Back from Oregon
Got back on Friday, about 5pm. Spent a couple of days there, so it was a little over 5000 miles of driving, round trip, in about a week. Our 2004 Crown Vic performed flawlessly, even well-loaded down on the return trip. Used no oil whatsoever and it didn't even turn dark. I give a lot of credit to keeping it filled with premium gas. And the Michelin Symmetry tires did not lose so much as one pound of air, either.
Unpacked the car, spent some time putting stuff away, then got to work on the mowers. Cleaned and repaired the 20555. Decided to keep that as is, rather than convert to push. It's a low serial number for 1970....000611 and deserves to be left original. It has the earlier black step pad, rather than the STEP cast into the deck like later 1970 models. It was a running change made by Toro. Here are some photos:
I restored the deck that you see earlier in this thread. Here is a photo:
I am having yet another find shipped in shortly, and that one I will convert, using the restored deck:
Here are a few more photos of the mowers and my shop....the house and garage were built in 1940 and the garage is a bit small for a Crown Vic, so it's now my Toro restoration facility
So, when the other 19 and 21 get here, there will be 5....for the moment.
I would like to pass along a little trick that I used with the 20555. The shroud had been cracked and a bit broken in a few places. I cut out a small piece to enlarge the hole at the starter handle so that the shroud can be removed without removing the handle. I kept the cut piece. Then I got out my old soldering iron and melted the plastic where it was cracked and broken. Melted it back together, filled in where necessary with the saved piece, smoothed it over and it worked like a charm! Beats the heck out of glue or silicone sealant.
