MAY CONTAIN NUTS

 It’s my objective to restore this machine to as close to original as possible. Every restored Atco Standard I’ve seen, however good, have the nuts, bolts, fasteners etc painted over when the frame is repainted. I stand corrected but I cannot see how when assembled new all the fixings were anything other than bare metal. Accordingly I propose replacing all the existing painted fasteners with new which will be left bare but lacquered. That said I’ve discovered that most if not all the bolts and nuts have oversize heads, eg modern ½” BSW nuts have an across flats dimension of 0.82” (13/16”) whereas on the Atco the nuts are 1” AF and also deeper.  I can’t trace any new nuts this size so today I’ve stripped, polished and lacquered all the large ½” bolts and nuts but will buy new for the remainder as the AF difference on the smaller sizes is minimal. And yes I appreciate that as soon as these nuts are tightened on final assembly they will have to be lacquered again!   

Display or use ? Today I’ve made a major decision. I’ve been losing sleep over this ever since I bought the machine !  The restoration will be solely for display / exhibition purposes and not for use. Accepting the oily rag purists will disagree but my thinking goes like this.

1)      Although a lawnmower this contraption could easily be mistaken for an ancient war machine !  Five drive chain wheels and cogs are all fully exposed to fingers and loose clothing, the hot engine, exhaust pipe and silencer are all unprotected, the countershaft and sharp starting socket is a rotating dagger and worst of all the unprotected fan wouldn’t be out of place in a Roman chariot race ! Put simply this Atco is a serious injury waiting to happen. I’m not taking the risk.

2)      Every moving part –most of which are fully exposed- has to be oiled or greased, the drive chains being a good example. At best this will coat the entire machine in a fine film of oil as soon as the mower is started. This in turn will act as a magnet for grass clippings, soil and all manner of debris thus defeating the object of keeping the mower solely for display purposes. BUT, and just for the record when the restoration is complete I will have the machine run if only for a few seconds so at least I can say “it works”.