A bit of a change from the usual diet of Marquises; I was given this little Fourteen in exchange for services rendered. Gave it a valve job and mag service but it became apparent that the piston rings were past their best and it was down on compression; it would run for a few seconds and then oil the plug.. Just how much down was not apparent until I'd given the bore a light honing and fitted new rings, then the difference was obvious.

While waiting for the rings to arrive I treated it to a regrind of the cylinder and refaced the bottom blade that still had a decent lip. Also stripped and cleaned the recoil unit and did some brazing repairs to the cowling where the recoil had been trying to tear out its mountings. The fall out from the "hot work", necessitated a repaint of the cowling but other than the cutting cylinder all the paintwork is original.

Grass box. As you can see it's taken a bit of a bashing over the years so I've got to practice my somewhat dubious tin bashing skills to straighten it up a bit  - not a job that I relish. Going to sort it out as best I can to make it a bit more respectable  - no multiple applications of filler etc!!

It had a quick trip up the lawn this afternoon;definitely from the school of ungoverned speedy machines, delicate throttle control required!