Dennis Erickson stands next to his fully restored 1963 Farmall 460, which he revamped to be a breast cancer awareness tractor.

This 1958 Farmall 460 was completely restored to its original glory and will be the oldest, registered 460 in existence.

It’s a beautiful thing, a time-consuming hobby, a grand obsession – fully restoring a tractor. One local farmer has done not just one, not just two, but eleven tractors, as well as nine pickup trucks. Walking into the garage where these masterpieces are stored takes your breath away and listening to even just one tractor run puts a big fat smile on your face. Dennis Erickson’s tractors and pickups are ones to behold, and his latest two completions are extra special. Dennis recently revamped a 1963 Farmall 460 with two-tones of pink (painted by Allen Wennihan) and some added touches of chrome, making it a perfect breast cancer awareness tractor. It is even decked out in the Susan G. Komen logo and the local Knock Out Breast Cancer logo. Purchased in Kansas, the tractor, one of the last 300 off the assembly line, wasn’t even running. But Dennis and his guys quickly fixed that problem and now it’s a pink jewel of a machine. The idea for this breast cancer awareness tractor came after his daughter-in-law’s twin was diagnosed with cancer. Her fight and the fight of other women was his inspiration to make this tractor in their honor. Now that it’s finished, Dennis would love to have it driven in area parades. He even envisions eventually creating a trailer complete with pink cushioned seats filled with people and pulled behind the tractor. If you are a driver/lover of tractors and would like to drive this beauty in a parade, contact Dennis at 660-744-4076. He’s a busy man and unable to take it out himself, but it’s too unique to stay hidden. And if that wasn’t enough, Dennis also fully restored a 1958 460 Farmall. The tractor was purchased a while back from a farm in Conception. It had sat in Dennis’ garage for a while before he stumbled on its rarity. One day Dennis saw that the serial number was 506 on this tractor. He knew that they started making 460s at 501. He knew he had just discovered a bombshell. Dennis got to work restoring it to its “all original” glory. Once registered, it will be the oldest, registered 460 in existence. All in all, these two tractors took around 300 hours of restoration work and two months to be completed. It was a lot of hard work by not only Dennis, but also Angelo, Ronnie, Mike, Rick, Bill and Mary Ann, and Allen. These beauties not only look amazing, but will last for a lifetime and will continue to be valued for years to come. Dennis’ love of restoration has been passed down from generation to generation: his father’s passion was passed down to him, was then ingrained in his son, Angelo, and hopefully will be instilled in his grandchildren, who will have the pleasure of driving these fine pieces of machinery for many years. These tractors and pickups have already been claimed by them. Two of the tractors are even decked out in certain themes, including a Mizzou tractor and a zebra striped tractor modeled after a zebra stuffed animal one of his granddaughters loved. The man clearly not only loves restoration work, but also his grandchildren. This coming winter, Dennis also plans to restore a tractor to honor Vietnam veterans. The payoff for all this is spectacular – not only in the machines themselves, but also in the memories created in the work and the lasting legacy that they have made.