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1964 Fordson Super Dexta: where we start

The second machine is a 1964 Fordson Super Dexta, and it is the reason this site is called what it is called.

In late 1963 Ford introduced the New Performance range, and the Super Dexta came with it: more power from the 152 cubic inch three-cylinder diesel — quoted at around 44.5 horsepower — and a new livery, blue with a silver-grey bonnet and grille in place of the earlier all-over blue. Dagenham-built, compact, and by common consent one of the better-balanced small tractors of its era. Plenty of them worked for thirty years and were then parked in a shed, which is roughly the story of most of the ones still surviving.

The order of work

Same discipline as the County, and for the same reasons — record first, dismantle second:

  1. Photograph and record. Every assembly, every cable and pipe route, and in particular every surviving original decal, photographed in place before anything is stripped. Those photographs are the only reliable reference when the new decal set goes on.
  2. Fluids out, and a hard look at what comes out of each drain plug.
  3. The fuel side, as one job. The CAV distributor injection pump and the injectors go out to a diesel specialist together, so the whole system comes back matched, and the lift pump is done in the same pass. There is no point putting a freshly calibrated pump behind a lift pump that will not hold pressure.
  4. The tinwork survey. The bonnet and grille carry this model’s identity, so their condition — and the correct New Performance paint split and badging — gets settled early, long before anything is ordered.

Two machines, one site

The County and the Super Dexta are being restored alongside each other, but they are documented separately: separate build-log entries, separate parts-wiki entries, and no shared parts assumed between them. If you have come here for one machine, you should be able to follow it end to end without having to filter out the other.

Reference photographs and correct-specification details are being gathered now. If you own a New Performance Super Dexta and have good, clear photographs of original badging and paint detail, they would be genuinely useful.