Tractor heritage, news and features

Play it again, Sam!

The last time I visited Sam Weaver at his family’s hilltop home near Llangurig, mid-Wales, was exactly seven years ago – but on that occasion it was his father David, of David Weaver Classic & Vintage Tractor Sales, that I’d really gone to see.

He’d rung to tell me that he was preparing a rare Ford 3000-based Ploughmaster 46 for a forthcoming Cheffins auction, and wondered if I’d like to drive over from Lincolnshire to look at it. In many ways the handsome Ploughmaster 46 could be branded a failure, for only 45 examples of the neat four-wheel drive tractor, with conversion components from Selena of Turin, were ever made – but that was exactly what would make it such an attractive buy for the many enthusiasts of Ford tractor conversions from the early classic era.

Mudbath

Frequent squally showers turned the yard into a mudbath as David, who’d been in business with his wife Teresa for just three years at the time, showed me the many other tractors they’d acquired, adding that their two sons Ben, aged 12, and Sam, who was just a year younger, were already tractor mad. Ben preferred David Browns and Land Rovers, whereas Sam was a self-confessed Fergie fanatic.

Seven years later there I was again, making my way to that same delightful area of Wales via Shrewsbury and Welshpool after Tractor editor Tony had passed on a message that a couple of really tasty David Browns would be there to feast my eyes upon this time, but that they’d be going off to the Cheffins sale just over a week later...

Sam, the 11-year-old whom I’d seen running about the yard with his brother back in 2004, when Tractor & Farming Heritage was just 10 issues old, is now almost 18, and under father David’s guidance he’s been restoring tractors for almost three years.

He’d already returned the 1942 David Brown VAK-1 to superb condition, and was frantically putting the finishing touches to a much sought after six-cylinder David Brown 50D in preparation for the Cheffins auction at the Cambridgeshire sale ground on Saturday, July 23.

What genuinely staggered me, though, was the sheer competence that was so evident in the standard of workmanship from one so young. Nothing had been rushed or skimped in either of the historic DBs, and he’d put both of them back to genuine showroom condition through sheer hard work and, of course, plenty of late nights on the job.

Having a dad like David was a great starting point, for as he grew up Sam was surrounded by old tractors and commercial vehicles, and with all the enthusiasm of boyhood took in everything his father did to get them running and into a saleable condition again.

Sam was only 15 when he restored a Fairbanks Morse stationary engine, and under his father’s critical eye his first tractor job was a ground-up restoration of a Fordson Power Major that was sold to an enthusiast in Essex.

For a Ferguson enthusiast, Sam has gone through an awful lot of David Browns since! The first ‘hunting pink’ specimen he restored was a VAK-1C that went to Scotland, followed by a 25D that went to Malvern. Two more VAK-1Cs went to Bromsgrove and Aberystwyth respectively, then came a 50TD crawler, a VAK-1C that went to Welshpool and a David Brown 900. Then he started work on the VAK-1 and the 50D, and was putting the finishing touches to the latter when I visited him on Thursday, July 14.

Transport

Dad still has to do the driving when they transport their tractors around the country with a truck and Ifor Williams trailer, but as soon as he can Sam will be taking the wheel himself. Brother Ben, incidentally, decided to become an electrician and is currently working with Western Power.

David and Teresa Weaver soon learned that there is no room for sentiment in the vintage tractor business. “We sell whatever we can find, and we don’t collect anything,” David told me on that first visit in 2004, and that sound principle still holds true.

However, for a 17-year-old to be able to advertise himself as Sam Weaver Vintage Restorations (07794 935683) is very special indeed, and at a time when some of us worry about the future of anything to do with old machinery in such a rapidly changing world, it’s encouraging news.

“I’ve done some tractors up for customers and some to sell,” said Sam. “Dad does the buying and selling, and I concentrate on mechanical work, preparation and spraying. We bought the VAK-1 from the Stafford area on eBay last year, and it’s been stripped down to the bone and sorted inside and out.

“I’ve been working on the 50D for a few months too. The engine was very stiff, but when we took it apart, all the shells were like new, so we carefully cleaned and checked everything and put it back together. It started straight away and runs as sweet as a nut.”

Step by step

To describe every single step in restorations like these would require a book rather than a short magazine article, but when I asked Sam to describe briefly what was involved in the job, he made it sound so easy.

“I strip everything down to the bare chassis and steam clean all the grime and oil away before setting to work with the paint stripper,” he said. “I won’t do sandblasting, because if it gets into the wrong places, one tiny grain of sand can do a lot of damage.

“Then we wire brush everything down and make sure it’s scrupulously clean before masking up ready for the spraying. I always use two-pack primer and two-pack paint.

“Lots of fiddly things like brackets and levers have to be carefully prepared for spraying before I start work on the tinwork, which often needs careful skimmer filling and panel beating as well.

“Sometimes new wings are the only answer, and then there are new tyres, cables, knobs and sometimes clocks to think about as well.”

You’d expect words like these to come from the mouth of an accomplished restorer aged anything between 35 and 60 – but to hear them coming from a skilled new generation is music to the ears, and bodes well for the future of this great hobby of ours.

More strength to your elbow, Sam!

Words & Pictures Pete Kelly