Odds are you remember fondly the first tractor you spent time on doing field work when growing up on the farm. Of course, that’s assuming it was a quality tractor and you liked it. For me, it was a 1965 Allis-Chalmers D-17, Series IV, with a hand clutch and Power-Crater engine. As long as I knew there was gas in the storage tank in the barn lot, it was a dream to drive and great for a young person still learning the ins and outs of handling a tractor.

For Wayne Kleaving, Tell City, Ind., it was a 1958 Farmall 450 made by International Harvester. “It was the first tractor I did field work with,” Kleaving recalls. He must have liked it. He found the IH 450 pictured here in 2013 and went to work restoring it.

“My son, Travis, and I did the mechanical restoration on it,” Kleaving says. He hired Old Red Iron Repair in Owensboro, Ky., to paint the tractor.

According to tractordata.com, International made the model 450 from 1956 through 1958, turning out more than 18,000 units. The 450 replaced the 400, which followed the IH 300. The Model 450 gave way to the Farmall 560.

The tractor came with a 4.6-liter, four-cylinder engine. You could choose between gas, diesel and LP gas. The fuel tank on the gas model held 21 gallons. The tractor featured the Fast Hitch system common on IH tractors of that era.

According to tractordata.com, the company claimed 35 to 39 hp at the drawbar, but it tested out at just over 51 hp. Tested belt horsepower was over 55, and claimed PTO horsepower by IH was 43 to 48.