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I have finally finished refurbishing my C 160 Automatic and mowing deck. The paintwork is not up to show standard but it shouldn't rust and it is intended to be a 'working tractor'. IU am no engineer and the whole project has bee a steep learning curve for me, having never sprayed or completely dismantled a machine before. If I ever attempt another it should be like shelling peas as I think I must have already encountered 90% of potential problems. I'm still working on the photography/uploading - the last photo should be the first.

I saw this at a small steam/vintage event yesterday and thought it may be of interest.

Well, those of you who have been watching this have seen glimpses of bits that don't really mean much. So I have decided to let you know what this thing is, despite having a fair way to go before (if) any mechanical life can be breathed into it. It's 90% there, but still have the drive chain hurdle to overcome. So bearing in mind that it's nothing really spectacular, it is uncommon. This is what it is - This ad is from the Tatler Magazine of Aug 1922. I have other images, but are copyrighted and not for public use. Designed to provide assisted (Ride-on) power to existing, manually pushed lawnmowers at the time. So it can be called the first known British Ride-on that was available to the average domestic household. Earlier large private Estate/Municiple ride-ons were available. They were built by Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies for the MP Co. At the start of this Topic, I mentioned the condition and it's neglected existence, albeit virtually complete. This is what it looked like- Not my pics, but shows it was in a bad state. It's debatable whether to replace some damaged/missing parts like the (left) lower end section of the Fan cover- I suppose it is really part of it's existence, hard knocks 'n' all. What I have found strange, is the varying immunity of certain sections to corrosion. Some very thin metal sheet parts are hardly eroded, but heavier, thicker spring steels are heavily pitted?. All exposed to the same levels of weather. Suppose it's lucky to be able to save/use most of it. Today, I've made up the Cables for Carb controls. Tricky job and I decided to set it up in a way that would be easier to manage. Bolted the Carb to my Lathe tail stock barrel and the Levers to a bar in the Chuck- The inner cables were different length from a donor source and I had make them both the same length and produce new outer bowden cables. Lots of careful measuring, as the 1926 Carb manual says never dismantle the Lever and cables !!. I had no choice. So with a lot of cleaning to get the solder to take on the shortened inner cable, all the ends soldered up and the bits fitted correctly- And relieved to say everything operates/adjusts correctly - Most of the control levers were in a bad state as mentioned way back and showed the end result, but here are a few of what they were like- ...... the Counter shaft - So here is what it looked like as assembly progressed- And to date- If I can get it running, it will be one of only a handful of working examples in collector's hands. Hope to have more updates soon

My neighbour would have bought the tree and cut it down and taken it away, but it would have been a BIT TOO FAR Away!!!

The answer is 'Balls' Norm! ....................................Yes the item is the original, but I have added the dome to it. Back around Xmas, I observed some Kiddies Ball shaped tins that contained chocolate of some kind. Managed to get hold of a couple and found one without any significant damage. Measured pretty close to the radius, so went for cutting a slice off for a test. First job was to clean off the paint/ink to see what the finish was to the steel (top left). I then had to polish it and measured the amount needed to slice off for a sample and what method to slice it off with ( bottom left)- First go was 3/64"(1.2mm) short, so went for it on the good cleaned off section - Cleaned up and tinned with solder, it was soldered to the original, which was not easy as had to use passive resin flux, but went ok. Had a good coat of fuel proof lacquer and settled for an old small cafetiere s/s gauze filter cut to fit as a dust collector. All done and will go nicely with the now very tidy Carb. Regards

Dragging behind schedule recently, but have nearly finished several parts which should all come together next week for a more bulky update and to probably reveal the ID of it. Just to come back to the carb for the near impossible easy repair, I've repeated an image here that is in the link of the previous post to save any toggling for comparison. I was presented with this dented mushroom Air inlet cover. Originally this was a bright shiny nickel plated cover, but as can be seen, the old 'anger scars' and corrosion is severe- I can't call it a filter, as there is no mesh. It is not possible to get all the dents out. I did consider (briefly) taking the old outer cover off and spinning up and soldering on a nickel silver one. This rear view will show you the lack of filtration and I will probably spring a strip of oiled scouring pad in to cover the holes- And the front, which I was not happy with, where just filling and painting would actually be more work than the idea I had to fix this much quicker. I came up with this and now only requires a coat of lacquer after cleaning up the outer edge - The Cooling fan shroud is of thin cast aluminium and has had a bad hit low down at the front, snapped a piece off and bent everything, also one wrong size nut fitted- Having to make additional spacers so that the bolts do not crush (again) the Ali plate when tightened. I'm carefully heating parts to ease the stresses before straightening. I'm using soap to indicate the temperature and it's going well, should be seen fitted next week. Clutch cable is done but need to trim to length on the machine. Throttle cable (outer Bowdens) need to be replaced (tricky). Seat is finished ready to fit. Fuel pipe is a challenge, as the two different tapered nipples were originally brazed to the old pipe, so I had to cut off the big one and bore out to fit on the new pipe. The smaller one I scrapped and turned/machined up a new one and both will be soldered on this time . Having problems with the final hurdle, namely the drive chains. These must be replaced, the originals were just welded together with rust, as they were removed and left on the seat over 80 years ago, Spec is unobtainable now?, no sign of any old stock, so may have to rob from a scrap/donor machine If I can find one?.

Not long now Norm. Ailments have now delayed my progress. Only managed a few bits to date. Cooling Fan was distorted, damaged and pretty corroded (see pic 3 of my very first Topic post). After cleaning and straightening, I balanced it up by filing the outer edges. Then coats of primer, rubbing down in between them. After the first coat- The Throttle controls (and cables) on the machine were beyond saving and scrapped. I had to find a replacement. Not the best of condition, but initial clean up found it and the damage repairable- Plating was long gone, so had a coat of paint applied. The black bakelite type plastic lever ends were repaired using original Araldite mixed with lamp black. Final coat of Cellulose lacquer. Other parts were either original plating, or polished lacquered steel and body correctly painted black enamel- Machine had a 7/16" whitworth square nut fitted where it should have a hex nut, so I had to find and machine/file one down to similar shape and size- The finished article and painted fan will show up in the first pics of the refurbed machine in a week or two ............tbc