racsan
getting in gear
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2008
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 0
well, kind of. brought this back to life and decided to go with a tractor 2-tone theme. john deere has been overdone, besides they do have push mowers, thought about oliver, but growing up there was one tractor that had many memories behind it. a '64 ford 4,000. so remembering the blue/white scheme, i went to it. when i sanded down to the engine numbers, it showed the 3.5 briggs is a '74. the deck was painted several times before, i think black was the original color, it did have a sticker on the back indicating it came from j.c. penny. tried looking it up online as it had a model #, but nothing. probly just a mass-produced at the cheapest bidder deal. anyhow. this was my grandmothers mower originally, when put in the shed 20-some years ago, it had a bent blade, leaking lower crank seal, broken handle bracket and badly wore plastic wheels where the had turned countless times on the steel shoulder-bolt axles. only thing wrong with the deck was some small cracks on either side of the holes where the motor mounted. heavy-guage steel deck though. arc-welded both sides of the crack and ground down on the side where the engine bolts to. i did add 2 small pieces of channel iron underneath going from the handle mounting brackets to the middle of the deck. save a little stress on the back part of the deck when tilting the mower on its back wheels to turn. i have a few pinecones at all times in the yard, so i put a rubber block-off strip across the deck discharge. has a mulching blade on it so no problem with that. put new 8" steel-rimmed ball-bearing wheels on, new lower seal on the engine along with a magnatron coil (no points now), new air filter foam (original had flat disintegrated), new spark plug & fresh oil,new muffler & new recoil rope & handle. started on the 2nd pull wanted a '53-ish gear/thunderbolt emblem for the top of the recoil, but none could i find. instead i got a blue oval emblem from a hubcap center, was a little too big for the recoil so it got put on the front of the block. stenciled "F" "O" "R" "D" across the front of the deck and clear-coated it afterwards. has a slight puff of smoke when first starting but fires on 2nd pull and runs excellent, governor responds well to load increase. all in all ive got about $140 in this, im guessing it might have been $50 back in its day. but alot better than the cheapest store mower ive seen ($120 weed-eater from wal-mart, you wouldnt believe the way the deck flexes on it) heres some pictures of the project. its been fun. sure its basic and simple, but in a world of retro stuff, this is a original. basic and simple........is good!
