OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Rough Repainting of Green Lawkeeper.

Here is a badly rusted out V40 that has been brush painted with Aldi metal care paint. I was surprised how good it looks despite penetrating rust holes. The front has the same damage on both sides.
The sister unit with Briggs was painted with rattle can paint after having surface rust and scale removed with a wire wheel.
He uses these mowers to mow lawns in the neighborhood.

MF I have never seen one rust out in the front like that and the only reason I can think it has done that is because the front deflector plate is missing and it has been missing for a very long time allowing the clippings to get caked up in there. A deflector guard fitted in the rear left corner under the handlebar bolt would have protected millions of these pressed metal bases from rusting out but that might have cost Victa an extra 50 cents to supply/fit at time of manufacture so it was never going to happen. The plate could have then been replaceable if it rusted out, but this is not in the interests of any manufacturer

G'day Mowerfreak and NormK,

Gees it looks like the rust has taken over on those sections of the deck. I mean as we know those things even when they are solid and new they are a little flimsy and move a bit. I wonder how that one would feel with all that missing metal near where the handle bolts to...lol

Well the one good thing I guess is luckily B&S Victa has kept pumping out the same style steel decks for the 4 stroke motors for many years. So luckily we can probably find some decent Victa decks being dumped with hard rubbish or at the tips for years to come. Another great thing is they also used the same plastic catchers for many years, so we can also find and use them for years to come. Like the one I found the other day, nice clean rust free solid Victa steel deck with a 4 stroke B&S on it. We have to salvage anything we come across as spares and parts to keep our mowers on the road (lawn) for many years to come! lol

Cheers!

G'day Mowerfreak , NormK,,Converse

I've used them for decades and never had one rust out, cut the grass when it's dry.


Wet grass tends to cut less cleanly, resulting in larger clippings. These wet clippings like to clump together and block up the mower's deck and bog dawn or ruin the lawn mower itself ,ideally, you should wait until the grass is dry enough so that you can walk through the lawn and not have wet shoes.

Hi Max,
Obviously not everybody has the luxury of waiting till the grass is dry, going by the number of rusted out bodies that turn up all the time. When I get a Victa that I am refurbing, I clean the right hand inner side/corner and paint it with fish oil in the vain hope that this will slow the rust problem up. Not sure if it helps but worth trying. I had thought about getting a dozen bodies sandblasted and then galvanized but I don't think people would be prepared to pay the extra for it.

I won't mow wet grass, even if there's only a little bit of dew on it. I don't want grass coating the underside and catcher. Telling you the high arch can cope with mowing wet grass makes it seem like it's routine. I like the high arch design for the flow when mowing tall grass.

Once upon a time many years ago when I used to work I would sometimes be mowing my grass in the dark with a torch, regardless it was wet or not. I had given consideration to fitting a headlight on the mower because the headlight on my head wan't bright enough

That's right Norm,not everyone can cut dry grass but I get a lot of mowers with a couple of inches of
grass stuck under the base so not many people would clean and dry their mower afterwards.

I have heard of a fibreglass mower base ,stainless would be good.

These days you can buy a clear coat that stops rust but it's a little expensive. Gal might be a good idea if it's not too expensive.

I'd prefer to cut long grass than wet grass..

Cheers
Max.

Norm, I mowed in the dark 3 weeks ago, and missed a bloody big strip of lawn down the middle because the torch carked it halfway through.

This time of year, the sun just vanishes in 5 minutes

Max, with the galvanizing there is a minimum charge and I think it is based on weight, I would have to check it out. I have a mate that gets a lot of pipework galvanized, I might be able to throw the bases in with a pile of his stuff. What doing a bunch of bases means that I would need to repair all the bases before I got them sand blasted which does take quite a bit of time

Just saw the dropped n in the title MF, funny because they are the same colour as the XB coupe in Mad Max - the ultimate lawkeeper

Except we would have to call the V40 the 'corrode warrior' haha

Yes the Gal coating looks fairly cheap to get done Norm, I will check some mowers I thought I had one that was Gal
coated.

NdI'm glad for the error. That was good.

Another big issue I would have by getting a dozen bases done, I would then need to find a dozen sets of wheels, and that will not be easy

What I can't understand is how somebody can use a mower to get it into this condition, it must have been terrible just trying to push it with one side completely rusted out
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/dan...lawn-mower-suit-parts-or-fix-/1218257154

Yeah I've had a lot like that given to me Norm,had a few where people have bolted wood on the top and then bolted the
handle to the wood or bolted the handle closer to the centre and sometimes the handle is bolted
on the side of the base.

If wheels are needed Norm, I think there has to be a easy way of fixing the insides of the wheels you have. I was thinking
of trying some sheet metal.

Looking at a couple of Swift bases they look Gal, the one on the left is not Gal.(first image)

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,
gal certainly looks like a good idea, I wouldn't even bother painting them. Steel wheel inserts might be an idea, I could probably get a heap laser cut, there is only the 2 sizes, just have to work out how to glue them in there

Hi Norm,
I think tin snips and a little grinding would do,should be easy to make but you could laser cut them.

Just made a sample out of paper ,fold the 5 outer tabs in then put 5 pop rivets from the out side of the tyre,
one rivet per tab.

Then rivet the five X markings on the side of the wheel.

LOL! Yes that's a good one, "The Victa V40 Lawn Warrior"

Just a question on the galvanizing of the decks, how well does that hold up to all the debris and stuff that will get thrown at it under the deck?

That reminds me years ago when I was looking through Unique Cars magazine, I do remember a car being in there for sale can't remember what exact model it was now maybe a classic American muscle car or something like that, but it had in the ad description "fully galvanized body, will never rust". I won't ever forget that car description, and I don't think I ever saw another car ad ever say it had a fully galvanized body for sale.

Cheers!

The gal steel will still rust eventually Converse ,just takes a lot longer than mild steel.

Converse, I remember something along those lines as well, I know they mentioned it in one of the readers restorations columns at one point - I think it was a Mustang. I know I have the issue here somewhere - but I would have to go through 15 years worth of Unique cars magazines to find it.

Ok thanks for that Maxwestern, I was thinking wasn't most of the old corrugated iron sheets made back in the day galvanized? I have an old shed where the roof sheets have mostly rusted but the sides are still strong and solid after probably 50 years or so. I guess the roof does cop more of the elements than the sides though.

Converse I think it was Volvos that were galvanized, I think I saw pictures of them on the production line. I often wondered what distortion the body suffered from and how they were able to drain all the zinc out of all the nooks and crannies before it cooled.
Hi Max, I have had a lot of experience with tin snips and I doubt I could make an inner that would not look home made. Folding the tabs would always show

Hi Tyler, I tell ya what mate, I reckon it was from an issue from 1998 or 1999. I do remember I was buying them all the time back then and was looking at the cars. I'm not sure but i'm thinking maybe it was a Ford Mercury Cougar XR7? If there is such a thing? lol. I think it was something like that?

Cheers!

I dont know if Mercury could have possibly made the bonnets any longer on those Cougars. Although the Oldsmobile Toronado rivals it.

I sometimes read the old magazines and end up depressed at how one owner torana SL's and Kingswoods were only $4-5000.

Ok thanks for that NormK, never knew that about the old Volvo's. I still do see some of those older square looking Volvo's getting about. I also heard that years ago they were also fitting alloy bonnets and bootlids to Volvo's. Another thing that will probably never rust! lol

Cheers!

I hear ya Tyler! I am also kicking myself back then I saw an Ford XC Cobra coupe original one owner for around 10 grand, I also saw an original red pepper XAGT sedan for 9 grand. Also how about XA to XC Coupes, it was like take your pick what engine or colour you wanted. you could get a cheap one for around 2 grand upto a really nice one for around $10 grand. Darn I should have got something like that back then if only i'd have known they would skyrocket in value. It's always the way though isn't it...

Cheers!

At least we have our Victa's. No rego, no insurance, fun to work on, and much better on petrol than a 351 haha

Hey well the old Victa mowers are also becoming collectable now also...lol Yes they are much cheaper and easier to work on that's for sure! lol

Hey speaking of that fully galvanized car from back then I now remember that car was called a "matador" or something. I looked it up on google images and it was some sort of "AMC Matador", it definately had this funny looking front end like the one in this photo below. I sure remember the front on that car! lol

Cheers!

The earlier matadors had a more conventional front end, but the later ones sure shot out a bit. AMC sponsored one of the bond movies from memory and had the matador in it, and AMC also released a 'Matador Oleg Cassini edition' (after a fashion designer)

A friends grandfather bought the smaller hornet back in 1970 and they still have it, along with the land cruiser he converted to a 350 chev

The problem with the zinc coating is that the zinc oxide layer can be damaged relatively easily (especially with a mower). Hit a small pebble and stuff up the coating and the rust starts.

I just cut up a 30 odd year old shade house that the orchids are in to make way for a bigger one (made of galvanized temporary fencing), and you can see the rust was advanced where it was welded, because you have to take the galv off to get a good weld (and to avoid getting fumigated by zinc).

Then there is hot dip galv or electoplated (effectively electrolosis) - hot dip yields thicker coatings though. Only have limited knowledge of this, and a bit of knowledge is dangerous (as my last go at electrolosis ended up haha)