17 replies to this topic

[Bolens 1000]

Found another Push mower!

This is an early Bolens push mower with Aluminum Deck.

My records have this as a 1956

 

Mower is complete minus the sheild in the front of the deck, the engine is missing parts but those can be easily found.

I do have some conflicting things going on with this mower though......

Bolens shows the 412B-01 Mower as having a Briggs and stratton 6BH engine instead of the Clinton VS2100 thats on it.

The handle bar also has a "Wardmaster" decal on it! Doing some searching I found that there was a push mower sold by Western Auto/Montgomery wards the same year that was called the wardmaster with the VS2100 engine!

 

I'm wondering if someone did a engine and ID plate swap or is this one of those dealer conversions back in the day? :confuse:

 

Anyway I couldn't pass this up!

 

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[trowel]

Wow !!! that's a sweeeeeeettt little mower clean and looks ready to mow right now

[LilysDad]

Very nice style, very sleek. What does the underside baffling look like?

[jdcrawler]

That is a nice looking mower.

The paint color on the engine and the plate on the handle looks more blue than the mower deck so it would seem that they may not be original to the deck ?

I wonder if the Wards mower had a stamped steel deck and it may have started to crack so they switched the engine and handle over to the old cast aluminum Bolens mower that they had out in the back of the garage ?   

 

I did that myself back in the  70's and made one good mower out of two bad mowers.

Edited by jdcrawler, June 26, 2014 - 07:36 AM.

[Bolens 1000]

Wow !!! that's a sweeeeeeettt little mower clean and looks ready to mow right now

 

yeah, I like the Huski Man on the front and the cute little Firestone tires in the front

 

Very nice style, very sleek. What does the underside baffling look like?

 

Very primitive... All that is supposed to be under there is a steel bar and a shield that covers the opening in the front. I actually think this is a rear discharge mower from the looks of it.

[Bolens 1000]

That is a nice looking mower.

The paint color on the engine and the plate on the handle looks more blue than the mower deck so it would seem that they may not be original to the deck ?

I wonder if the Wards mower had a stamped steel deck and it may have started to crack so they switched the engine and handle over to the old cast aluminum Bolens mower that they had out in the back of the garage ?    

 

I dont know..... Its weird that the engine would be the same year of the deck though.... No apparent extra holes were drilled either. What are the odds the Briggs and Clinton mounting holes would be the same?

[jdcrawler]

I dont know..... Its weird that the engine would be the same year of the deck though.... No apparent extra holes were drilled either. What are the odds the Briggs and Clinton mounting holes would be the same?

 

That would be one heck of a coincidence for someone to have put two mowers together and the engine and deck ended up to be the same year.

It makes a very strong argument for it being built that way from the factory.

[trowel]

I have to agree, im thinking it is factory, Bolens did use Clintons in the early years as a deluxe model, im also thinking it was a market experiment which would explain the lack of with Clintons.

[Bolens 1000]

From what I heard from the seller this was his Great uncles mower and he was the only owner of this machine.

I'll have to do some more digging on this and see what turns up.

Bolens did use these series clintons on their small riders as well, my 1960 Green brier has the 2100 on it I believe.

[DougT]

I can't say for sure, but.... on the Wards-Simplicity-Midland connections, If Simplicity was using a Briggs on a certain model, the Wards equivalent would have a Cinton or vice-versa. Also the color schemes were backwards. I think Wards wanted something that looked differrent from the manufacturers products so it would be identified as their own. I would speculate that is the reason behind this mower. It was actually sold through Wards.

[gunstuff1000]

The deck looks just like the front little mower they made for the versa-matic tractors. The front shield part your talking about on the versa matic deck is just like two pieces of round stock with a center vertical support piece

[Bruce Dorsi]

"What are the odds the Briggs and Clinton mounting holes would be the same?"

 

 

I,m not sure when things were standardized, but many Clinton, B&S, and Lauson/Tecumseh engines shared the same mounting bolt patterns.

[wilberj]

Great find there you dont see them every day.

[superaben]

"What are the odds the Briggs and Clinton mounting holes would be the same?"

 

 

I,m not sure when things were standardized, but many Clinton, B&S, and Lauson/Tecumseh engines shared the same mounting bolt patterns.

 

Yep, I put a Clinton on in place of a Briggs Sprint one time.

 

Ben W.

[EricFromPa]

My grandma had a mower something like that but it had Teeth in the front.Like this \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

 

It was Green with Yellow wheels and had a 4 stroke engine.She had that mower and an old Brick Top Lawn Boy but the little Green mower was my favorite.It's was super easy to push around.I was around 12 years old last time I saw it so it's a little fuzzy lol.

 

 

Really neat little mower.I love the lines of the 50s machines.

 

 

Check the lines out on this old girl.

 

To bad the seller wants $500 for it