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The basic machine with the engine removed looked pretty grotty, but after a hot wash this came up surprisingly well. Next several applications of paint stripper followed. Then I applied a few coats of a new primmer (as stated above I wanted to see how it worked with the Howard Orange.)

The engine on these machines are a JLO two stroke. As ive said before on here this engine design was purchased by the construction company Wacker, so a good friend of mine, who is a retired Wacker service engineer said he would rebuild it for me. I took this plus another old short motor I had lying around up to him. Even though the seller claimed it was running when put away in the shed (where have we heard that before?) it still needed a crankcase half, piston rings, seals, bearings and a set of points, all courtesy of Wackers scrap bin many years ago when they decided to make the engine obsolete! It has now had a full clean up. Ive also dug through my sheds and found an as new cylinder head so will be fitting this over the next few days.

This is a project that ive been doing on and off for a few years. Anyway, over the last few days I have dug it back out due mainly to the fact that I haven't picked up a spray gun in 6 months and wanted to have a bit of a practice session before I sprayed my Sachs diesel Gem. I was also unsure how my new batch of primmer would react to Vapormatic Howard Orange. Well im pleased to report that it worked a treat. The history behind these machines is that by 1960 Howard had been increasingly frustrated with losing out sales to what they termed "Scratchers". Their solution was to start import the Hako Combinette, as a direct competitor to machines like the Wolesy Merrytiller. The problem was by the time Howard had put their mark up on the price, these rotadiggers (note how they didn't call them Rotavator's)were just too expensive to be competitive. After about a year to 18mths the project was dropped,making suvivours quite hard to come by. This example turned up on good ol' ebay in 2013. I placed a low bid on it and won.

Spent another couple of hours on the bonnet, yet still it needs more work! I hate filling!!!

If it's any interest to anybody I've given my website a minor facelift. It now includes a dating guide for Howard Gems. www.howardgem.webs.com

If its any interest ive managed to book the nearby Travelodge for only £32 a night over this weekend.

They look a really nice little thing. Can they pump much water?

Last night I put a bit of work into rubbing down the fuel tank and the bonnet. The fuel tank should now just need another coat of primmer, but the bonnet is going to be a fair few hours yet!

Its proving a challenge. Just hope it dry up before I'm ready to put top coat on it.

Thank you. Its suprising how much more work the bonnet and under tray is creating. Ive spent the last two days dodging rain, wind and even snow, trying to get the paint stripped off the machine. Here it is, looking quite bad at the moment, mainly due to a flash of rust caused by the hot washer. Tommorrow this will be gone over with a wire brush. The engine has purposely been left for the time being. This will be scotch clothed then etch primed.

Would an aftermarket electronic ignition replace the missing points? I seem to recall a brown atom worked on a Villiers but I may have that wrong? the blue atom was definatley the one for kohlers.

Bonnet has now been sprayed with filler primmer. As expected quite a few areas needing further attention showed up. After being allowed to set for a few days, this will be guide coated and given a layer of stopper. Tonight before I left work I gave the old girl a very thourgh pressure wash ready for stripping the paint off in the morning if its not too cold/wet.

Making good progress. It can be frustrating when you have to wait for other people to do jobs for you. Ive been trying to get a cast gearbox welded up for about 4 years now. Its sat on the one blokes bench for two of those years when he promised it to me in a fortnight!!!

A bit more progress today. Heres the bonnet with its 3rd (and hopefully last ) skim of filler. I also managed to get the fuel tank stripped as it finally stopped raining for about 3 hours, plus I gave the fan housing a rub down and spray with etch primmer.

The tanks come up well. Certainley better than when I posted it to you.

Just received my pass back for this show. Who else is attending?

Looks good. A little tip I've found with these Villiers tanks is if you bare metal where the cap seal goes it stops the paint being lifted by petrol seepage around the neck.

Just trying to get the bad jobs out the way first. I want to get on with stripping the paint off the main gearbox/frame assembly but needs to be done outside and it hasn't stopped raining for nearly a week with us. Being realistic I can see the budget hitting £150 but this will still be cheap for a diesel Gem.

Had a bit of luck today, whilst rummaging through my one shed for some car shampoo, I came across 6 brand new blades for a gem that I didn't even know was in there. Hopefully with what ive got at my work I should now be able to make a complete new set for no money. Should help offset the cost of having the injector done.

Yesterday I had my contact come back to me. Apparently this Gem was built on 10/03/1962 and dispatched to W.Wood Ltd in Horsham on 16/03/1962. The pleasing thing is the engine is still the original factory fitted one.

Managed to make a bit more progress. The front of the bonnet has been beaten back into shape, the crack and the grille welded up. Then after stripping all the paint off I started on my most hated job, - filling! The air filter has started to take shape as well. It will just need a skim of stopper, which I will apply when I do the bonnet. When checking images on google to make sure I got the profile right I discovered that there is two types of bonnets fitted to Sachs Gems. I also received my refurbished injector back this morning, apparently the nozzle and spindle was shot. Came in at £56 with the carriage so not too bad. When it stops raining, it will get a coat of paint to prevent it from rusting.

The shot blasting unfortunately is likely to remove the circle. When I first got interested in Villiers engines you could write to Ron Valentine at the factory and he would write back with the age of your engine. Unfortunately when they ceased trading around 2000 all the records went in a skip which I only found out about a few years later. A great shame.

The other places that Villiers engines have dates is stamped very faintly into the air shroud near the spark plug hole and on the underneath of the fuel tank. Again it's a circle with the letters A.J.H be warned though these stamps are very faint and corrosion or damage can easily remove them. Carefully removing the paint with stripper or sanding will often show them up. J.a.p s before Villiers bought them out also had this stamp on them, maybe the same factory pressed up the shrouds for both companies?

If it's a brass flywheel look by the puller nut and you should see a circle with the letters A.J.H and the year.

The strip down continues. Nothing too major to report. The chain case as usual was devoid of oil, and full of soil. One wheel hub is a little loose, ive found one of the gear selector bushes to be badly worn, and the rotor shaft dog is seized.