Merry Christmas to All,
I did some last minute Deere hunting today in the rain. Not to be confused with reindeer hunting (but I did once have some very tasty reindeer stew in Oslo, Norway a few years back -- don't tell the grand kids...)
Seems that an equipment rental place in a rural community nearby was cleaning up shop and found some NOS Deere parts from the mid 1990's when they were a dealer. Many small franchises were terminated in that time frame -- my first 322 was purchased in 1995 from yet another rental place that had lost its Deere franchise as well.
They had a 318 hood that had never been on a tractor...has a few scratches from being handled over the years and returned to the shelves, but is very nice otherwise. One of my 322 tractors has a hood that has broken hinge mount bosses which have been re-glued, so I thought I would swap and just put on new decals. This 318 hood has never had a head lamp lens on it, and has a date on the underside of 1988... Also got a seat cushion kit complete with the beading strip but missing the little metal splice, and picked up a fuel cap/gauge for the 120/140 series tractors new in the box. They are continuing to 'clean' their shop, so I might get a call for more parts...who knows.
Cheers,
Chuck