I started mowing in 1975 when I was 8. We had 6 acres in upstate New York. Up until 1988, my dad and I mowed the whole thing with two 19" Toro Whirlwinds. The first one I started with was a 1968 model 18213. It was quite unique. It was advertised as an 'economy' model. There was no control cable up on the handles. It was the only model that came from the factory with a Rupp minibike-style air cleaner assembly instead of the oil bath air cleaner. It had a diaphragm carb and a primer instead of a float bowl. It was a very reliable mower and lasted from 1968 to 1985, through a lot of extreme duty.
As of a couple of years ago, I had two parts left from that original mower: the throttle knob and the Toro nameplate from the handles. I also still had the original owner's manual....on which I had written down the original serial number of 803958, back when I was about 12 or 13.
For the past two years, I have been tracking down all of the parts necessary to make an identical mower. I just put the finishing touches on it today.
I had a lot of good luck in putting this together. The coil, carburetor, white-painted original Champion J-8 spark plug, and air cleaner assembly are all NOS parts and this mower starts with just one pull every time. I did not do any painting on the engine or the deck. It's all the original paint. The deck happens to have the same minor defects in the same places that the original did. The minor chrome loss on the handles also looks exactly the same. Some of the decals are new and I did them myself. The starting instructions came from looking in the owner's manual at a photo that had the printing appear so tiny that it looked smaller than fly specks. But I figured it out. I even found one seller that had an NOS package of the original foot pad material. And darned if that adhesive on the back wasn't still as strong as new, even after over 40 years on the shelf!
There's a story behind the green grass deflector. Back in the early 1970s, my dad and I went down to the local Toro shop to get a new deflector. All the guy had were green ones. I found out more recently that in 1971 Toro came out with the one-year-only Fiesta which was green and the deflector was the very same style. I have no clear memories of that first mower when it was new and had the red deflector. So, I had to have a green one again. The only difference is, I cut down a steel commercial deflector and painted it green. No more worrying about breaking plastic.
Toro did not make a special shroud for the 18213 and its different air cleaner. They didn't even make a separate shroud decal for it. The only decal they made gives the maintenance instructions for the oil bath air cleaner. So, all in all, the 18213 is a bit of an oddity. A couple of years ago, there was an 18213 on youtube, but the video has since been taken down. That's the only other one that I have seen. Now the spirit of our original can live on in this re-creation. It's like getting back together with an old friend.
The first photo is of my dad mowing with the original, circa 1979. In the picture, the wheels are at the highest setting, because that was one of the roughest pieces of ground that we had on the property.
My dad passed away in November of 2004. This project is a tribute to him and a fond remembrance of all our days mowing together. :Thumb up:
As of a couple of years ago, I had two parts left from that original mower: the throttle knob and the Toro nameplate from the handles. I also still had the original owner's manual....on which I had written down the original serial number of 803958, back when I was about 12 or 13.
For the past two years, I have been tracking down all of the parts necessary to make an identical mower. I just put the finishing touches on it today.
I had a lot of good luck in putting this together. The coil, carburetor, white-painted original Champion J-8 spark plug, and air cleaner assembly are all NOS parts and this mower starts with just one pull every time. I did not do any painting on the engine or the deck. It's all the original paint. The deck happens to have the same minor defects in the same places that the original did. The minor chrome loss on the handles also looks exactly the same. Some of the decals are new and I did them myself. The starting instructions came from looking in the owner's manual at a photo that had the printing appear so tiny that it looked smaller than fly specks. But I figured it out. I even found one seller that had an NOS package of the original foot pad material. And darned if that adhesive on the back wasn't still as strong as new, even after over 40 years on the shelf!
There's a story behind the green grass deflector. Back in the early 1970s, my dad and I went down to the local Toro shop to get a new deflector. All the guy had were green ones. I found out more recently that in 1971 Toro came out with the one-year-only Fiesta which was green and the deflector was the very same style. I have no clear memories of that first mower when it was new and had the red deflector. So, I had to have a green one again. The only difference is, I cut down a steel commercial deflector and painted it green. No more worrying about breaking plastic.
Toro did not make a special shroud for the 18213 and its different air cleaner. They didn't even make a separate shroud decal for it. The only decal they made gives the maintenance instructions for the oil bath air cleaner. So, all in all, the 18213 is a bit of an oddity. A couple of years ago, there was an 18213 on youtube, but the video has since been taken down. That's the only other one that I have seen. Now the spirit of our original can live on in this re-creation. It's like getting back together with an old friend.
The first photo is of my dad mowing with the original, circa 1979. In the picture, the wheels are at the highest setting, because that was one of the roughest pieces of ground that we had on the property.
My dad passed away in November of 2004. This project is a tribute to him and a fond remembrance of all our days mowing together. :Thumb up: