Built this one up for the collection a couple of weeks ago. Deceased estate, picked it off the curb in 2019 along with several other mowers. Coil fouling flywheel, bolts seized and covered in crap. tipped oil in bore and put it away.
Fast forward now and I ended up putting hours in getting spark back, new plug, new plug boot, another muffler, kill plugs, NOS throttle cable, filter, snorkel adaptor, rebuilt decomp, new pull rope, greased axles, new blades, lines and carby overhaul and primer cap.
Finalbit was a new corvette decal from ebay, silenmessor does a great job with the decals.
Still not happy with the throttle, its sticky off idle toward run, but has full throttle control and works well enough
August 1980 model, so one of the first with superstart
I love this model. Many were made with that top cover style. I got one for $13 on EBay. I like the look of the mark 2 better with it's bigger rear wheels so I converted mine to ball bearing wheels. The rear axle is slightly different so I swapped it out from a spare chassis I bought on EBay for parts. It feels lighter to push.
Good job sorting yours out.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
