Picked this little gem up today. It's a Honda 3813, but the body is completely different. Instead of retyping the story as to why, I'll include a video clip-
These things are too cool. It's a liquid cooled OHC inline 2 gasoline engine, at 360cc (Honda GX360K1). It's rated 13hp at 3600RPM. Now- I did some math outta curiosity. The Briggs model 28 is 12hp. Displacement (obviously) is 28 CID, nearly 460cc. This engine accomplished 13hp (1 more hp) while displacing 100cc LESS (or about 7 cubic inches). Briggs? What's a Briggs? LOL
I can't help it, I'm loving this. The engine is pretty near a perfectly scaled down automotive engine, right down to the conventional-style starter, thermostat housing, etc.
The tractor itself has some neat features, such as an electric fuel pump, a fuel gauge on the tank, parking brake handle WITH dashmount warning light, etc.
The driveline is nice. It's a shaft drive 5 speed transaxle. The driveshaft features Birfield-style U-joints, and clutching is done via an automotive-style friction-disc clutch. Interestingly, the driveshaft is always spinning, and the clutch actually located at the transaxle input. The shift handle itself it tied into the clutch, so you don't need to use the pedal, especially if you don't want to brake. Moving the hand;e sideways to select a gear, disengages the clutch for you. Similar indeed to the MTD shift-on-the-fly or whatever it's called.
Here's a couple pics, including one of the clutch:
Yep. When something is this "engineered", you KNOW it's gonna be a pain to work on. I'm gonna have to take half the dang tractor apart to re and re the starter, but the looks of things. That's the price ya pay!
Well.... Been painting my brains out! In keeping with the whole "Frankenhonda" thing (now affectionately know as "Frank", I bought some Tremclad Key Lime Green, and some black.
I took all the body parts off and shot them all in the Key Lime after a light sanding and a wash. After the lime dried, I loosely reassembled the machine.
The headlight lens gave me fits. I wanted to make eyes. But not just any ones- I wanted the same, sad, droopy, pathos-filled eyes that Boris Karloff had in the original movie. After I settled on a design, I masked them off and shot the part.
Next- the patchwork. I wanted to make it look like the good doctor assembled it from parts- like the monster. I was just gonna paint some stitches on... But... One doesn't simply stitch metal... LOL.
I decided I wanted it to look like random panels had been riveted on. I laid the panels out in mashing tape, and used a very thin wash of Tremclad black to define the lines. Then, I shot all the lines with my airbrush to add some shadow. Finally, I used a toothpick to dab black paint every 1/2" or so to look like rivets.
With all that tacked up, I masked off the hood, running boards, and fenders, and shot some more black around. I like the contrast.
Subject: 
August 9th 2014, 8:21 pm
