Hi Steve99, and a warm welcome to the OutdoorKing forum, and nice to welcome another Scott Bonnar owner as we all like to learn new things and tinker here.
With regard to the Scotty 45, Padman is correct, the old orange Briggs cowling numbers will give the actual date of manufacture....but of the Briggs itself...not of the Scotty chassis...No exact date of assembly exists for any particular machine, unfortunately. So the motor could be old stock, placed on a newer machine or vice-versa.
There are clues to dating a Scotty 45, here's a few things to look for...(yours is a late model)
(1) Plastic front roller ends (early had alloy), (2) Alloy height adjuster with red plastic button (early ones were brass), (3) Black plastic grass deflector knobs (early ones had screws ), (4) Twin rail engine deck (early was a solid deck), (5) Screws on the chain-case cover are vertical (early were horizontal) and on the 20" machine there was the 3 segment rear roller and later 2 segment. the paint colour varied also
The Scotty 45 was continued under Rover ownership and eventually "badge engineered" to become the Rover 45 (solid red and green coloured) but some commentators have questioned the build quality as being inferior to that of the Scotty. I tend to lean that way also.
For an explanation on spin-grinding...click
HERE Please read down further in the posts (Post Number 15182) about 'Facts and Myths'...You may find that interesting.
Once again
