OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Victa Lawn Mower Frames Victa I.D

That last one looks amazing! love the colour.

Yes, amazing, you can tell that a lot of care and attention has gone into these rebuilds, much appreciated by me.

Hi bigted and my on your brilliant restorations. Love ya work mate!
Your method of preparation produces an absolutely fabulous result.

With my coffee table Victa18 Special, I decided grit blasting was the way to go for me because of the original condition of the base and ancillary parts.
If Unknownvicta wishes to go this way, check out the link here, they do small jobs as well as large. Click HERE

Actually got a friend of a friend doing the blasting and priming the chassis for a carton of XXXX. cheap if you ask me.

Hi UnknownVicta,
Pics of the blasted chassis please mate....all good for the archives....and a carton of XXXX....bloody cheap mate, mine cost $$$!

Dropped it off today. Will have it tomorrow, or first thing monday morning. Dont worry pics will be coming.

Thanks unknownVicta, for the update, looking forward to seeing the pics!

Here it is after being sandblasted, primed and painted. It was thrown in with some other work being done, the place normally works with massive mining/earth moving equipment, so its nothing show worthy. They just blew some colour on it and its done. So there are a couple of small run marks in it that i want to deal with before putting parts back on it. Maybe throw a clear coat over it to give the colour some depth.

Painted some of the other smaller parts at home in gloss black while this was getting done, and will get the underside of the chassis coated with Rhino Linings in coming days. More pics to come soon.

Hey, looks good, that should come up a treat once it's finished.

Ive got some questions, not sure if anyone here can be of help?

It has some run marks in it and im not sure what to do with them. Can i simply sand them down? How fine grit paper etc? Also id like to throw some clear coat over the top of it, can this be done just with a can of clear-coat? Not even sure if you can get cans of clear-coat. In any case, does the clear need to be sanded smooth also? On the nose of the mower there is raised lettering that i want to paint silver. Do i need to sand the red back, or just mask around it and hit it with a can of silver before clear goes down?

First thing we need to determine is the type of paint that was used to paint the deck. Was it done in an oven, has it fully cured?
If it's fully cured, yes, you can rub the runs out, but it depends where they are and if you can access them while using a sanding block, with possibly some 600 wet over the top.

If the deck is dry, which i'm sure it is, give the whole thing a wet rub with some 800 before you apply any clear or silver over the letters. The idea is you want to get the shine off the existing coat so any new coats can stick to it. Generally you apply clear while you're painting the color and you would put that on after the final coat of color flashes off. Yes, clear is available in pressure packs and it comes in enamel, eg like the "export" brand of paint at about $3 per can, or it also comes in acrylic in the "motorspray" or "septone" brand available from supercheap. Personally i prefer the enamel as it gives a much glossier finish, but requires more light coats with about a 5 minute flash time between coats, dependant on temperature and humidity.

thanks for the info mate. Some parts arrived this morning.

G'day unknownVicta,
Going through the same thing as you mate, restoring an olddy, and a novice.

Looks like you will be up for a re-bore, or better still source another barrel, as I was lucky enough to do. There should be plenty of good barrels around for the Powertorque.
Plenty of experience on here though to give you (us) the right advice.

I was hoping to just give it a quick hit with a cylinder hone on a drill. The cylinder walls dont look as bad as the piston. How do i know if its too far gone, to the point of needing an oversized piston? Im hoping its not that bad, as ive already bought a replacement standard piston/rings.

You can't get a replacement barrel for a powertorque engine, they are one with the block.
As far as checking if it's too far gone, give it a light hone and then check the end gap in the rings.
Here is an extract straight from the manual, it's pretty self explanatory:

Ive sent out some inquiry emails about getting the cylinder bored out, first quote to come back was $110. Seems alot considering the cost to do everything else on the mower. How does this compare to other people who have had it done?

While im waiting to hear back from a couple i figured ill turn my attention back to the paint. Ive decided to just leave the couple of run marks. they arent major and no one is going to be up close enough to the base to even see them when its back together. I dont want to risk taking off too much paint and then its ruined. So im just going to paint the "Victa" silver and then throw some clear over it all. Bigted, you mentioned above that there are 2 types of clear available, enamel and acrylic. Can i use either, or is it dependent on what type of paint was used for the colour coat? Can they not be mixed? I was going to use the enamel based on your suggestion, how many coats of clear go on?

Also i want to repaint the wheels and plastic hub-cap type covers on them. Whats the process for painting plastic like this? Is there a specific primer and paint for plastic, or can i use the same cans of paint i bought to do the other metal parts?

Enamel gives a much better shine and will more than likely give you no problems. 3-4 light coats should do it nicely but test it on an inconspicuous area first like in the well of the deck where it would normally be covered by the carby and the fuel tank.
As for the wheels/caps its probably easier and cheaper to get a decent set of 2nd hand ones. Plastic paints and primers are quite pricey and will ultimately scratch and flake.
I'll send you a PM and we'll try and organise a set of wheels for you.

im after help with the piston rings. Picked up the block as you can see in the pics all cleaned up and ready to go. He told me all i have to do is gap the rings. I was hoping if anything like that was needed he would do it while he had the parts there, but no such luck.

Can it be done with just a metal file etc? Or do i need to buy one of the $100 piston ring filing wheel tools? What should the ring gaps be? Im pretty sure i just sit the ring inside the top of the bore and measure the distance between the ring ends, is that right?