OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Victa Lawn Mower Frames Victa VC160 Auto Drive V109

Hi all,Green is not too bad ,I can think of worse colours from the 1970's .

Cheers Max.

I hated the green cowl in pictures, but once I got my own VC-160 Auto Drive, it grew on me pretty quickly and think it compliments the dark green base. The donor mower looks like it would clean up a treat, apart from the handle bars which haven't responded well to the English climate. I can understand you wanting such good bits that this mower has to offer though.
Looking forward to seeing progress.

I know what you mean. I always assumed they came out an off white colour as all the ones I have seen look this way, but cop a gander at that!! I can only wish my teeth looked that good.
Where's Blumbly when you need him!

OK.... I give in.. I'm not going to paint it... I'm gonna hold on this..!!

I felt bad enough taking it to pieces.. now I will be putting all those parts back on it again. I will keep looking to see if I can find something else that will be more worthy of the "green paint" treatment..!!!!

My missus will probably leave me in the meanwhile though, I promised her that this one would be for parts. I have 6 mowers now (4 of them are Victas) and no room in the garage to work on them... now that the handles have been removed though I recon I might be able to hide this one under the bed..??

Hi Alan and MF,


I can sleep easy tonight knowing another VC160 will live on. LOL !

All I want now is for the Crows to win at the "G" today even though I'm a huge Swans fan myself, but as Adelaide is my home town I'm happy to support either the Crows or the Power whenever they make it to a Grannie as long as they aren't playing the Swannies.

I have one myself that I fell across and it's in near mint condition complete with its Green catcher with the magic eye.

I'm about to hoist it up into the air and hang it nicely from the roof purlins on an angle so all can see it from it's best side.

It will never cut a blade of grass again.

Cheers,
BB.

This hobby can quickly get out of hand, but sorry, that standard VC does look in well preserved shape. Is the left hand side of the chassis edge badly scraped to the point where there is missing metal? If not, that is well worth preserving IMO and it would make a nice pairing with the Auto Drive. What happened with the plan to paint up the black replacement cowl? You can always use that as a mule to try the paint on, without using too much up, of course.

The left side is quite deeply scratched, the grass flap is rusted through in places and the handle bars need new bushes where they attach to the deck. Apart from that it also needs a new muffler, the engine cowl is badly rusted and needs re-painting, on the whole it needs more work than the Auto Drive.

I decided against painting the black plastic cowl as compared to the real one, it is really flimsy and as I mentioned in an earlier post it also has a hole and some cracks where someone fitted a kill switch, I think it would just be a waste of paint.

Look no further than the disco purple VC-Sportz.

Hmmm, maybe you were right to strip it after all! It's your machine. I wish Blumbly would chime in and give his take.

Yep I have a couple of the purple VC Sports mowers.I don't see mowers as ugly they just look different.

I have a few VC mowers in the mower graveyard.

I would wreak the VC mark 2 and use the parts for the Auto drive.The Auto drive is a lot harder to find than a VC mark 2.

A tasty collection of classic alloy hi arches I can see. I like the prop them up on bricks idea.
I have always liked the purple sports and would jump at the chance to get my slimy hands on one.
Alan. Have a heavy heart no more. Just restore restore restore!

The bricks keep the mowers dry underneath when the ground is wet or damp.I have seen a lot of blade plates
rusted away because people have left mowers on the ground and the blade plate is constantly damp.

It looks like you simply place sheets of corrugated iron on top of the machines to keep them dry and protected from the elements. Does it work okay?
Rust is minimal on a couple of the handles in the pictures, so it seems to do the job well.

If I have a mower with mint condition handles then I would not store the mower outside ,but these mowers would all have a little surface rust on the
handles and placing sheets of iron on top, the handles have not rusted any more ,so the mowers are kept dry.

Well, mowers certainly don't need five star digs, so whatever works. Watch those redbacks though.

It's easy to tell if you have redbacks around by checking the spider web,if you throw a stone into
the redbacks web it will hold the stone off the ground and with other spider webs the stone will break
the web and land on the ground.The redbacks web is a lot stronger than other spiders.

I found a 70s utility with 160cc and G4 and a very rusty deck in a toss out pile early this year and when I saw a redback spider I said to myself no I'll pass. I just didn't want that in my car.
Now I wish I had just removed the pesky critter and grabbed it as I now need a 160 cooling fan. It would have been a great candidate to strip for various other bits too.

Sometimes a quick spray with Mortein is needed to remove all the spiders that have taken over the mower.

Thanks guys,

Sadly I think I need to do it. This machine has the parts that I need now and besides from the fact its already stripped, I don't think I am going to find another one soon.

Well, winter is starting to kick in here and that means one thing... its time to retreat to the man cave and avoid all those shitty programs that lead up to Xmas on the TV like "The Apprentice" and the like, you know the ones, that shite that turns your brain to mush..!!

Before I do the dirty deed though, should I use a plastic primer on the cowl or would a good ruff up suffice? also, would you put a petrol resistant clear coat/lacquer on it when its done?

I found this much earlier in the thread. Hope it helps.