wingless' Snapper 21" Hi Vac Self Propelled Mower Restoration

My 1985 Snapper 21351P and I have been through lots of mowing, maintenance, service and replacement together.

My property at the time was on a main road in New England and the road sand ended up on the lawn, causing abrasive wear to the deck. It eventually wore through and was replaced w/ a deck, handle and bag from a P21507BE.

The carburetor on that Briggs & Stratton System 2 Quiet Model Series 3.5 hp engine was always giving me trouble, so it was replaced in 2003 w/ a Briggs & Stratton 6.5 hp Intek Edge OHV Engine. That was a night and day improvement. The new Intek Edge engine is always an easy start, good running and a VERY powerful engine.

This machine has been owned by me for so long that I've replaced most parts. My good buddy at work named it Frankenmower, so I call it Frank.

The machine was recently looking very tired. It also had fuel problems, w/ the fuel hose deteriorated and also had a pinhole in the fuel bowl.

My decision was to completely disassemble and do a bare metal restoration. I decided to revert back to the original embossed raised white letter front fender during the restoration because of the appearance.

My looong experience is that the deck takes the brunt of the wear, so I added extra protection in the form of a thick epoxy coat. Once stripped to bare metal I first applied Pettit Metal Primer, followed by Interlux InterProtect 2000E Barrier Coat.

The parts were individually painted w/ Krylon Cover MAXX Cherry Red aerosol paint. The color is a great match to the factory paint. The black parts were painted w/ Rustoleum Semi-Gloss Black Professional Semi-Gloss High Performance Enamel Spray aerosol paint.

Now it looks and runs like new again. These images show the steps.

Pull Start A/V Clip

Pull Start w/ Drive A/V Clip

The most important image, Frank in-action.

Nice job.
Lots of lawn for a walk behind

Nice job, did all the old snappers come with the screen on the bottom or is that a add on?

wingless said:

The most important image, Frank in-action.

Click to expand...

bertsmobile1 said:

Nice job.
Lots of lawn for a walk behind

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Yes, that is about a fifth of the lawn. It took LOTS of effort to attain that lawn condition.

wingless said:

Now it looks and runs like new again. These images show the steps.

Click to expand...

mowerman05 said:

Nice job, did all the old snappers come with the screen on the bottom or is that a add on?

Click to expand...

The screen and rim are the Snapperizer attachment.

That system is used in the fall to shred leaves. My property had a cluster of oak trees that I hated because of the massive fall bombardment of leaves.

The Snapperizer was a big help w/ eliminating those leaves from the lawn.

wingless said:

The most important image, Frank in-action.

Click to expand...

bertsmobile1 said:

Nice job.
Lots of lawn for a walk behind

Click to expand...

wingless said:

Thanks.

Yes, that is about a fifth of the lawn. It took LOTS of effort to attain that lawn condition.

Click to expand...

The biggest benefit to the lawn health was ample periodic application of peat moss to the surface.

The peat roller was used to apply a thin coat of peat moss to the top of the lawn. I would apply once or twice a year for over a decade. This was about 50 big bags per application.

The region of lawn shown in the image has 100% sun coverage, with no shade. Prior to the peat application it was impossible to apply enough water to prevent the annual summer burn out of the grass. After the peat moss I could do a normal 20-30 watering minute cycle per day to maintain this condition year round. (Still lots of water w/ my eleven zones...)

The other big benefit was from hand extraction of weeds. I had a chemical company for years that always had the same story for the poor lawn condition, "we're setting up for next year to be good". I switched to only using starter fertilizer and hand extracting any / all weeds to get a thick, lush, weed-free lawn.