As you can see from the photographs, this John Deere 3650 is immaculate, and just as it would have looked in the late 1980s/early ’90s when it was produced at the Mannheim plant in Germany. Its owner, Colin Elliott from Markethill in Co. Armagh, has done a terrific job restoring the tractor and was happy to tell me about what the project entailed.
Colin has put in much time, money, and effort into this project, with major expense on parts and materials, and 400 hours invested in the rebuild. The paint finish is superb and the attention to detail is excellent. It is hard to believe that the tractor is 34 years old, with close to 14,000 hours under its belt.
Colin runs a business servicing and repairing lorries for PSV testing. He also works on tractors and has recently started to take on restoration work for customers. Colin has a great passion for all John Deere tractors, but it is the six-cylinder 3050, 3350, and 3650 models that he particularly likes.
This is partly due to his neighbour, Wilmur Montgomery, who ran a fleet of John Deere 50 Series tractors on his farm and as part of his silage contracting business. Colin’s father serviced and maintained the tractors for Wilmur, and as a young man Colin grew up with these Mannheim-built machines and developed a great fondness for them.
Colin had restored a John Deere
