Re: (ET) Best undercoating option for mower deck

Thanks Steve. I've always hosed off the underside of the deck after use to clean the grass off. What I'm thinking of doing this time is redoing the POR-15 process, but this time put a couple of coats of POR-15 on, and after it's had a month or so to cure, putting a nice auto wax/sealant on (and doing that twice a year). As a test, I put some Collinite 845 (a very good wax) on before my last mow, and everything rinsed off very easily. As long as all bare metal is painted over (and the bolts are stainless), and then covered with a nice hydrophobic sealant, I think that should be fine. Actually, here's what I can add - I can use my electric leaf blower to quickly blow any residual water off of the underside of the deck (and also use that for a quick cleaning of the top side).

From: Steve Welch <oneoldbird icloud com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 8:16 PM
To: Briggs, Michael
Cc: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
Subject: Re: (ET) Best undercoating option for mower deck

Mike,

I've had similar struggles with POR-15 and other treatments. My last go-round, I used several coats of the POR-15 silver/gray primer after a thorough sandblasting. Didn't bother to apply a topcoat to the underside. That has stuck better than anything else thus far (several years on it now), though it is not perfect either. I have also tried to minimize my use of water under the deck, reasoning that getting it wet frequently might be worse than damp grass stuck under there. Don't really know, though.

This subject comes up from time to time on this list and I am not sure there is a foolproof solution. Someone needs to engineer an affordable composite deck... :^)

Steve

On May 10, 2016, at 1:45 PM, Briggs, Michael <Michael Briggs unh edu> wrote:

When I got my E-15 ten or so years ago, I stripped it down to bare metal and painted the entire thing with POR-15 (after treating with Metal Ready, to get it to flash rust for the POR-15 to bond to), then topcoated everywhere except under the mower deck. If anyone wants to see before/after pictures , I put some here:
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~msbriggs/elec-trak/

Anyway - in the time since then, most of the paint has held up very well. The main issue is the underside of the deck. I always hose off the underside after mowing, but sometimes I may not get all of the grass off on the upper lip (when folded up - the part that is furthest forward when the deck is down). There are many areas where the POR-15 has failed, exposing bare metal which has started to rust again. I'm guessing some of this is from taking a beating with debris (and the occasional rock) while mowing. So, I'm wondering if there might be a better option than POR-15 - or rather something I could top the POR-15 with to give it more resistance to debris, but that would still essentially be like a paint as far as being smooth, something I could wax so that stuff doesn't stick very easily, etc.. I've looked at some undercoatings and bedliners, and many of them seem to not be slippery (for a bedliner you don't want it to be). Has anyone used an undercoating and had good experience as far as it holding up well, and also being easy to clean?

Thanks!
Mike

Michael S. Briggs, PhD

UNH Physics Department

(603) 862-2828

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