Hi NormK, just bumping this topic because I have another deck I intend to fit the Corvette engine to.
The problem with the powertorque turned out to be a faulty decompression valve. The bounce back upon shutting down stopped after swapping it out with a spare.
Onto the original topic, I recently obtained this deck that's less worn on the left hand side and I gave it a thorough clean and touched up missing paint on the left hand side and front skirt with some pretty close green I got at a panel beaters supply shop. It's a bit brighter but barely noticeable to the casual observer and looks a lot better than before. You can barely notice the slight wear on the left side now that it's been painted over.
Next I painted the outer edge of the tires with matte black paint to disguise the exposed white plastic from some scrubbing. The wheels are in otherwise good shape with decent tread (well, visible!) and no missing inner donut inserts.
The deck is in good condition for it's age and now looks very tidy after the clean and touching up. Handle bars well be next.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
