My new motorized restoration project.

[RustiePyles]

So this isn't really new to me, I've actually had it for nearly 30 years. When I was but a lad 9 or 10, our neighbor saw that I had proclivity for mechanical things and gave me this mower to tinker with. I did get it running and actually made quite a bit of money with it mowing yards in the neighborhood. But hotrods and girls took the place of lawnmowers and summer jobs and my dad put it up on a shelf in the garage where its sat for the last 25 years. Its a 1962 Lawn Boy 3051 a.k.a. a Buttercup due its buttercup yellow paint job. 3051 Buttercups were only made in 1962 and are quite rare. As they say on CL, it ran when it was parked.... In this case I do know it to be true. My plan is to tear it down and completely restore it. And just in case you were wondering, yes it does have "Coloramic Styling". I mean can you really even mow a yard without it?

 

[Downeaster]

That one of the 2-smoke models? I've got the engine off one, the rest of it was too far gone to mess with.

 

[BluzPlayer]

 

[Raymond]

Love the warning in English and French not to expose the feet or the hands below the lawnmower.

Still good advice today, I guess.

 

[jpdevol]

https://www.lawnboy.com/en/about

 

[bosco659]

I used to collect and restore old Lawboy’s as a hobby. At one time I think I had 23 of them. Now I only have 3, one of which is at the cottage. I have one like this in a box that I was going to rebuild but never got to it yet. Maybe this winter? The one in this pic is not mine (but wish it was) circa 1960’s. Check out the cool suspension on the right front wheel.

 

[RustiePyles]

That one of the 2-smoke models? I've got the engine off one, the rest of it was too far gone to mess with.

Yep, C-71 is motor model I believe.

I used to collect and restore old Lawboy’s as a hobby. At one time I think I had 23 of them. Now I only have 3, one of which is at the cottage. I have one like this in a box that I was going to rebuild but never got to it yet. Maybe this winter? The one in this pic is not mine (but wish it was) circa 1960’s. Check out the cool suspension on the right front wheel.

View attachment 222977

Whats a good source for NOS parts for these things? I need a new set of wheels.

 

[Mailman]

What a cool little bit of history and a fun restoration! This one hits close to my heart, my dad owned a lawnmower sales and repair shop in Phoenix in the late 60’s, I cut my teeth doing simple mechanical work on Briggs and Stratton engines there. I literally learned which end of a wrench to hold working there on weekends with my dad.
He sold Toro and Sensation mowers and edgers and such. As a byproduct when I was a kid I had a little lawn mowing business in my neighborhood, I had the best mower on my block, an electric start Toro which was pretty rare in the 60’s,


The Sensation lawn mowers were what the professional landscapers used to use back then, they were tough as nails and dependable, with a cast aluminum deck, a handle that flipped over so you could push it from either side and it had a unique catcher that was metal mesh and a big swing open door on the end so you could quickly dump out the grass.


Here is another late 60’s dud, the Toro Flymo, a hovering , wheel less lawn mower with a fiberglass deck it was light weight, and it really hovered like a charm on your driveway, but as soon as you pushed it into the grass, it wanted to tip this way and that and it made a choppy mess out of your yard. We had one that my dad couldn’t sell!


Keep us posted with your resto Fletch!

 

[RustiePyles]

What a cool little bit of history and a fun restoration! This one hits close to my heart, my dad owned a lawnmower sales and repair shop in Phoenix in the late 60’s, I cut my teeth doing simple mechanical work on Briggs and Stratton engines there. I literally learned which end of a wrench to hold working there on weekends with my dad.
He sold Toro and Sensation mowers and edgers and such. As a byproduct when I was a kid I had a little lawn mowing business in my neighborhood, I had the best mower on my block, an electric start Toro which was pretty rare in the 60’s,
View attachment 222983

The Sensation lawn mowers were what the professional landscapers used to use back then, they were tough as nails and dependable, with a cast aluminum deck, a handle that flipped over so you could push it from either side and it had a unique catcher that was metal mesh and a big swing open door on the end so you could quickly dump out the grass.
View attachment 222984

Here is another late 60’s dud, the Toro Flymo, a hovering , wheel less lawn mower with a fiberglass deck it was light weight, and it really hovered like a charm on your driveway, but as soon as you pushed it into the grass, it wanted to tip this way and that and it made a choppy mess out of your yard. We had one that my dad couldn’t sell!
View attachment 222985

Keep us posted with your resto Fletch!

I would have loved to have an electric start mower when I was a kid . I've always been a Toro fan, my current mower is a 1998 Toro Wheel Horse 520H. It's 24 years old but still a beast of a garden tractor. I bet those hover mowers are quite collectable today.

 

[MaxPete]

Here is another late 60’s dud, the Toro Flymo, a hovering , wheel less lawn mower with a fiberglass deck it was light weight, and it really hovered like a charm on your driveway, but as soon as you pushed it into the grass, it wanted to tip this way and that and it made a choppy mess out of your yard. We had one that my dad couldn’t sell!

A British buddy of mine told me about these - and he did call it a "flymo". I guess this is just another interesting idea that looks great on paper, but wasn't so good in practice.

It is amazing that they actually did all the work of designing this thing, doing the tooling for it (even then, I'd guess that would have been $100K or more) and brought it to the market - before people realized that they didn't work very well.

I never saw one in Canada (I guess there was no snowblower attachment available ).

 

[bosco659]

My weekly driver. 21” cut, three speed, 6.5 hp 2 stroke, cast aluminum deck. Over 20 years old and imho one of the best mowers made. I have two new short blocks ready if this

ever dies. Beast of a mower.

 

[bosco659]

A British buddy of mine told me about these - I think he called them a "fly-mow".

I never saw one in Canada - I wonder why?

They were in Canada but not popular.

 

[bosco659]

Yep, C-71 is motor model I believe.


Whats a good source for NOS parts for these things? I need a new set of wheels.

EBay, but finding wheels for this will be difficult (Lawnboy wheels that is). Other genetic wheels will fit but won’t have the look. I literally sold 6 Lawnboy wheels to a guy yesterday as part of my garage cleanup efforts. I don’t think I have any others left but will check.

 

[Jim]

Here is another late 60’s dud, the Toro Flymo, a hovering , wheel less lawn mower with a fiberglass deck it was light weight, and it really hovered like a charm on your driveway, but as soon as you pushed it into the grass, it wanted to tip this way and that and it made a choppy mess out of your yard. We had one that my dad couldn’t sell!

Those hover mowers were quiet popular in England back in the 70's and 80's when I lived there. Had a neighbor with one. His yard was a steep hill. He had a Flymo where he tied a rope on the handle. A gentle push and it hovered it's way down the hill. Stopped at the bottom, he'd move over a few feet and pull it back up.... move over a few feet and push 'er back down. Actually worked quiet well.

 

[Mailman]

Those hover mowers were quiet popular in England back in the 70's and 80's when I lived there.

Ha that’s a great old ad!

 

[RustiePyles]

My weekly driver. 21” cut, three speed, 6.5 hp 2 stroke, cast aluminum deck. Over 20 years old and imho one of the best mowers made. I have two new short blocks ready if thisView attachment 222986View attachment 222987 ever dies. Beast of a mower.

That's the cleanest 20yo mower I've ever seen. My dad has one almost identical, though not nearly as nice.

 

[Mikey]

Those hover mowers were quiet popular in England back in the 70's and 80's when I lived there. Had a neighbor with one. His yard was a steep hill. He had a Flymo where he tied a rope on the handle. A gentle push and it hovered it's way down the hill. Stopped at the bottom, he'd move over a few feet and pull it back up.... move over a few feet and push 'er back down. Actually worked quiet well.

Well kids what did we ever do when we were young and didn't have the interweb
If you can type it it's probably out there
You would have thought that lawn mower would have thrashed around like a large cement finisher

 

[TX650A Van Islander]

Like you Bob, I had a lawn mowing business as well when I was 15 or 16. (1980) My Dad let me use his Lawn-Boy mower. It was self-propelled and so so nice vs anything else. I didn't have a car and we lived on a lake in Huntsville, Ontario. I used to carry that thing down and up 80 stairs to the lake and load it into my 14' tin boat and cut lawns with lake access - great memories! Who knows if there are photos of that thing.

 

[650Skull]

that's a cool mower, Cast bodies did break but never rusted.........Nice to have something like that from your childhood..........but your still a youngun by my reconing, dam near still a child.

So this isn't really new to me, I've actually had it for nearly 30 years. When I was but a lad 9 or 10, our neighbor saw that I had proclivity for mechanical things and gave me this mower to tinker with. I did get it running and actually made quite a bit of money with it mowing yards in the neighborhood. But hotrods and girls took the place of lawnmowers and summer jobs and my dad put it up on a shelf in the garage where its sat for the last 25 years. Its a 1962 Lawn Boy 3051 a.k.a. a Buttercup due its buttercup yellow paint job. 3051 Buttercups were only made in 1962 and are quite rare. As they say on CL, it ran when it was parked.... In this case I do know it to be true. My plan is to tear it down and completely restore it. And just in case you were wondering, yes it does have "Coloramic Styling". I mean can you really even mow a yard without it?
View attachment 222970View attachment 222971View attachment 222972View attachment 222973View attachment 222974View attachment 222975

What a cool little bit of history and a fun restoration! This one hits close to my heart, my dad owned a lawnmower sales and repair shop in Phoenix in the late 60’s, I cut my teeth doing simple mechanical work on Briggs and Stratton engines there. I literally learned which end of a wrench to hold working there on weekends with my dad.
He sold Toro and Sensation mowers and edgers and such. As a byproduct when I was a kid I had a little lawn mowing business in my neighborhood, I had the best mower on my block, an electric start Toro which was pretty rare in the 60’s,
View attachment 222983

The Sensation lawn mowers were what the professional landscapers used to use back then, they were tough as nails and dependable, with a cast aluminum deck, a handle that flipped over so you could push it from either side and it had a unique catcher that was metal mesh and a big swing open door on the end so you could quickly dump out the grass.
View attachment 222984

Here is another late 60’s dud, the Toro Flymo, a hovering , wheel less lawn mower with a fiberglass deck it was light weight, and it really hovered like a charm on your driveway, but as soon as you pushed it into the grass, it wanted to tip this way and that and it made a choppy mess out of your yard. We had one that my dad couldn’t sell!
View attachment 222985

Keep us posted with your resto Fletch!

Those hover mowers were quiet popular in England back in the 70's and 80's when I lived there. Had a neighbor with one. His yard was a steep hill. He had a Flymo where he tied a rope on the handle. A gentle push and it hovered it's way down the hill. Stopped at the bottom, he'd move over a few feet and pull it back up.... move over a few feet and push 'er back down. Actually worked quiet well.

Had them in NZ as well, (reasonably popular),. Friend of mine loved his and like Jims friend the had a steep hill as a yard. His rope trick was a bit different though, he would swing it side to side as he slowly let the rope out so there as little walking up and down the hill as possible.

 

[BluzPlayer]

When I was but a lad 9 or 10, our neighbor saw that I had proclivity for mechanical things and gave me this mower to tinker with. I did get it running and actually made quite a bit of money with it mowing yards in the neighborhood.

in the late 60’s, I cut my teeth doing simple mechanical work on Briggs and Stratton engines there. I literally learned which end of a wrench to hold working there on weekends with my dad.

Like you guys and probably most in the forum I mowed our grass and earned money mowing as many yards as possible to save what for a 10 yr/old seemed like stack. My mower was just an old Briggs and Stratton with who knows how many hours on it when I started. A couple of years of heavy duty mowing and it needed help.
At 12 I rebuilt my first engine. That 5hp B&S.
My dad guided me along the way and I learned an amazing amount of things through the process. Not quite the same as putting nuts on bolts with the erector set. The mower lasted me for many years after and the proceeds allowed me to buy my first street bike at 15 which allowed me to drive with my restricted license.
It was a Honda CL70. That was a great little bike which allowed me to travel for a real job that supplemented my mowing. That allowed me to buy my first car at 15, a 1966 Mustang. I built that motor with a lot of goodies the same year preparing for my unrestricted license at age 16.
I fell in love with wrenching all because of a worn out 5hp Briggs and Stratton and a father that had the patience to use it as a teachable moment.
I've wrenched ever since. No doubt there are many here that grew up in that time with similar experiences. Rustie it is super cool that after all these years you are able to refurbish the very mower that you pushed as a kid. Yet another very interesting resurrection from you.
Looking forward to this rebuild