MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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Sept 10, 2015 12:30:14 GMT
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Ok, so slightly random, and no where near as exciting as project 'why not' from Stigian but I have now become the pround (?) owner of this vintage Atco 20" mower! I'm not entirely how or why this has happened, but a mate of mine is clearing out his garage and convinced me that I need this in my life. I'm still not convinced! It's apparently extremely difficult to date these pre WWII machines as the records were lost during the war, but from what I can glean from the interwebs it's post 1935 but pre 1940 The power plant is a mighty 147cc Villiers two stroke but it's currently a none runner as it has no HT lead attached to the magneto, but it is entirely complete, turns over freely and has good compression, so I have high hopes that it'll be a good runner. Whilst I am a fan of naturally acquired patina, I'm thinking this may get a full restoration (mainly cos I think the aluminium covers will look pimp all polished up) and then I'll set it to work in my garden. If nothing else it'll give me a winter project to tinker with whilst supervising my kids doing theirs, but I'll start another thread for their retro rebuilds later on
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2015 13:17:12 GMT by MrSpeedy
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Sept 10, 2015 13:04:55 GMT
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I've always liked vintage lawn mowers so watching this thread with interest. Unfortunately the only mowers I've owned are ones that have been given, which are mostly crappy electric ones. the last one I was given was a petrol Briggs a Stratton (with a split diaphragm in the carb) so we are moving in the right direction but still not really as vintage as I would like!
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Last Edit: Sept 10, 2015 13:06:57 GMT by fuldatramp
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Sept 11, 2015 10:53:16 GMT
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God, I spent half my youth cutting grass with one of those. Not quite in 1938 though. Atco and Suffolk's were the main mowers then. None of yer foreign muck. Eee, simple days Yup, mint it in true MrSpeedy fashion.
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dubscum
Part of things
thats what i do
Posts: 531
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Sept 12, 2015 11:46:51 GMT
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i do like Atco mowers
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whip it, into shape ........ go forward
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Sept 13, 2015 11:46:21 GMT
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I'd say "slam it" but the factory has already kindly done it for you Have you thought about doing a part resto? Just polish and paint up a few parts on the engine and leave it at that? If you have the engine number I could ask a few people who might be able to work out the year for you.. I love the shape of the Atco fuel tanks, watch out for the brass filler cap they do like to vibrate loose!
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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Sept 13, 2015 11:52:32 GMT
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Should get a nice stripe going with that!
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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Sept 14, 2015 12:08:36 GMT
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Stigian I had initially thought about just making it work and use it as is, but I know what I'm like. Once I start stripping it down to check bearings etc, I won't be able to resist getting the paint brush out! Where would/should I find the engine number? All I've found so far is cast into the barrel "Made for ATCO by Villers" and "1 1/2 hp"
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Sept 19, 2015 18:46:34 GMT
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A bit of info for you here MrSpeedy, I hope it helps.. I am a moderator on an Old machine forum, so I simply asked the guy's There is usually a little brass tag, somewhere on the frame where the fuel tank mounts meet the mower side pieces. On that will be a date code. Sometimes these are painted over.......... Here is what the 'id' tag looks like on my 1949 14" Villiers 79cc 2 stroke. The 14 refers to the cutting width and the 49 to the year of production. The 147cc Villiers (mk15) was introduced after Dec 1953, there is also an HS version that produced 2.5bhp and had a conversion kit available for running on Paraffin (Kerosene). If the Grass Box is original to that Mower, the 'By Appointment' transfer will refer to H M Queen (Liz II) . The Handlebar Style is also a giveaway that tells us it is fairly modern (post WW11) in Atco history. It looks unmolested, so the Tag should still be there somewhere and these were used during the 50's. Another way to get a rough age on some Villiers is to inspect the Flywheel for a date stamp. This may narrow down the date a bit further, but bear in mind that Villiers 'Stock Piled' manufactured parts and so a 1953 stamped Flywheel could be on a 1955 built engine. You can get the manuals for the engine. Thanks you Darren and Richard for the above info.
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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Sept 20, 2015 21:32:49 GMT
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That's brilliant StigianWould suggest it's not as old as I thought then. There is no tag on the frame that I can see, but I remeber seeing one inside the primary chain case. The 'by appointment' transfer is one for George, not Liz. I arrived at my date from the construction of the mower itself using the old mower website as reference. They state that the steel side plates, rather than cast iron frames, put it at post 1935, but the pressed steel kickstart makes it earlier than the cast pedal used later on ?! I've also yet to find anymore images than the one I've seen, with the full cast aluminium cooling duct. I'll happily be corrected on anything though
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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So, needed something to fill the last couple of hours of today, so I got the old Atco up on the bench. When I got it, the HT lead came separate to the engine, so naturally this was the first thing to attend to. So, lead refitted and points cleaned and we have a spark. Difficult to photograph that though tbh! Anyways, one of the big things about this mower was the air ducting on the engine, so I spent 15 minutes of the polisher tonight, and this happened; Definitely getting the full paint and polish treatment now. I think this is gonna look ridiculous! lol
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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So, A couple of hours on friday afternoon, and a couple more this afternoon has seen the old mower get smaller and cleaner! Having found no definitive answer as to what the paint colour should be, I decided to use a tin of enamel I had in stock for painting my engines. - Lister Green! Only the first coat, but you get the idea You can also see that I've cleaned the engine and given the barrel/head a couple of coats of high temperature black paint. When I was stripping it down, I noticed that a lot of the larger nuts were chrome plated, but the chrome was all flaking off. Now, I wasn't about to get all silly and get some new nuts plated. Oh no. I did the next best (and cheaper) thing and made some brass ones! Starting off with some 1 1/8" brass bar in the indexing head, I milled the six flats to 0.930" A/F You may be thinking that's an odd size, but it's 1/2" Whitworth spanner size Next up, into the lathe to add a slight chamfer to the top edge and to drill Next is tapping the thread 5/8" BSF And finally parting off to length and leaving a flange on the base as I always think they look better like that Finally, a quick polish on the mop and we have nice shiny brass nuts Which look like this against the green paint
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Knew it!
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,969
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Looks lovely, how big is your lawn?
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Looks great and starting to take shape. Looking forward to more updates
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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Knew it! Yeah, I can't help myself. Lol
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,789
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Looks lovely, how big is your lawn? Probably take me about 10 minutes to do the back one with this. Even less to do the front. Lol
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,969
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Looks lovely, how big is your lawn? Probably take me about 10 minutes to do the back one with this. Even less to do the front. Lol and about an hour to clean it afterwards....
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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mr
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,580
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thats pretty damn cool,i really like this.i rebuilt a 50's merry tiller that was buried in the mother in laws garden a few years back.best thing is that all the old stuff is dead simple to strip and rebuild. there are places around that still sell parts for old stuff like drive chains,gears etc too. theres one just one just outside dartford who even had a drive chain for the 50's tiller in stock
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Got the car from 105 bhp at the crank to 152 at the wheels.nitrous going on next.....if it ain't broke,keep bolting on go faster parts until it is........ www.fordgranadaclubuk.freefo.de
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My dad had a similar mower, in about as many bits tho. :/
I did try to build a different mower up. Like, Big Red, on the Lawnmower man, film. But I couldn't get the engine going. So gave up on it. I did have a sizeable area of grass that would take all afternoon to cut.
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Onne
Part of things
Posts: 822
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I hope to get my cylinder mower of unknown make and year soon... Good inspiration this!
(you know you can get the ATCO transfers on eBay?)
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1990 Mercedes W126 300SE 1997 Mercedes W140 S320L
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