I guess I'm not going to give them a lot of coats my aim is to just sand all the rust off and give it a lick of colour just to freshen them up. I have been doing this all along using a Rustnot spray can but the place I was getting these from has closed up. It was good paint because it was petrol resistant and it covered well. I guess if I repair 10 bases I can line them up and paint them all at once and then they can sit around for a while before I need to use them
Generally Hammertone paints are applied far thicker to obtain a good gloss finish and were used to pretty up rough casting finishes without much surface rework prior to painting, thus it was used on workshop machinery items where components were made of cast iron etc. like lathes and drill presses. Lawnmowers that were made of cast alloy were prime candidates for this type of paint, thus why it was used on so many early Victa bases around the VC-125 ~ 160 timeline and Scott Bonnar where there was quite a bit of external welding that was visible and looked much better when basically bogged up with a thick coating of glossy paint.
Generally a high temp baking oven is used to cure out as much as possible but remember there is a silicon content within and this will keep the paint somewhat soft for quite some time after the curing process has long been completed.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
I remember the old AEC buses I used to sometimes catch to school had lashings of gold hammertone paint around the drivers area and just under the windows from memory. The bodywork was built by the bus company itself so they must have seen the benefits of it!
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I have found some Hammertone at Pompies Marine they claim it is touch dry in 10 mins and dry enough to handle in 20 mins. I will get a tin of it on Monday and see how it goes.
Hi BB, it is obviously thinners based, I'm not expecting a fantastic hammertone finish but for $44 for 4 litres I can't go wrong. I will line up a heap of bases I can repair today and spray them all at once.
MF, never thought I would say this but the Talon bases are much better quality than those rubbish Victa Tornado bases. Biggest problem with the Tornado bases is that when the motor fails the mower gets pushed up the corner of the backyard under a tree for years before they finally get dumped
Isn't just about anything better than a Tornado base though? Those Talon bases aren't bad at all by the looks of things, same with Gardeners Choice. I really hope you can find a viable way to fit LS Powertorque motors to them.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF, I am fitting short shaft motors to these because I don't have any long shaft ones here at the moment, at least running ones. To get the blade height I have had to press the center of the standard PT oval plate up 20 mm. Bit of a pain but best way out of the problem with these bases. Only other thing I have had to do is drill the 4th hole for the PT motor and move the height adjuster spring to the other side which also required a 3/16 th hole drilled in the base
That's a way to do that I suppose. How do you support the blade disc in the press? No worries with distortion, buckling etc? Usually a bent blade disc is very obvious. Perhaps I could fit PTs or FCs to some of the many Rover bases I have or can get easily? I have plenty of good Rover catchers but have started to dump the bases. I can tell you nothing else works to solve that problem I have tried everything.
Hi Jeff, it is doable, but there is a number of hurdles to overcome. First is the height adjuster bar would need to be stepped out to go around the head. The second is the which Rover you are talking about, the alloy bases have step ups for the Briggs motor to sit on and the re- drilling of these could be a problem. I haven't really looked into it once I saw the initial problems. The blade carrier pressed out easily, just closed the hole up about .5mm which was easily cleaned up with the die grinder
FC's might be easier. Just make up an adaptor or just cut out the centre of a worn out FC base as I have done. PT More difficult particularly on an alloy base. Stepping out the height adjuster bar does not take long.
Front axle clear coated with Rustoleum satin and fitted on the base with new bushes. Victa repro label looks great on this. Riveted plastic height adjust detents.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
