Auctions can be a Hotbed for Antique Tractors and Machinery

Three..three..three, do I hear four thousand. The cry of the auctioneer is a familiar sound to many antique equipment collectors. Retirement Auctions are an excellent place to locate antique equipment. You can find most anything from gently used to well-worn, sometime even full collections of tractors and machinery. Five Star Auctioneers of Plainview, Texas held one such auction recently in Sweetwater, Oklahoma. Several antique tractor were offered, five were listed as Ford N’s having a “Funk Conversion”. I asked myself, what is a “Funk Conversion”? I sure wasn’t going to ask one of my collector friends and let them have a laugh at my expense so I “Googled”. First of all I found out, I wasn’t the only person unfamiliar with the term, yea! That was a good sign that these were going to be something you don’t run across everyday. “Funk Conversion” is a term given to a Ford N series tractor that has been converted from the standard four-cylinder to either a six or eight-cylinder industrial engine by using a conversions kit offered by “Funk Aviation” in Coffeyville, Kansas. The little N’s were one of the more popular tractors purchased, over 900,000 sold from 1939-1952, but were often underpowered for general farming and lacked a live PTO. Brothers, Howard and Joe Funk originally replaced the factory engines in the N’s with a more powerful six or eight-cylinder, later they sold kits for the do-it-yourselfer to convert. There were three models offered; six-cylinder flathead, six-cylinder overhead valve and the V-8 flathead. The N’s came from the factory with a 1-bottom plow rating, the “Funk Conversion” was capable of increasing it to a two-bottom rating. The Funk brothers began offering the conversions in 1943 with the six-cylinder flathead and the V-8 in 1949-1950, adding the straight six valve-in-head option in 1952. It is believed there are between 5,000 and 10,000 Ford N’s using one type of these conversions. This conversion is not a quick fix, it requires extending the frame, lengthening and widening the hood to accommodate the new engine along with replacing a variety of parts and adapters. The kit which sold for around $700-$800 contained a large number of components for adapting the exhaust system, starter, transmission/flywheel and more. Other companies have offered similar conversion kits, but the Funk brothers and Funk Aviation are the originals, thus the term “Funk Conversion”. Now, getting back to the auction. All were 8 N’s one 1948 model sold for $4,300, the remainder did not list the year, their selling prices are $4,000, $3,200 and the remaining two sold for $3, 000 each. I checked out the selling price of similar models in the Hot Line Antique Tractor Guide and found several models that had sold at auction, the prices ranged from $325 to $4,500, with the average selling price in the $1,500 range. None indicated they had any type of conversion, so I feel it is fair to say a “Funk Conversion” doubles the auction price of an original Ford N series tractor. The “Funk Conversion” is especially desirable to the N series collectors. Watch this site for future Antique equipment auction results. Check out our auction board for upcoming auctions You may just find your next project.