Maybe just me ?

[Tony Nitrous]

Do you ever have those days where you wake up thinking "What I need in my life is an antique Villiers powered concrete mixer" ?



Fuel tap is a plastic replacement but even that has gone brittle and cracked. Clean the plug, splash of fuel down the plug hole and spin it over and it fires! Doesn't run, but coughs and farts and pops a bit of smoke out so it's all there and somewhere near.

I couldn't let it go to the dump or scrap man. That's just wrong.

[Tony Nitrous]

Initially I thought the drums OK chuck an electric motor on it, or give it a coat of paint and fill it full of geraniums to sit outside my shed, but it'd be funny to have it working and actually use it.

[gsxbarmy]

Brilliant! Now you know it fires, you have to get it running Tony. What a great piece of historical kit!!!

[Hooli]

I'd want to get it running too, even with no use for it

[grog]

How old ya reckon Tony?

[Tony Nitrous]

How old ya reckon Tony?

Not sure. I'm still researching.

It looks like a lot of the pics of a "Villiers Mark 10" as they sold them as a unit with fuel tank, carb, exhaust etc ready to bolt onto anything.

[grog]

Reckon you might be right. They started making them 1952. Theres a number, last two digits are production date.

[Tony Nitrous]

Reckon you might be right. They started making them 1952. Theres a number, last two digits are production date.

Thanks. I'll look for some numbers.

I like stuff like this. My family still have old tractors, grandfather clocks, desks, guns etc. I'm sure some folk'd think it was junk but I like it.

[Andre]

I like to see the old stuff. My sis-in-law likes them too. She scours the nearby desert and picks up metal stuff people threw out there. Then she places her treasures in her front yard. Looks really cool imo.

I like old stuff that's kept (or restored) in working order even more.

[Hooli]

Proper old school engineering with all mechanical control systems will always be much cooler than anything that cheats & uses computers.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Agree, there's usually a steam engine display on at most country shows in southwest wa, I find them fascinating. All fully restored and operating, all mechanical.

[Tony Nitrous]

Reckon you might be right. They started making them 1952. Theres a number, last two digits are production date.

I read somewhere they started the Mk 10 in 1941.  Still researching it.  I've been told to look on the flywheel for a number too.

[grog]

Youre right, 1941.

[Irish in Oz]

My first motorcycle was a 1960 Greeves with a Villiers 2T engine.

[Rynglieder]

I truth I can't say I have wanted one any more than a radiator hose for a MKII Cortina, but it's great that you are keeping it alive .

By coincidence I was doing a search a few weeks ago on manufacturing in Wolverhampton and found myself at this web site.

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/Engineering/Villiers/Villiers.htm

Even as a "local" I don't think I had realised what a significant business Villers were. Such a shame that we have lost so much manufacturing from the West Midlands, another was Guy Motors who exported trucks and buses all over the world, particularly "the colonies".