Re: (ET) A new coat of paint....

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

John J Casey wrote:
> Hey Chris,
> While I can't see that deck and I do not want to lecture, your 
> description of rust problems in this and past posts tells me that the 
> deck may be unsafe.  I have this mental picture of a deck motor with 
> spinning blade breaking free of the weakened steel.  The baffles, if 
> tightly fastened, reinforce the deck. How does it cut grass?  I have 
> this mental picture of a deck motor with spinning blade breaking free of 
> the weakened steel.  Very exciting.  Please take care. 

Ok, let's put this image in your mind: The motor breaks free, flies into 
the air, then the blades cut the wires and the shorted motor stops at 
once. :-)

On a more serious note: I don't think this would be a problem. The deck 
is very solid up front, the motor collars are rust free and there is the 
factory installed angle iron stiffening L brackets running just behind 
the motors. No problem there.

The issues are twofold: First, there is rust where the rear of the deck 
moves to meet the brackets for the rear bar/roller assembly. This is due 
to leaves and junk getting in there and keeping water against the metal.

The second issue is the rust in the baffles. Due to wet grass getting 
between the baffle and the deck and rusting out the spot where the 
brackets are mounted.

Neither would be an end-of-earth event, but I do need to do something to 
patch it up. I'd love to scrap the deck, but since Bill Gun dumped the 
dies, there ain't going to be any more of these coming around.

Chris