OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Victa Special cheap resto

i recently found this Victa Special base on the back of a truck at Dalby. The bloke said i could take it along with a bunch of other mowers. I have used the Pull start of a Victa Utility which was found at Dalby, handle bars, from Dalby, and the rest i got from swap meets (axles, fuel tank, engine cover) i also have a early Victa barrel i need to pull of a Victa from the early 60s which i will be posting later on today. I am trying to do this Resto as cheap as i can (that's why it has the wrong color), so far i have only spent $17, $12 on the Axles (they came with another mower and about 20 wheels so i was very happy), and $5 on tank and cover. So all i need now is Carby (which i have stored away), Wheels, crankcase, exhaust, 1 handle bar clamp and Special badge for the handle bars. After i have finished this i will go back over, repainting it and putting correct parts on. I am planning to try and find all this at Swap Meets, scrap yards and Farms. I may buy the badge from somewhere else.

How it is now


How i found it


I will post my progress as i go!

Thanks for reading!
Kye

Sounds like a great plan and on my kind of budget. Hows your rat rod mower coming along? I had a passing thought that a vica twin would be "unique" on an old toe cutter base.

Sadly we haven't worked on the Rat Rod mower since Australia Day, it has been buried in party stuff and my dad has been working on a 50 Grand job, imagine how many mowers we could get haha. We just packed it all up so expect to see some work on it soon! Same with my Gardener.

Sounds like a great reason to go get a new mower. Perhaps one from that old farmhouse.
shh
Can you hear it?
Kye
Kye come and save me

I certainly can, i stare at that house as we drive past, a few months ago i could see what looked like a Victa Ambassador sitting next to the door, it wanted to let me in haha.

It was holding the door open. Jeez mate does it have to crack a beer for you too?

I'm scared to go in, the other people from school call him Chuck Norris, i don't want to find out why haha

Anyway I have just painted the front Victa Red, makes a huge difference!
The dent in the fuel tank is bugging me though

That sure does make a difference. Bog the dent. I have used compressed air to pressurise a cross member on an MG and heat it past red until the air pushed the dent out. That thought may be useful somewhere else.

I will have to get my dad to get some bog up here for me. Can't wait for the next swap meet, they really make a difference when you need them for parts haha good cheap wheels are going to be a hassle though.

Those wheels seem bloody hard to come by. I used to live at the swap meets haven't been to one in years. The Ballarat one is next weekend it's huge and just up the road from me. Sadly Ive spent my pocket money so I won't be going.

haha Toowoomba is the biggest one near me, takes about 2-3 hours to get there, I was saving my birthday and Christmas money all last year for it, and selling mower parts. I will use my left over money (about $190) on fixing my old mowers, and i will start saving again for next year I have to sell heaps of mowers now, i have no room and some of them really do belong in the scrap, its just some parts are very nice! Are the later carbies from around the 70s good on the 125cc engines, i wouldn't mind putting the one i just got on my rat rod mower if it runs better.

From my reading the carbys are the same but use there are different jets for 125 and 160. Sounds like you need to get a part time job after school mate. You've certainly done well to save your money for a year.
Now I giggle with visions of lawn mowers tied to the roof rack going down the highway for 2 hours!
As for mowers that are beyond it, try squirrel away what you can. I wish I had the room I have now when I was a pup with al the treasure I sold or scrapped.
I have a manual printed by Gregorys on the Victas from 1955-1981. It's by no means exhaustive but does cover most things. If your interested in particular bits I can post them somewhere or text them to you if it helps with carbys etc.

I am alright with parts at the moment, i need to start selling some off. As for a job i usually work for my dad on weekends and on the holidays, the only problem is Saturday we will work and on Sunday there is another swap meet haha and a job after school is sort of hard because i get home at 4:10 and it will take me another 15 minutes to get to the closest town i can get a job at. Not many jobs for a 14 year old at 4:25. Working for my Dad is great though, we go picking at Dalby, but i spend it as soon as a earn it there haha, and besides that he do block clearings and tree lopping.

You really sound like a young bloke with his feet on the ground mate. I rode my bike around one Christmas holidays and handed out my hand written business cards made from a sticky note pad and landed a job sweeping floors in an engineering workshop at 14. At 16 I was working on a day off school and the boss asked when I was going to start my apprenticeship. That was a Friday I signed out on Monday. Where I work now we could use a young bloke like you. Probably a bit far away though. Have you got yourself together so you can wheel and deal and still make a profit?

I wish i was closer to more jobs, once i leave school i am hoping i can work for my dad full time, couldn't miss out on going to old farms picking haha, never know when one might have Victa Automatic sitting there, $5000 in one day would be great!. My dad has been teaching me how to get people to sell stuff cheaper at swap meets, the bloke who was selling my Gardener wanted $60 but we got him down to $25, i was very happy about that

Sounds like your old man is a great bloke with a lot to teach you. At least you can help your old man and earn a quid. If you turned up an auto would you flip it or keep ahold of it for a while?

Yes, he used to be quite well known around Brisbane for his tree lopping, he got sick of it though so now he just works by himself. It depends what condition the Auto it is in, if it was missing parts i would try to move it on, but if everything was there (the expensive parts at least) I would paint it, get it to run again and keep it for a while, eventually i would probably sell it, i might like it too much though.

Reckon I'd do the same with that auto. Are you still outside playing with that toe cutter? Those axles look really shiny what have you done with those?

I ran out of parts to do up haha, i might go out there soon and mess around with my Viceroy, needs to have a lot of fixing!. As for the axles i wire brushed them until there was no rust left then I just used some Silver Gal Spray paint that I found in the shed as well, they come up very nice!

I'm not usually a fan of silver but it sure does spook good there. Your making me keen to find an old classic with a cast ally base like one of your Popes. I have ideas I wanted to do to my Scout but far too many years of rat wee have pitted the base really deeply.

Me and My dad hate rat wee! We had a box filled with old fuel and oil cans, we left it in the shed and rats got into it, they got wrecked along with most other things . The silver works really good on the axles, polished still looks best though.

I have a thought I'd like to try on a classic machine with exposed axles, I'd like to split one axle stub off then sleeve the axle with polished copper tube then reweld the stub axle back on. Reckon it'd look schmick!
I was down the back in my store shed a while ago and moved my old motor bike helmet to find a happy rat family had moved in. Let's just say I was unhappy.

Would look very nice, some old un-polished copper pipe would look good on my rat-rod mower . The rats attract the snakes too! I wouldn't want to have a Eastern Brown Snake try to make the one of my mowers its home!

We get the browns around the house here. They're kinda "anti social". I normally rehome them down the road so my Mrs and kids are safer. I have a few more ideas like that. Your right on the rat a gungey copper would look good particularly if you can turn it green with saltwater or something.

We haven't had any brown's yet, a few red bellies and a bunch of carpet pythons. One of my Utilities came with some small copper pieces between the axles and the base to stop it from rubbing instead of the normal plastic, i tried putting them on the rat-rod mower but they fall out a fair bit, i will look out for some copper pipe the same size for it now !

Maybe a bit of bronze would hold it enough or if your a creature of the times a spot of liquid nails! Carpet pythons are fine just big puppies really red bellies aren't much to worry about either. As a point of interest (maybe) the red bellies up your way (so I'm told) have white lips whereas down this way they don't and are more sought after by enthusiests. While talking about copper tube it can be bought chrome plated from the plumbing supplies. I was just looking at one of my axles and reckon it would take 5/8 copper to cover it. Either way, unless you can drive a vernier I would take the axle to be sure you get the right tube if your paying for it.

I like the Carpet Pythons, they don't mind me walking around them and they eat the mice, I haven't gotten close enough to see there lips haha. As for the tube i might be able to get some for free at Dalby, or in some of the scrap at our work yard down at Narangba.

I bet there's a few lengths laying next to that auto.
Kye
Kye come and collect me.

Hi Kye,

you've got your head screwed on better than me, and if you reverse your age (14 to 41) you'd be close to mine...

I'd be a lot happier with the future of the world if there were more like you around.

Keep up the good work, manners and attitude mate!
(On second thought, hold the alcohol as you're 14... instead )

P.S. Have you tried your charm on 'Chuck Norris' yet? Don't forget, you might have something to offer him and that might get your foot in the door...