(ET) Mower deck and rust

["David Roden (Akron OH USA)" <roden ald net>]

Recently I decided to clean up the underside of the mower deck on my Avco 
New Idea rider (essentially an ER8-36).  As these things often do, one 
thing 
led to another, and I ended up stripping it and repainting the underside.

I found something interesting in so doing.  This mid-mount deck has a 
metal 
plate on top of the discharge chute, and another large one under the deck 
spanning the 2 motors.  These are effectively double-thickness metal.  
Presumably they were intended to stiffen the deck.

What I found was that there was no paint, no protection or coating of any 
kind, between the metal layers!   They were just bolted together and the 
paint hosed on the exposed parts.  This means of course that moisture got 
in 
between and rusted both layers from inside, especially around the edges.

I'm lucky that this machine was stored fairly well, so the rusting was 
still 
fairly minor.  Otherwise, the deck might be in much worse shape.

Of course I'm painting all the concealed surfaces in addition to the 
exposed 
ones.  

Anyway, this is a warning -- if you have a double-skin mid-mount mower 
deck, 
you might want to check this.  


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
1991 Solectria Force 144vac
1991 Ford Escort Green/EV 128vdc
1970 GE Elec-trak E15 36vdc
1974 Avco New Idea 36vdc
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