1973 Super Mini - Odd - ID Tag Mistake?

[Hoggwood]

Hi folks,

I picked this one up yesterday.  Fellow said is has been in the family since new and has been sitting in his basement for 25 years or so.  He didn't recall the drive case being swapped?  The drive case looks new (at one point).   I looks as though it may have been torn down, top end, oil pump, bar plates etc essentially new.  Tank looked like it had been lined with a black coating - which is peeling off.  Spent most of it's life riding shotgun on a tractor in the orchard. 

I noticed the ID tag had been punched with two serial numbers.  The first was earlier in the run that day (and upside down) in the second quadrant.  The later made it onto the allocated space on the tag. 

I have never seen that before.  Overlooked mistake at the factory?  Makes me wonder about the drive case being from an XL-1 but the rest appearing to be Super Mini.  I tried to find out from the fellow what happened with the drive case being from an XL-1, but he couldn't recall if the dealer did it at one point.  Whatever the reason, it happened early.  

Not sure if I should go to the trouble of swapping out to a red one. 




   

[Hoggwood]

[sweepleader]

That upside down number looks like the tag just got into the stamping machine upside down. Someone decided not to waste the tag and reinserted the right way round a few saws later.

With the saw in that nice of condition, I would guess that the drive case change was done by a dealer on a warranty problem or some physical damage to the case. Hardly seems possible anything could have been worn out.

[ronaldt]

That's a really nice looking saw!

[xl130]

That is unusual to see the blue on it. It must be a XL-1 combination....looks nice though!