Kray earns high praise with second restoration project

     Restoring one Farmall tractor wasn’t enough for Parker Kray of Monticello. Receiving Overall Grand Champion at the Iowa State Fair for his 2014 project wasn’t enough either. He restored another Farmall earlier this year and took home first place in his class (1959 and newer) and Overall Grand Champion in Ag Mechanics.

     Kray’s first restoration involved a 1963 Farmall 806. His most recent project was restoring a 1969 Farmall 856.

     “This is the last year I am able to show for FFA,” Kray said of being eligible to exhibit for four years after graduating high school. He clearly wanted to go out on top of the competition as a member of the Monticello FFA chapter.

     While looking for parts for his 2014 restoration, Kray came across a rusted, beat up 856 that had been sitting for over 10 years.

     “I made a deal with the farmer and I put in a rear end in one of the other tractors he had sitting out in exchange,” Kray said of acquiring the 856.

     This is the second project took Kray a couple of years to complete, with over 470 hours of work. His expenses amounted to over $18,000.

     “The hardest part of the restoration was finding time to work on it,” admitted Kray. He started the physical work in June 2016. Although, having successfully restored one Farmall, he was able to dedicate less time during this second round with some experience under his belt.

     As a full-time college student, playing college baseball and helping his uncle farm, Kray said he was kept pretty busy. However, he persevered and was able to complete the project on time.

     “I worked on the tractor in the back corner of the shop at the farm, and was lucky to have enough room for it to occupy quite a bit of room for the years it was there,” he said.

     In order to obtain the parts he needed, Kray put in some time for other farmers as a trade-off.

     “You’re not just doing one tractor; you end up doing three or four along the way for other people,” Kray was quoted as saying by Hy-Capacity, a remanufacturer of ag parts. “And I like doing that. Tractor restoration and working on tractors is in my blood.”

     There was some expense involved. Kray said the major expense involved the internal parts of the engine, transmission, and rear end.

     “The way I restored my 806 and 856, I removed every bolt and fixed everything,” he said. “That is the only way to properly restore a tractor.”

     When competing, Kray explained the judges consider the backstory of the tractor and the condition prior to the restoration.

     “The condition of this tractor was much worse than the 806 and was not running,” said Kray.

     The judges also ask questions of the exhibitor, “questions that can only be answered by someone that did the restoration.”

     Kray competed against 60 others for top honors.

     He said he does plan to put this 856 into use on the farm, as a fourth generation farmer. “I prefer the older tractors before the electronics came along,” he said. “If something were to go wrong on an older tractor, there is no computer involved and it is much easier to fix.”

     With all of this hard work, Kray certainly impressed more than the State Fair judges. He was featured by Hy-Capacity, an online “manufacturing blog that focuses on quality, agriculture, family, and teamwork.” (Hy-Capacity is a sponsor of the Iowa FFA Association.)

     Kray is a senior at Upper Iowa University, majoring in agriculture business. He is the son of Vic and Marcia Kray of Monticello.