My first off roader, Craftsman II

Ok guys. While I have been collecting and building antique garden tractors for a while now and repairing lawn tractors for resell as a hobby, this is going to be my first off road build.  I always wanted one. I want this one to be safe too. Go kart style front axle, solid axle shaft in the transaxle with disk brakes etc. Atv style tires, billet rod,flywheel and brass crank counterweights. I want it fun, dependable and safe. Probably 25-35mph or so. Anyways. I was given this craftsman with blown motor missing a deck. So it's not worth repair for resell. But perfect for a offroader. I pulled the motor last weekend and saved what I could from it. I then went out and picked up the rally mower I have pictured for parts as well. $20 score. It has a low hour 12.5 briggs that will be the motor for this project. Although it's been sitting for years. I have the carb soaking now. Should be a runner by next weekend. I also have two weed eater mowers like the one pictured that I can use for parts. I don't have pics at the moment of those two. They both have mst 205s, the craftsman has a spicer and the rally has a foote transaxle. Anywho. Here is the start. I have alot of work ahead of me. I'm new at this so be kind when I ask dumb questions.

Hey! That weedeater mower looks just like the one i scrapped...

Looks like a good selection of parts you got there. Is that rally a rebadged craftsman? It looks like the same bodystyle.

The rally and weedeater are pretty much identical to the craftsman. They are all ayp and besides the hood and a few things , they are all the same .

Even this old craftsman I sold today is the same. Hoods interchange and all.

I think the one that I scrapped said Husqavarna on it somewhere...And I know the new red Craftsmans are Husqavarna, and black are MTD. What is AYP? Is that who owns Husqavarna?

Yes

Gonna do some kind of wild paint job when it's ready to roll?

And which hood will you end up using?

I'm probably going to run the craftsman II hood for now if I can get it straight. It was Litterally ripped off and stomped flat. Ive bent it back out alot. I may try an find a better one not sure. It's also missing one of the mount brackets. It was broken off. The rally hood can be my backup. The frame will be satin black like stock and I'm not sure on the rest yet but fenders and hood will be something cool. At the moment I'm thinking olive drag green or army green. Little art work on the front like a fighter plane with maybe some pin up girls on it I dunno. Or I may just wash it and call it done lol. It will be a full but a bolt build like if I was restoring one of my antiques.

Not much progress but it is some progress.  I rebuild the carb that came off the 12.5 I'm using on my craftsman off road built. Thing was nasty, throttle and choke were siezed. But it came out good. New needle, seat, float and bowl. I soaked a week in carb dip.

Looks like a brand new carb! Nice job

The 11 on mine is having carb issues...as much as I hate to do it, I may need to buy a carb kit and rebuild it.