(ET) refinishing my "new" E15

[Michael S Briggs <msbriggs alberti unh edu>]

I'm going to be restoring and refinishing an E15 that I bought last week 
from a list member (thanks again Bill). The first job will be stripping 
the paint off and repainting everything - and also deciding what I want to 
do about the battery boxes (as is apparently common with most of these, 
there's a good bit of rusting around the battery areas, and a few holes in 
the sides of the boxes (well, side of the rear battery box, and the side 
panels on the front).
	        I'll be removing the fenders (picked up a spot weld 
removal tool yesterday) to get better access to everything, and allow me 
to remove the rear battery box. I'll probably also take the wheels off to 
get around there better.
	We have a machine shop here at work with a sheet metal bender and 
cutter, so I'm pondering making myself some nice shiny new boxes (and side 
panels) - assuming I can find steel sheet metal somewhere (I've always in 
the past only made things to use at work, so used sheet metal stock here - 
never bought my own sheet metal for making something, so I'm not sure 
where to get it).
	If that proves to be too complicated, I may fix the old ones with 
bondo (not as desirable though). I've stripped some of the paint so far 
just by sanding and scraping it off, but that's a rather slow process. 
Apparently sand blasting is popular on the list, but I don't want to 
invest in an air compressor just for that - so I'm going to try a chemical 
paint stripper this weekend. After I get the paint stripped, I'll sand 
down the rusted spots some more (with the power drill and sanding disk), 
then apply POR-15 to much of the tractor - especially the frame 
underneath, the battery boxes, and the underside of the mower deck. Then 
on goes primer (except for the frame, battery boxes, and underside of the 
deck, to retain the slippery POR-15 surface), then paint. Right now I'm 
leaning towards a non-original color - either a blue or purple. It will be 
a week or so before I get to that stage, so I'm not bothering to decide 
yet.
	Once everything is nicely painted and reassembled (fenders, 
battery box, etc.), I'll move on to trying to get her working - putting in 
the T-105s (slightly used) I picked up, making some new battery cables (I 
want to go with 4 gauge, since I'll be using Gator Blades which will 
apparently mean a higher current draw, so the thicker the wire the 
better), putting the motors in the mower deck and attaching the Gator 
Blades, etc. etc..
	So, I'll probably have a good deal of questions over the next two 
weeks or so. I've searched the archives a good bit for info on painting, 
so I think I'm prepared for that. If anyone has any tips on getting the 
paint off (short of sand blasting), cleaning the gunk off the underside 
and underneath the mower deck, etc., please feel free to share it with me. 
:)

Thanks,
Mike
E15 in progress
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Michael S. Briggs
UNH Physics Department
(603) 862-2828
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