Looking at an original "44" D2 and it has a story, I'm trying to piece together its story, i can tell it was originally painted drab green, then Hwy. yellow over that but mostly rusty now so my thoughts are it was built during the WWII and possibly not shipped out and then sold after the war?? one other thing 5th gear notch is welded shut so you cant use 5th gear was this for a dummy proof thing for the military?? anyone have any knowledge of this era of tractors

i think all of them were painted OD during that time. if it saw military service it should have property tags on it somewhere. not uncommon to see fifth disabled. but even though it may have never seen military service in my opinion OD would still be the color because of it's interesting time in history.

So that's truce it should have military tags on it but there isn't any to be found and on the engine block the lettering/stencil lettering in white is legible, did cat do this for the gov. or did the gov. do it after received?

is around 63XX and didn't have 5th gear locked out. It was OD originally so that is what it was repainted to. I was told that the old guy in Michigan bought it at a Surplus Auction but he was dead and gone so I have no way to verify the story.