BEFORE & AFTER
RESTORATION OF THE MONTH
Restored 2 hp Famous is Prize of Collection
By Leslie C. McDaniel
After being abandoned to the elements for more than three decades, Mike Mahnke's vintage Famous engine was nothing more than a planter for an overgrown, volunteer shrub. But liberal amounts of elbow grease - applied over the course of 18 months - resulted in restoration of a classic engine.
For more than 30 years, the 2 hp Famous air cooled engine sat outside a garage. The property owner said the engine originally belonged to his father, but when his father had no more use for it, he abandoned it at the side of the garage.
When a friend of Mike's saw it --even with a tree growing through it - he knew Mike would be thrilled to get his hands on the engine. He asked the owner about the Famous, and the owner, happy to clear away what he perceived to be junk, gave it to him. Mike's friend, in turn, passed the engine on.
Mike set to work on the 1910 engine immediately.
"It was pretty interesting, a real challenge," he said. "It was probably in the worst shape of any engine I'd ever tried to restore."
The first order of business?
"I had to pick at it, dig wood out of it," he said. "Then I was able to really assess the damage."
After being abandoned to the elements for 30 years, the engine needed a bit of work.
"Being an upright, with an open crankcase, it's not a real strong engine structurally," he said. "The crankcase was broken in half, the top half of the block was broken, the piston was rusted in the hole - it was just a lump of rust - and we had to have a new sleeve made."