Frank Baker Wraps Up a Lifetime of Restoration Projects

Frank Baker is almost finished with his complete, down-to-the-last-nut restoration of this 1959 International Harvester Cub Lo-Boy utility tractor. Frank still needs to assemble the front bucket that's driven by the hydraulic hoses you see hanging down. Photo: Charlie Darling — Frank Baker is almost finished with his complete, down-to-the-last-nut restoration of this 1959 International Harvester Cub Lo-Boy utility tractor. Frank still needs to assemble the front bucket that’s driven by the hydraulic hoses you see hanging down. Photo: Charlie Darling

This summer my father, Frank Baker Jr., finished up what will be his last “big” project – the complete restoration of a 1959 International Cub Lo-Boy tractor. Bought in December, 2012 from Todd Adams of East Andover, Dad spent two and a half years taking it apart, sand-blasting, repairing, rebuilding, and repainting everything down to the nuts and bolts.

If he couldn’t find a part, he made it. This is how he has always tackled his projects.

Now, at 87, difficulty with his knees and back make it hard to crawl under and around big projects. He recalls the first engine he ever rebuilt was from a Reo automobile at the age of 15. He grew up in Wilmot, graduating from Andover High in 1947. He has always had a passion for aircraft, buying his first airplane, a Piper Cub, in 1954. In 1962, Frank received a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Northrop Aeronautical Institute in Inglewood, California.

There has been a succession of plane restorations over the last 60-plus years. For local folks, the most memorable is the bright yellow 1946 Piper J-3 on floats that he flew in and out of Highland Lake. Dad was always happy to give people rides, and especially children. More than 80 children under the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Program have flown with him. He sold the plane in 2009.

In my grammar school days and throughout high school, I would see him from the dining room window – where I would be doing my homework – running back and forth between the basement and garage. He would always be carrying a part or a tool. He worked long after dark – and after working his “real” job at Sanders Associates in Nashua.

Airplanes and cars weren’t the only restorations that he did. There were Willys jeeps, Volvos, riding lawn mowers, rototillers, and more tractors.

He liked mixing parts up, too – like the 1960 Fiat on which he put tractor treads and skis so it could go through snow, and the peddle biplane on wheels he built for the grandkids and then re-designed to be a paddle-plane with floats.

Later, he made another toy water plane for the adults in the family. It ran on a car battery. Today, Dad has made it into a weathervane that can be seen on the point of Highland Lake.

The International Cub Lo-Boy tractor is beautifully restored. I am sure that he would be happy to have folks stop by to see it. And by the way, it is for sale.