OK, I know I'm walking a thin line here but hopefully the mods will appreciate the lovely traditional engineering here. I'm so excited I just had to share this. Last night I just bought this vintage 50s Atco lawnmower on eBay in England. It's about 1000 miles away in another country over the sea! Anyway, paid $200 which isn't bad then went on line looking for a transport company to ship it for me. Within an hour I had an offer (on a Sunday-!) for about $150 from England to Germany which was cheap I thought. So now I'm looking forward to having my vintage Atco delivered next week. I used one of these as a child. They drive themselves and have a roller so you get that nice stripped lawn. Has a 98cc Villiers engine with a kick starter. Atco basically invented the lawnmower and have been producing them for 100 years at least. They last for ever and are just so cool. I just love the metal grass box. Maybe if I promise to hotrod it, the mods will let this post ride;-) Here's some pictures.
Very cool and if you search you can find the coolest thingI bought at ( one of the swap meets ) by member moriarty and see another really cool mower. Gary
Correct me if I'm wrong but, that looks like the kind of mower we used to cut golf course greens with. Roller in the back and catcher in the front.
There are plenty of those available in England but I didn't want one. I have my ride on tractor mower for the large lawn, but wanted something smaller for the smart lawn next to the house. Notice it says "By appointment to her Majesty the Queen" on it! Must be good then;-)
I didn't type fast enough. Coopman beat me to it! Here's a "before" shot of it. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=466562&highlight=hot+rod+mower
Can we get a better look at the blades? That thing is cool! The oldest mower I've ever had was 19 years old but she moved away after graduation.
Wow, those are so nice! It would be cool and then kinda hard to cut grass with that-wouldn't want to get it dirty.
Sorry, I meant the Atco mower's blades. Can we get a better look at those? Although the Atomic Mower's blades are just as cool as the rest of the mower. What makes these so cool is you can adjust the suspension and make them low riders.
They are the cylinder type that if set up correctly should cut a sheet of paper clean in two pieces. The cylinder blades act against a stationary blade like a pair of scissors.
I'm into vintage mowers, tillers, etc. I've always wondered how those front mounted bags/bins work when you are trying to get up close and personal with a fence, wall, tree, etc.
An English lawn isn't supposed to go close to objects like that. One uses flower beds which are set a little lower than the edge of the lawn. Ed
While on the subject of garden implements and before this gets deleted for being off topic, here is a pic of my Nailhead powered garden tractor.
when i was younger we used to make fun of old guys sitting around talking about lawn mowers, lawn maintenance etc.... cool lawn mowers
Its a '65 401 so it would have had a TH400 behind it. Actually the tractor started life as a 65 Cub Cadet 104 Hydrostatic Drive. Still has the hydrostatic drive. Its driven by a belt off of the water pump. Motor had to be turned around backwards to make the drive turn the right direction.
Just purchased one of these to use and to restore. And I'm thinking I'll hot-rod it! Maybe some flake and chrome??
just purchased an Atco mower in need of some TLC. I'm thinking it will get a few hot rod touches. Will post some pics in due course!
Talk about mowing in style! Just need a headset playing "Low Rider" to complete the ensemble and cruise around your lawn.
Funny. I had a '58 Suffolk Punch (basically the same as the Atco). I got bored so had a go at hopping up the motor. Flat-head fun, it got the ignition tweaked, compression bumped from 6:1 to 10.5:1 (which used to like to break the pull cord), everything polished inside and a little bit of work on the intake to help. With the clutch tied on, at full tilt you had to run to keep up with it... That was my first foray into hotrodding...
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