It’s been quite a while now since my last post. Many of you guys have shown an interest in my VC109 project (and gave me ,sound advice) I promised myself that I would keep you all updated with my progress. I now realise the importance of uploading pics directly to the site as apposed to the picture hosting sites as they quickly took the images away..... lesson learned..!
Well...on the whole, not too much progress to report really. I don’t know how far to go with this “semi restore” so for the time being I have just fettled and tidied it up a bit. I've added a few of the parts from the donor VC160 along with some other parts that I was lucky to find on ebay recently to try and make it more functional/original but that's about it,
“That Horrible Green Cowl”
The VC109, revered by many as "The Ugly Duckling". After the spray job, in the end I went with a really good quality 2k matt clear coat lacquer to finish it. I obviously wanted to avoid the extra expense of doing this but I tried a sample of the untreated spray paint on a ruffed up old plastic coke bottle (as kindly advised by Maxwestern) but even after it was left for a week to harden a petrol soaked rag wiped it off easily... Ouch..!! I recon it has cost me around £45+ to paint this originally white VC160 cowl (including the lacquer and special mix paint) I know some will disagree but I still think It was worth it.
Throttle Control Lever-
Had a bit of luck here, I managed to get hold of a NOS throttle control lever to replace the retro–fit one that was bastardised onto the handlebars (extra drill hole in the handlebar) I never thought I was going to find a brand new original control lever here in the UK so I was pretty chuffed when I did.!
Electrolysis –
A bit of research over the winter to get the engine cowl back to bare metal and recover the "70 Series” decal. I set up a tank to strip off all the old paint/rust, It worked a treat and I managed to recover the original decal although (rightly or wrongly) I decided not to stick it back on the now repainted cowl as it didn’t look too good. I finished the gloss black spray paint finish with some 1k petrol resistant lacquer. I got in touch with Silensemessor and bought a new set of decals from him on ebay. I’m really impressed with them, they are really good quality, I just need to decide if I should replace the cowl decal, as you can see I haven't done this yet.
Exhaust Muffler-
This was in good condition so a good rub down with a wire brush drill attachment and a few coats of 400*c matt black spray paint was applied. I managed to break the gasket up pretty badly when I removed it so I had to buy a replacement.
Well, apart from a few cowl screws (that I haven't got round to cleaning up yet) it's back together and I absolutely love it. I have cut my postage stamp size lawn with it a few times now and it is a bloody joy to use, it starts 1st pull every time but it's retirement for this one now. It has a reserved place in my garage and apart from the odd run up it won't be cutting any more grass in the future.
Mowerfreak also said that "This Victa collecting thing can get quickly our of hand" boy...he was right..!
Even though I am struggling for space the "Victa bug" has got a grip on me and I have recently bought a 85cc Lightweight/Compact (this is the machine that started my Victa obsession 20+yrs ago) a rough 1974 VC160 (for parts) and a 1966 V37 (model 548). I have never seen a V37 here in the UK since I took an interest in Victa mowers so at £35 I just had to buy it. It will take some time but I want to do a proper restore on this one when I can get it running properly.
The V37 starts 1st crank (on full revs with the 3Q carby fully primed) it has good compression, but it just dies out after that. I have thoroughly cleaned the carb, replaced the coil/condenser/plug/points but still no joy so I suspect it is a carb jet, crank seal or ring problem. The seals show no signs of leakage though so any suggestions are welcome with this as I don't know what to do next?
