Almost done !

I haven't decided what to coat it with , there's a chance I can get it done with Rhino Liner . A good friend runs a car resto business and he's a dealer . He's also the one who has the sandblaster I'll be using to clean it up . I'd like to have it powder coated , but the budget won't go there . Probably end up using an industrial enamel paint .

Which deck are you referring to as "being eaten away" ? I'm not going to use the one with holes in it , that one is going on the scrap heap - I've already stripped most everything but the wheels from it and I'll be taking those off too . The other one has some pitting , but is overall in pretty good shape .

Sandblast might reveal more damage. I've used just about every coating on a deck. Most don't hold up to the constant abuse under the deck. The only two that have lasted longest were the factory powder coat and good enamel with a topcoat of the non rubberized bed liner. Both lasted longer with a good coat of slip plate paint (graphite paint).

If the price was lower I would ceramic coat the underside. That would take a beating but it isn't in the budget $$$$$.

How about good old alkyd on top and the new waterproofer underneath? NeverWet

There might be brackets or spindles that you can weld on to the newer one to fix it from the old junker.

I have a disabled mower - have better ones now - but it needed a bracket that the factory stopped making and I had to get one made.

Mart>

I did have to move the rear mount brackets over . Right now it's awaiting some paint work and one more small place that needs welded . Then it's just bolting stuff back on and mounting it .

and leveling it... For your use, rough cutting, it probably won't matter much. The blades should be a little bit lower in front, maybe a 1/4 inch or so as compared to the rear. They cut better that way. And of course they should be the same side to side. It can take an hour or two of fuddling around to get a deck leveled nice. Something that rarely gets done if you buy a new one nowadays...

Yeah , I was wondering about that too . As you say , for what I'm doing it's not critical , but still I think it wise to do it right . The hard part is going to be finding a flat level place to do it ... the only flat level place here is the concrete slab my shop sits on . And it's covered up with the shop and "stuff" .

You could probably get away with a decent sheet of plywood for your surface with some well placed supports underneath...

or just rake some bare ground level, wet it down and pack it - let it bake in the sun and set the tractor on it.. You don;t need a perfectly flat granite surface plate to set up a lawn mower!!!

Got a sheet of plywood? Lay it down, run the mower up on it, and set the level.

That was recommended just before the level ground.

And I just happen to have a sheet of 3/4 plywood ... I'll probably roll the tractor up onto it before I mount the deck , gotta be easier than draggin' that deck over the dirt and grass/weeds to position it for mounting . Today was a pretty good day . I got out my HF sandblaster and it actually worked pretty good to get most of the rust off . I then sprayed the bare/rusted areas with some rust conversion primer and started bolting stuff back on it . Got the 3 best spindles of the 6 I have mounted and blades on them . One small weld still to do and the front roller to mount and I can flip it right side up and install the rest of the mounting hardware . I had to do some build-up welding on the pulley block that tensions the drive belt and turns the belt from vert to horizontal , the pivots the tensioner rides on were worn - as was the rear mount pivot bar . Adjustment clevises were rusted in place and had to be heated to get them moving . If all goes well , tomorrow I mount the deck and test it . It'll be a short test because the front tires are dry rotted and starting to come apart , new ones will be in on Monday .

Sorry, missed it completely.

How did you handle the pivots for the blades, so they don't eat each other when they hit something? Or did you attack that mod yet?

Ick, vert to horz? I hate it when they do that. It kills belts so durned quickly, and those belts are usually double the price to begin with.

Clevum? Nah, it's clevises.

I'm saving that mod for another day . I think the only way that's going to work is if the blades are short enough that they can't meet in the middle , which will require a larger disc than I'd previopusly considerd . It may not be feasible with the small diameters I'm working with , the original blades are only 16" long .

Yeah, it sounds tricky at best, especially considering that the shape of the blade defines the evacuation efficiency of the grass from the deck.

Does that stuff shed sticky grass well? The coarse texture I've felt when looking at spray-on bedliners didn't seem the type which would work well for easy cleaning. I've always _much_ preferred the slide-in bedliners.

You can get liner that doesn't have the texture as well.

When you consider just what goes on under that deck when you're mowing it's hard to come up with something that can be easily applied but can handle the abuse!