The story of my Eclipse 32" Speedway reel mower

[Austen]

Originally Posted by bs23uo

Austen, When I bought my first Rolloway, it had a heavy canvas grass guard on it. I don't have any information on them at all. What I can tell you is that it was about the same texture as the canvas on the original grass catcher I own. No one will know the difference between the canvas or rubber.

I messed around with that Speedway poster today. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped for. For your viewing pleasure, enjoy.

That is so cool Larey, thank you for sharing it!! I always love seeing big poster sized ads like these of vintage equipment and being that it's of a Speedway, makes it all the more unique and cool! It's neat how they sort of advertised it like a car, "5-7 miles an hour", "smash hit performance!". Was 1939 the first year of the big girl?

It's interesting to compare the early version to mine and point out the subtle changes like the handle design, controls and of course the engine. I think the rims themselves may be slightly different as well as I don't think mine have the ridges around the sides of them. Out of curiousity, what does the crank arm do that is located right behind the gas tank opperate?

Thanks again!! Someday I'm going to have a section in the garage with all these ads hung up and framed behind the mowers.

[bs23uo]

Austen,
Glad you enjoyed the poster. That poster is kind of an enigma. As you can surely see, they were advertised for 1939. But all the sales sheets and parts books make no reference to them until 1941???? I have family photos dated from 1939 that show my Grandad operating one at that time. No one I've talked to seems to have any other facts.

The "U" shaped handle was available for all production years, but evidently not real popular. Instead of the clutch levers like yours has, the controls were swivels on the top of the U. Look close and you can see what I mean. As for that crank, it was for starting the engine. There are brackets on the brace rod to hold it. Here again, a closer look and you can see how it fit the engine hub.

Now, all I have given you are more unanswered questions to ponder. I wish I knew the answers myself.

[Austen]

Well a little disheartening news and a minor setback.

I got a call from Seattle Powdercoat this morning stating that when they began sandblasting the seat, it started creating small holes in the bottom so they stopped. Ugh! In the back of my mind I had a few suspicions about this very thing happening to the seat because the metal is so thin under there.

I told them I'd give them a call back after I did a little research to see what my options were and go from there. From what I've researched, this seat is the same exact style found on many of the vintage Farmall tractors. It looks identical. There are several used ones on Ebay, however, they all appear to be in the same condition or worse than mine is in so I'm not going to take my chances on a used one. I later found some new universal replica seat pans and that is what I decided to go with. I thought about getting a nice black seat cover instead to put over the original seat to cover the holes, but, I decided that I'll just do it right and get a new seat for it. New metal will be a good thing for it.

Anyway, I ordered the seat online and Seattle Powdercoat said it would be alright if I had it shipped directly to them which is really nice so I don't have to make extra trips out there since they are quite a ways from where I live. As I said a minor setback that ended up delaying things another week or so out, but I'm glad to have found a new replacement that will work and just get it all done right the first time. The new seat won't be the same style as the original and it does look to be a little bigger, but it's definitely better than having one with holes on the bottom.

The good news is that the decal is done and looks great!

[Mark / Ohio]

Sorry to hear that Austen. But I guess if it was that thin better that they told you about it rather then go ahead and paint it only to have fatigue cracks in the steel show up when you use it.

[Austen]

Onto the other little project for the mower, the creation of new grass clipping flaps. I sourced some ridged rubber material that would've resembled what the original material was like. Not that I've seen many other Speedways, but none of the other machines that I have ever seen have not had these flaps still intact aside from one. One of the two Speedways that my friend owns has these flaps so he was able to provide some nice close up photos of them so I could see just what exactly the material looked like and also the dimensions. Below for reference is one of his photos so you can see what the originals look like:





The new material....Don't look at the photo for too long or it'll make you dizzy!!





I could have made them longer (I'll let you in on a little secret, they are a little ) but this is how they were originally (even by confirming the length in an original ad), so I didn't want to go too overboard with it for originality sake.





Originally these were mounted via rivets. I decided to go with stainless screws instead simply for the ease of use.





When the wheel swivels all the way around when you back it up, it simply pushes them out of the way and doesn't get hung up.

Because of how this material came in a roll, it wants to still sort of do that, so overtime they may straighten out a little more. Maybe I'll just take a hairdrier to them....





Overall, I'm happy with how they turned out! The material is nice and durable and should last a long time. It'll be interesting to try them out this spring and see the difference!

[bwdbrn1]

They should keep the grass off of the sneakers!

[Austen]

Yup, or a little better at least! Not sure why Eclipse didn't design them go all the way down to the bedknife though.

Comparing the original Eclipse orange to the mower is hard to take in. It's crazy how much the paint has faded, you'd honestly think this mower originally came yellow and maybe faded slightly darker. I gotta' admit, sometimes I have to remind myself that it originally came orange!

[Mark / Ohio]

Those remind me of the rubber stair treads we used to have. Stuff was durable but it does tend to harden and crack with age. Probably what happened to the original flaps.