The Establishment of the Caterpillar Center

The Caterpillar Visitors Center will open in downtown Peoria, Illinois, on October 20. When visitors enter the Heritage Exhibit in the new Caterpillar Visitors Center, a gleaming, newly restored, antique Caterpillar Model Twenty Tractor will immediately draw their attention to the center of the exhibit.
The Caterpillar Model Twenty is a fully restored, 20 horsepower gasoline-powered track-type tractor that weighs about 7,500 pounds.

The Model Twenty holds important historical significance for Caterpillar. It was the first tractor model Caterpillar engineers designed after the formation of the company in 1925. It capitalizes on the best design features of predecessor companies Best and Holt, plus some new technologies.
Ted Halton, a former Cat dealer in Portland, Oregon, donated the Model Twenty to Caterpillar to be housed in the Caterpillar Visitors Center.

But before being delivered to its final home, the 1920s era tractor needed a lot of work to restore it to its former glory.

Kent Bates, a 35-year Caterpillar retiree and member of the Antique Caterpillar Machine Owner's Club (ACMOC), was just the man for the job.  
Kent first became an ACMOC member in 1993 and restored his first Cat machine, a D2 Tractor, in 2000.

He began the Model Twenty restoration work this spring along with mechanical helper, Payne Green of Lacon, Ill., and painter, Rob Getz of Chillicothe, Ill.

"I was really happy with this find," Kent said. "The machine was slightly above average to start with. A real plus is it has its original serial number plates in mint condition. On most of these old tractors, the serial plates are gone."

His first step was to purchase a second Model Twenty to use for parts.

Kent began the restoration project with the larger items with longer lead-time to complete, including repairing the sheet metal, canopy top, track guards, radiator, louvered side panels and latches. These parts were stripped, sandblasted and repaired to look like new.

The canopy presented a particular challenge to Kent, as no drawings existed to direct the construction of the new top.

"We had to reverse engineer it to create new drawings to have the canopy made," Kent said.

Once these items were started, Kent turned his focus to the chassis, which was steam-cleaned to remove the hard grease and then sandblasted.

Restoring an antique machine is like going on a historical treasure hunt, and Kent found more than a few surprises along the way.

When Kent took the track roller frames off, he saw the steel manufacturer had painted "Caterpillar" in white on the structural steel. He even found the supplier's name cast into the steel - Carnegie. In the 1920s, Carnegie was a top steel supplier, indicating the importance the company placed on using the best materials and best suppliers for its machines from the very beginning.

Another, less pleasing, surprise came when inspecting the track adjusters. At some point, someone had welded the nuts to the track adjusters. Kent worked six hours working to remove four bolts without damaging the threads.

Not everything was difficult though. When looking for new spark plugs for the tractor, Kent simply ordered Caterpillar spark plugs from local Cat dealer Altorfer. The new spark plugs were manufactured by Champion; the same supplier who furnished the parts in 1928.

After carefully tearing down and rebuilding the Caterpillar Model Twenty Tractor, Kent observed the Caterpillar quality built into every aspect of the tractor.

"This machine is a credit to our founders and our engineers. They were incredibly detail-oriented and intent on making the best tractors possible. They went the extra mile with many design features and made the best tractor that technology allowed in 1928," Kent said.

Want to see the how the restoration of the 1928 Caterpillar Model Twenty Tractor turned out? Keep watching caterpillar.com for the big reveal, like us on Facebook, or join us Oct. 20 for the Caterpillar Visitors Center Grand Opening in Peoria, Ill.