Well, the cowl has points that lead me towards Viceroy, however, the air filter mounts you mentioned on the phone could also be an issue.
The viceroy was the only time that badgering was seen on that cowl, but it also had the extra holes.
The cadet may well have used that base set up, the base itself is a match, but I cant find images showing the handles (then again, i can only find drawings of the cadet handles, and I know the drawings were often incorrect)
However, I cant see how anyone could possibly be able to tell if the engine is original to the base, or the cowl original to the engine, unless we had a listing of that era serial number available.
Without serial number details, cadet photo's or knowledge of the mowers history, we can only speculate.
I strongly suspect the cowl to be viceroy, however, the base is most definitely not, the engine I have no idea about, it could be original to the cowl, and be on that base due to damage to the original, or it could be original to the base, in which case the cowl was used to replace a rusty one.
Or it could be made up of 3 mowers, there is plenty of home made mowers out there.
If the base and engine left the factory together, the year, lack of front box mounts, and use of that base suggest it is a cadet, that has had a viceroy cowl fitted, presumably due to damage.
However, if the engine is original to the cowl, then i would strongly suspect a viceroy had a nasty incident with a rock or wall, and a new base was required.
Personally, I would apply Occam's razor to this, considering that base was run over multiple mowers, across quite a few years, while that cowl was quite limited in it's run, especially badged like that, and further considering how easy it is to see a nasty bit of damage to an alloy base, the more likely solution is a viceroy meets a rock, and a new base is found.
However, due to the air filter holes on the cowl not being drilled out, and Victa's preference at the time for using non model badged replacement parts, it is also a possibility that a cadet needed a new cowl, and that is what the shop gave it.
Also, in regard to the starter, the viceroy used the old square bang down starter.
Personally, if we could get some serials together, that would help accurately narrow down the engine, which in turn may link it much more with either the cowl or base.
What is your serial number, I believe at least one of our members has access to a viceroy, I will try and get that serial too, and if we can gather a few Cadet serials that will also be useful, so I will get the word out.
Basically, there is a lot of guesswork here at the moment, as we cant be sure the originality of the mower, so this way, we can move from guess to hypothesis.
