This David Brown is No: 16383 which we have hopefully correctly worked out to have been built in 1954. It was purchased by my father-in-law, Bob Tiller (Robert) in 1955 for £965, and was his first tractor on the family farm near Balaklava, SA. The main work for this tractor was hay making, and it had a Busatis mid-mounted mower attached to it.

As a young child I was interested in old machinery but being a girl, I didn’t feel that I was meant to be. I stayed interested in old machinery and inherited an old stationary engine and a few old items from around the farm, so I decided I wanted to restore one of them. I’d been through the old sheds a few times and liked the little red tractor, the David Brown 25C.  David, my husband, and I have been members of the local museum helping restore items there and decided it was time to start on one of ours.  

I started stripping down the tractor, and as I didn’t know a lot about fixing anything, David was a LOT of help.  As I started pulling things apart, David helped with the harder and heavier things.  We sandblasted most of it and rust-treated lots of it before painting.

The mud guards needed a lot of work so we asked our friend Eric to help with the cutting out of rust, welding and panel beating. We were really pleased with the great job he did. There were a lot of little bits that came off the tractor, so I would lay them out on a table in the same order that I took them off so the nuts and bolts would not get mixed up. I was trying to keep everything organised, but it is David’s workshop as well, so luckily, we also had the work manuals just in case they got muddled.  Slowly, I took all of the small bits and cleaned all the years of oil and grease off – some got sandblasted while others just needed a good clean. Following this, I rust-treated most of them.

We then stripped it down to the main body of the tractor, taking the front main frame off that has the radiator on it, but left the front half with the engine, and the rear half all together. The engine was in working order so we decided not to touch it, only taking the water pump off to clean it up a little. 

We took the sump pan off to clean and drain the oil out. We took off the clutch housing cover, which was fairly clean, and then we took off the gearbox cover to drain and clean it.

We found a loose nut and bolt sitting in the bottom of the box, which thankfully had stayed on the bottom until we found it. The clutch housing had originally had felt around the top to seal any dust out of it so we replaced it with silicon to keep the dust and water out in the future. 

David got the bonnet fasteners apart so I could clean them. We felt that they worked good enough for the time being, as we were trying to save as much money as we could along the way.  He was able to fix the leaks in the radiator. It took a while to clean the old glass fuel bowl and fittings, but the gasket was not easy. I think I made three from cork and the final result is still not the best. We found an oil filter but had to adjust it a little to fit it properly. Managing to find all the gaskets and seals was not always easy. We found some on the internet and some at a gasket specialist in Adelaide, but we ended up making most of the gaskets ourselves. 

When it came to the paint, I purchased an undercoat and was told that they could make the top coat for me when I wanted it, however, when I went to get the top coat I was told that they couldn’t find the code to make it. I went home with a substitute but when we came to use it, it was nothing like we had wanted. I went back to the store to find the original person I had spoken with and he was able to help me with the replacement paint.

Specifications

Model: 25C

Class: VAK 1C/25.

Built: 1953-1958

Meltham Huddersfield,

England, UK

Serial Range: 10001-21318

Serial No: 16383

Year: 1954

Engine size: 25hp, 154 cu. inch 4-cylinder, petrol

3½” bore x 4” stroke

Gearbox; 6 forward x 2 reverse

Owner: Sarah Tiller

Fortunately, this time we were able to get the right paint colour. The painting, once we were finished, looked good and just how we wanted. 

New gauges followed and then it was time to re-register it so we could use it on the road again. We were told that to register it for road use these days we had to add mirrors, rear lights, brake lights, blinkers, and a horn. This means it’s no longer as original looking but, unfortunately, they are necessary. We still think it looks great.

It was a fun job to do, and I enjoyed the whole process of the restoration, even with the oil and grease up to my elbows some days.

History

In the early 1950s, the David Brown ‘Cropmaster’ range of tractors faced fierce competition from other manufacturers who undercut David Brown’s list price.  To compete with the market, the decision was taken to produce a stripped down version of the Cropmaster range, and one of the most obvious solutions was to produce a tractor with a smaller engine - a 25hp version reduced the selling price. 

The David Brown 25 tractor (later known as the 25C) was built in England by David Brown Tractor (Engineering) Ltd, Meltham Huddersfield. The DB25 was released to the public for sale in England in March 1953 with a 6-speed gearbox, adjustable pan seat, built in hydraulic power lift, an extra 2-speed PTO unit, and
a retractable drawbar.

*Sarah Tiller