for 400$.. and maybee 350$ if I walked away and left my #

the sad part is. IF it has a good block that part could possible be stripped and sold .. same with the trans. but you have to sell then used as is unless you invest $ to go thru them.

sure a rebuilt 8n trans migth get you 500$.. but a pulled one might get you 150-250 maybee.probably closer to 175-200$

sell it as a unit.. and the entire tractgor is worth just a bit more.

alot of it is the labor and time.

to make money scrapping and aprting. you have to be willing to set on parts.. and scrap alot of stuff. invest your own time and money. too.

That last N i parted. honestly. i bought it SOLELY for tires and rims. thus I didn't care that the trans had issues. or the steering box was worn slap out.. or the sherman needed work 1 axle broke.. etc.

I actually traded the gear cluster from the sherman.. of which it was only medium condition, to get a part for the hyd cover for my NAA.

to make money. you got to have lots of them and a demand.

scrappers here are dicey. some yards by it. but the local recycler won't buy thinkgs like entire engine blocks or trannies and diffy's.. the salvage yard will though.

I'm not presuming to tell you what you would sell anything for, but your point was ridiculous. Scrap value for steel hasn't changed by a penny in the last three years that I've been selling it to the local scrap yard. That puts the scrap value of an 8N at the outer limits of $200.

You're the expert....what would you expect to pay, fair market value for a useable block, or cylinder head, or transmission case, or axles, or wheel (he said they were okay), or differential, or hydraulic pump, or 3pt parts? $10-20 each? That would be crazy, but that's what you'd have to sell/buy at for the math to equal scrap value.

I've actually parted cars from as old as the late 1920s to early 90s....none seriously burned.

If parting machines out didn't generate more money than selling them for scrap, nobody would do it, but they do....all the time.

Besides, people can debate this all they want, but something is "worth" what someone else will pay for it. In this case, it was worth $300, and it sounds like they buyer knows 8Ns....and the price is about double what scrap would be. There really isn't any way to argue around those facts.

 

[Soundguy]

the best way to make $ parting out a machine is to take the assemblies, repair them then sell them.

ie. buy a junker cheap. put even more $ into it and rebuild the trans, steering box, strip the block, rebuild the hyd pump. rebuild the hyd cover

sell those.

large items like castings and tires can be local pickup.

takes time and takes the rigth buyer.

do i spend 500$ for a rebuilt trans.. or do i grab the 'pulled' one off craigslist for 125$ or do I buy a junker of my own for 500$, take the trans out then park the rest behind the shed.

( many of us have done that )

i think your hangup here is you are arguing over about 130$ value maybee.. I think you miscalculated the weight with tires. and you are not calculating the negative cost of hauling either. that's a minutia argument.....

when you are talking about a machine. that in good running and looking condition can be a 2500$ unit. and you are arguing over whether directscrap value is 200 $ vs 350$? ?????

old iron mongers tend to look at buying a junker with scrap value in mind. ie. i'm going to buy this non runner. worst case. I need to be able to come out even.

if my even is direct scrap.. then i'm not paying the seller direct scrap. he can haul it off himself. if I see a part I can use.. then I can pay direct scrap or more knowing i can get my value in some unbolted parts.. then the rest can be nothing more than crush iron if need be. lotsa risk.

have bought stuff that had hidden cracks and even major castings were useless. not hard to find a bad head and block and bad diffy casting. not hard to find a ruined front bolster and a too far worn front axle. can find hogged out spindle housings. etc. etc.

no sure guarantee the machine you drag home is going to have any hidden good parts past what you can verify. usually does.. but not always.

i lost my but on that 950 I drug home

I only replied to someone else's comment about a burned GTO.

Nobody said a dead N and a GTO were the exactly the same. All I said was that there is still a demand for 8N parts, and they add up to more than scrap value. People part them out for a reason....they generally make more money than selling them at scrap value. You said it was worth only scrap....evidently not and the buyer certainly sounds like somebody familiar with 8Ns who would know what they're worth.