OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Rare Finds & Donations Do these count as rare?

Is this the right place to post these?




edit: ...oops, forgot there's a restored 18 in the shed too.

that surpreme is a kinda rare mower. they are good mowers when they are running. whats the spark like in the rear plug?


also do u have any other vc160's??

Yep... bit of a story
Sadly, my housemate just passed away and as the photos show he liked his lawnmowers lol.
Anyway, the Mark II and the Impala are mine, but the rest belonged to him. His sister (his only family) wants a couple of them for sentimental reasons (more than fair enough) but Ima gonna try my best to get a hold of the Twin.
Story on that one is a mate of his gave it to him about 3 years ago for free! When he got it it was a runner (and yes, as others have said, the sound they make is pretty awesome) but looking at it now I see he's pulled the carby back of it to clean it out.
Not sure how it is at the moment, I've been googling away for the last week, and every result for these beasts leads back to this forum and Mr Davis and blumbly lol.
Lats time the Twin ran it was fine (about a year ago), ATM I'm waiting to see how ownership of his possessions turns out before I go touching it.
Mine are the 160 MkII and the Impala, the MkII was my pops and I've just started looking at it (my 160) last night (covers off (ZOMG the chewed out and seized screws!) and started washing the carby up) so it's the first cab off the rank.

edit: that's the only 160 at the moment, but I'm chasing up another one I know about as a parts donor.

Sorry to hear that. Yea the surpreme would be a good one to clean up. I love the vc range i have a few 160's , 125's vc sports n mustangs atm

Yep I know the Twins are rare, is there a consensus on which one's rarer, the Twin500 or the Supreme?

I would say the twin500 cause its the original one n pretty sure they sold em off as surpremes to finish them off

Hmmm, interesting...
Now I'm wondering if it's a Supreme or a Twin...
I read the Supremes have a revised motor, with a flat top piston at the front and a domed piston on the rear to raise compression in an attempt to deal with the weak rear spark.
Also, while the jets out I noticed that it's not the plastic tube type of a G4 Twin500 (I'm looking at an old blumbly thread at the moment), it's got a ring in the outside of the head AND a beveled edge on the jet head also. As far as I can tell the jet I'm looking at belongs in a 85cc motor?

I would say the supreme is rarer, but that monaro in the background is more my cup of coffee

Thanks Joe. lol yeah everybody likes a munro.
Anywayz, I've got a second VC mkII coming on Tuesday so I'll no doubt be seeking some advice on here in the near future.

In the meantime I'm curious as to what the self propelled one in the second photo is?
Any and all help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Walt.

The old cylinder mower is an atco, im no expert on those, but from memory part oof the serial number on the id plate is the year..

Cheers mate, that'll get me started.

Hi kowalski the green supreme is much rarer than the 500 twin. As the 500 was indeed the first of the twins and was sold in larger numbers,however the gold supreme is even rarer than both. I'm still chasing one myself. About the weak spark on the rear cylinder,it was infact compression problems. There has been lots of talk on spark problems but it was infact compression problems. There has also been talk on revised coils. Through my experience there is no revised coils and I have done (and got a few twins) a lot of work with twins. I would be interested to know what the engine number of it is,as I'm trying to find some patterns with the numbers. If you have any questions on this twin or others please ask always happy to help.

That ATCO in the second picture seems to still have its model identification plate. It is a stamped brass plate attached to the front upper side plate nut on the right side. It should have a model number on it with 4 digits. Example: 1458 would mean it is a 14" width mower made in 1958.

Thanks guys.
Blumbly, I'll grab that engine no. for you but where do I look? I've pulled the white plastic cover off and removed the black metal cover to expose the motor, but no sticker of tag on the tin cover. A quick casual eyeball of the motor and it's not jumping out at me, wait lemme guess, is it under the motor? lol
If there's a bit involved then I may have to put it off till the weekend, but I'll post it up or msg you when I find it.

And thanks again grumpy, so I'm looking at a 14" from 1952 here it would seem. She was seized up rock solid when it arrived. Took about a full can of silly spray and more than a few beers and some not so gentle persuasion before it finally turned over by hand.
It's seen better days lol but cleaned up and some fresh paint and I'm thinking it'd make one heck of an ornament, I just love the way it looks.

Also, I thought I saw a reference somewhere here to a Victa 18 register? I can check the serial no. of the one in the shed if anybodies interested?

Hi Kowalski you will find the engine number on the front half of cylinder,on the carby side.Just behind the fitting for the carby.No need to pull the dress cowl or cooling cowl off the top.Here is a picture to show you the where about's. It's not a great picture but you can see some of the numbers.It might have a build up of old oil and muck on it.

Here we are talking about how rare mowers are or are not,but we haven't looked behind them.At the GTS Monaro which lets face it is possibly the rarest thing there and after all the thread is titled:Do these count as rare? So yes that it is especially if it is an original. Is it? I'm not to good with those models is it a HK? From around 1969? It looks like a 2 door. Wow is it? More need more input.

I'd swap all of my monaros for that one

Anyway, Im also quite intrigued by the rover/ craftsman utility mower, I havent seen one in that type or shape before, some odball ones were made here and there in the 70's though.

Also the rotomo at the back of the pack, can we see that a bit closer please

I'm not sure that is a Rotomo Joe.It looks more like a Model 8 that someone has either changed handles or put a handle mounted tank on,or maybe a Rotomo with a later engine on it.So yes a picture would be good as now I'm curious.

Found it. ARGHH!
I must have read about half of the workshop manual tonight looking for a clue, then just as I close the book and go to put it away I see it staring me in the face on the cutaway motor on the front cover lol.
The number is 23 7W G150
22

I'm 99% sure on the 7 but the top of it's stamped right along one of the sort of "serrated" ridges on the number pad. It could be a TW instead of 7W? But as i said 99% it's a 7.

Now, fingers crossed I can be the one to provide this beast with a new home.

Oops, yeah I'll get some more pics up tomorrow. Sorry for the tardy reply, but my net's been acting a bit daft for the last few hours.
Umm so, the rotomow's a bitsa, found like that and I noticed that the engine cowl has a mounting recess for the tank, but the tanks on the bars? Someone somewhere has played chop and change I guess.

And I'll get a closeup of the Craftsman too, I like the odd shaped base on that one, something different.

Ah the car, it's reputedly Bathurst special HK (not sure what year). It's a total basket case, still worth a nice bit of coin though. That's not mine. lol

'Ere we go. Yep the Roto's just a bitza, you can see the engine number in pic 2 if that identifies some of it. It was free to a good home, somehow it wound up here instead. haha


And the Craftsman.





and found another one of these today (but no catcher darn it lol), what's the reason for the little cosmetic differences? I noticed the sticker obviously but on closer inspection the one on the right has Victa embossed on the hubcaps as well. Was that a change half way through the model run or something? If so, which one came first?

Love the shape and the lines on that craftsman/rover utility, I think I might have something similar but will definately be keeping an eye out for one to play with, for the pics

Nice Roto Special lols...Id go as far as saying she was once a 2a As for the Monaro,Nice choice of title btw (Do these count as rare).Its that dirty,But its a 1968 HK GTS monaro in silver mink,Since it has the V8 grill opening and radiator support it will be a 327..Unless its been toyed with. As for a bathurst model?....Not really any such thing...They raced them there but they did not hold this title...Any ways its Awesome...Id have another one. My first Monaro was a HK 327 in Warrick yellow,now the rarest of the colours for the HK...but shes long gone sighs..Oh well my HT will have to do...lols...Nice haul anyways

Roto special rofl. Ah well, good for parts anyway although the fuel tank needs a reco I think. The base has a bit of a tear opening up also.

The Munros last owner always wanted a yellow one lol, but this ones got a blue interior so apparently silver mink/blue int was also a pretty rare combo. At least it used to have a blue interior, in good nick too, until a bull terrier ATE it! Bad dog BAD DOG doh!
Yeah I know it's not "Bathurst", it's 818 on the tag
Really is a mess though, almost no floor, one quarters off it's head, Salisbury and shifter got swiped from the back yard about 20 years ago when the car was in pieces too

With the VC-160's the one on the right is the VC-160 mark I,1970 (just has the wrong starter on it) and the other one looks like a mark III 1972,hard to tell as viewing this on my phone. The victa on the nub caps is what the mark I came out with the mark II and III did not. I will have another look tonight on my computer should be able to tell then.

yea hard to find the vc160's with catchers n if they do have em most have seen better days. i picked up a vc125 not long ago with the catcher n i got it fibreglassed n it come up alright :-) if u ever end up with a vc160 base you dont need let me know :-)

Oh OK I haven't had any problems finding catchers infact I ended up with more than I needed and had to get of then. You should have said you needed bases before we moved took about 25 bases to scrap. Most we're still in good condition just didn't need them.

Oh bugger lol. Yea after a base for one of my mark 1's

Thank you very much Blumbly, those are exactly the details I'm interested in.
Oddly, both 160s have the Mark II series 70 sticker on the cooling cowl. I'm pretty sure my granddads Mk II on the left hasn't been messed with, don't know what the story with the one on the right is though. Luckily my pops came with the original catcher.

Nathan, with the Mk1 I'm only after the motor and dress cowl, er and maybe the flap door on the back, I've got a lot of stuff to sort through here at the moment so I can't say when, but if we can sort out some transport then the base, wheels, and bars are all yours. I'll be happy just knowing it's being put to good use.
Geez, I've been sending a truck down to Wonthaggi 2-3 times a week for the last 3 years, but we finally finished up everything at the desal just before Chrissy doh!
Anyway, I'll try and bone it this weekend but cant make any promises. I'll shout out when it's ready to go.