OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Edgers Two Stroke Edgers Joe's tilt a cut resto...

It doesn't sound very profitable, Joe. If you can't make at least $40 per hour spent on it, you are going out backwards compared with spending your time on something else. Don't forget that it has swallowed up a good full-crank overhauled engine you had in stock. If you add in the cost of the rebore and new parts in that engine, this TAC owes you a lot of money.

It can be a tough call, especially when you involve a passion, I would always find myself breaking my machines into 3 catagories, Collection, Shop, and Training. Collection was usually not about keeping to a certain value even for the potential sale of a restoration, at the end of the day, it was about projects for me, and yhe time spent was enjoyed, and reward in itself, as of course was ghe finished product, kept in most cases for myself. Sale was anything that came in, was cleaned, repaired, and prepared for sale, so it always had to be worth it, and some repairs just arn't. Training was interesting, this usually involved models thst were not rare, but offered th opportunity for me to gain knowledge or experience in repairing them, this usually meant running at an overall loss on the machine, but furthering my abilities, or even just satisfying curiosity.

I agree, Ty - I had guessed that Joe was building that one to sell, but I'm probably wrong. If I look at that TAC project as a fun one, it looks very much like something I'd do, if it were a Honda mower instead of a TAC. So, we all seem to be pretty much on the same page.

Personally I never sell outdoor machines, and I keep dismantling the same ones to change components, just for fun. There is no "labour budget" involved, because it is recreation to me. I try pretty hard to buy as few new parts as possible, though.

The total cost of a restoration for collections for me comes down to weather or not I would pay for the item in final condition, I.e, if i came across this machine, restored for this price, would i think it fair. Whereas the value of a machine used for training/experimenting can be less restrictive, usually just what i can reasonably afford at the time in conjunction with the best value parts.