Were some of the 9N’s built with aluminum hoods? May 14, 2016.
Yes, the hoods on the first 9N’s were cast aluminum with a snap in cover rather than a hinged-cover access panel. Ford and Ferguson wanted to get the 9N to the market, but the tooling for the stamped metal hood was not ready. I believe it was Edsel Ford who knew a supplier who agreed to provide cast aluminum hoods for the first 700 tractors. They were not polished as the example you saw but painted the same gray as the rest of the tractor. The tractors displayed at the New York Worlds Fair had the hoods polished rather than painted. Many restorers chose to polish the hoods like the New York Worlds Fair version to show off the aluminum hood.
These first 700 tractors should also have smooth cast-center rear axles, upper and lower steering gear housings made of cast aluminum, two rib rear fenders, 4 spoke steering wheels, dash mounted starter button, dash mounted ignition switch, charge indicator light, 4 blade pusher fans, identical left and right brake pedals, and no freeze plugs in the block. The may also have the multi-lead generator with voltage regulator, lever style sediment bowl, I beam style radius rods, solid fender mounting pads, grease zerks on the inside of the front wheel hubs, early style manifold, oil filter return line going to the block rather than the back of the governor housing, and possibly an oil filter mounted to the rear of the more common forward location. The battery hold down is the angular style with acorn nuts on the studs that extend through the lower part of the dash. The front axle carrier is also different, and the front axle pin has no mounting flange at the front with retaining bolt.
These early models are highly collectable.
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