What's Old is New

[Intrepidation]

I've been itching to get a hold of an older Simplicity snowblower for a year+ now, as I think they look really neat and really sturdily made. Well one finally popped up close to home for $50 so I had to get it. It's not the two stage paddle style snowblower I also want, but the single stage S4. This is easily the beefiest single stage snowblower I've ever come across. It weighs probably double what the Craftsman we have weighs and for good reason: its built to last. Thick steel, metal guards for everything, chains, greaseable parts, gear drive transmission. What's not to love? Well old gas that rusted out the fuel tank and gummed up the carburetor.







I was a afraid the tank would be a total write off, but as I have no spare parts for it, I wanted to try and save it. I came learned of the magic of Muriatic Acid and decided to try that. I ended up using a substitute called Acid Magic which won't harm unopened skin (though I still wore safety gear). After about an hour it had removed nearly all the rust down to bare metal. I ended up soaking the tank upside down overnight in WD-40 Rust Remover (similar product to Evopo-Rust) to get the top of the inside of the tank cleaned up.

If you look closely you can see by the reflections of light on the wet rusty surface just how bad it was.



However after I was done with it...



I didn't get any photos of the carburetor while it was off, but while it was in good shape overall besides varnish and needing a new gasket and diaphragm, the brass pickup tube was pretty corroded from sitting in the tank. I gave it a quick 30 second dip in the used acid and it the corrosion wiped right off. Just don't use that acid on aluminum pieces!

I had trouble getting it to run, so I ended up taking the carburetor off again and cleaning it some more, found some passages I missed the first time (as well as the jet which I forgot to clean). I also rinsed the tank out one more time, then painted everything with engine enamel.





Surprisingly, the air filter was dirty but otherwise in good shape, so I cleaned and oiled it, while also painting the upper half of the housing.

It took a bit longer than I was wanting, but today it finally started up and ran. With a little tuning, it now seems to run very well and everything works! With the exception of the fuel being left in the tank, it seems like the snowblower was decently cared for. The body is in good shape with no serious rust, the worst being surface rust in front of the chute which I will touch up. All of the grease fittings I found had grease around them so that tells me its been lubricated too, and the oil didn't even look bad.

Here she is running. I need to clean the covers up and I'll repaint the starter housing before putting it back together.

[cp-the-nerd]

Gonna restore the whole thing?

[Intrepidation]

Probably not near term, the starter housing will be repainted and I'm going to touch up the area in front of the chute, then it'll be set for winter duty. Night restore it someday, but its going to be put to work this winter.

[G. David Felt]

Very Cool, way to go!

[ocnblu]

Chains of love right there.  Looks brawny.

[Drew Dowdell]

I need to purchase a replacement snow blower this season.... that looks great

[Suaviloquent]

Replacement blower?! 

 

How about a shovel for the snow and a pickaxe for the ice?

 

UP TO 100% inefficient, CLASS-LEADING effort, and lowest PAYLOAD among all snow removal technologies and methods. You know you don't want to. 

 

Be a man, do the ILLOGICAL thing.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'll shovel the stuff under 6 inches, but more than that and I run into trouble due to the elevation change on my driveway

[ocnblu]

I will just drive through it.  However I will shovel the sidewalk in front of my house.

[Intrepidation]

I'm curious to see how it performs. Typically, single stage snowblowers are regulated to cheap, economy grade machines.

 

 

This Simplicity is anything but economy, even has chains on the tires.

[Intrepidation]

Turns out Chevrolet Orange-Red is a pretty damn close match to the color Simplicity used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Intrepidation]

I scrapping the rust off in front of the chute, what was going to be a touch up in that area ended up with me repainting most of the bucket as well was the belt guard.









Turns out Chevrolet Orange Red is a near perfect match to the original paint. As a point of comparison, the orange part of the chute wasn't repainted just cleaned up. It's really close, I'm certainly happy with it.

Besides new skids, she's ready to tackle snow once more. Curious to see how well it performs.