Hi Ruffchance nice to meet you and welcome aboard the obsession.
We seem to have a Briggs vertical pull theme this week with another topic showing three mowers with this engine as a tip find offering parts. If you live near enough you could take advantage, though it doesn't sound like you need any at this moment.
Good introductory show and tell you have here with the venerable Briggs vertical pull and alloy deck with the large ball bearing wheels, though only ball bearing outers. Still much better to push than the nylon bearing wheels the cheaper models got. Victa would introduce full ball bearing wheels both inner and outer years later in the 1990s I believe. They can easily be fitted to your machine if you can find a decent set, though these older type are perfectly fine IMO.
Only misgiving I have with the Briggs on this base is how the exhaust shoots backwards against the rear, leaving a coat of hard to remove exhaust soot as seen in your first picture.
Machine dates maybe from a early as 1979 but more likely from the early 1980s as this style of base with that green paint was common with the side pull full crank two strokes introduced late 1980. Yours is obviously the four stroke option but not sure if that intake snorkel came with it new. Going by the premium wheels, it may well have.
You have done an outstanding job in cleaning it up, particularly the catcher. Could you tell us what you used to achieve such a successful detail?
Looks too nice to mow with!
