Westwood Gazelle

[vhgmcbuddy]

Hi Everyone

Just wondering if anyone can help I’m in the process of starting to restore a Westwood gazelle can anybody help with what colours are the originals. I’m wanting to restore the bonnet and wheels in the original orange/red color and the chassis was a grey colour.
Any help would be much appreciated
Pictures of progress to follow

Thanks
Tom

[alan]

Hello, Tom

On Westwood Gazelles the chassis were either black or orange. The Laser model was grey but also had grey bodywork. I may, however, be wrong!

Unsure of what the orange/red colour was and no mention of it in my brochures.

[wristpin]

As you’ve found out, early Westwoods were powder coated direct onto bare steel and it not only faded but also peeled off, so may be your grey is faded black. Not that it helps you now, but Central Spares used to do Westwood Orange in both brush / spray tins and also aerosols. Unfortunately they dropped orange from the range a year or so ago. You may be lucky and find some in stock somewhere. An alternative will be to obtain a RAL or Pantone code and get some made up.

[vhgmcbuddy]

Ok update I’ve found some westwood orange so currently pulling it all in bits to get sent off for blasting. Question for people basically the engine is missing and I’m on the hunt for something to replace it. IT doesn’t have to have electric start I’d quite happily settle for something pull start or on those lines. Im sure I’ve seen people fit push mower engines on to these.

[alan]

That’s good news with finding the Westwood orange paint.

Regarding the engine, I would recommend finding an engine that is as near a fit as the original was. This means getting a suitably powerful enough engine that also has the correct shaft length and diameter that the original drive pulley size will fit onto.

I’d certainly make sure that pulley ratios are correct and that the drive belts are still able to follow their proper routes once the engine is in place.

It is more than possible to fit a different engine than the original specification, but over the years we have had fun getting some alternative stuff to fit!

As a funny story of what can happen, several years ago I had an Atco ride-on mower (minus deck) with 8hp Briggs engine which died. This necessitated a replacement of which I handily had a 6hp Robin engine from a Gravely push mower, and after many hours of tinkering and finding the only drive pulley that’d fit the drive shaft, but was much larger overall than the original, all seemed good. I cannot recall the exact specs of the Robin engine apart from the fact it’s performance was greater then the outgoing Briggs, it’s performance was such that we fitted my bike speedometer and it achieved well over 20mph at full speed which is a terrifying speed on a ride-on over a grassy field especially when one hits some lumpy ground. Engine power, RPM, and pulley size are really important to safety!

[Author]

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