Homebuilt Tractor Made from Junk Car Parts

This is the first post in a series about making a small tractor from old car parts found in the junkyard. Follow me to see the rest of the story including some videos of the tractor in action.

In the spring of 2006 I found an old article from Mechanics Illustrated that described a garden tractor made from old car parts. A homemade garden tractor what a fantastic idea! I had just gotten an oxy/acetylene torch kit for Christmas and was looking for a project. Our garden is pretty big and we don't own a tiller, so I was thinking about getting a garden tractor for plowing, disking, and cultivating. Our town has a great junkyard, so car parts would be easy to find. Perfect. I spent hours studying the plans, but since they are only eleven pages long, that meant that I was laying in bed every night staring at the drawing above, thinking about how I was going to make every part. My wife started to think I had lost my mind. When I spent the next three weekends in the junkyard, she knew I had lost my mind because I came back every day with an ear-to-ear grin.

The article, by S. S. Miner, was originally published in 1960. I found the homemade tractor plans at VintageProjects.com where you can also find out how to turn a fish head into an ashtray. (Seriously - a fish head ashtray.)

After bringing home a transmission and axle from a Mitsubishi pickup, 900 pounds of angle iron, and a 9 HP Briggs & Stratton engine, it became clear that some parts of the plans were not going to work. The contents of your typical junkyard were a lot different back in 1960, so the plans called for components from cars built in the '30s, '40s, and '50s that I couldn't get. The 1985 Mighty Max that provided the major drive components for my project is as common as dirt, but it is a much bigger car than the 1938 Ford parts in the plans. My modern 5-speed transmission is roughly twice as long as an old 3-speed and the differential housing is wider too.

Link to the next post in the series