(ET) Repairing Snowblower shoes.....

[Chris Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

This weekend I decided it would be a good time to replace the skids on 
my snowblower. They were worn down and one was to the point where the 
skid was basically gone. I picked up a spare set over the summer, so I 
figured might as well.

Replacement was a bit of a pain: All three nuts were seized and even 
with penetrating oil I wound up breaking the carriage bolts to get them 
off. Replaced with galvanized bolts, my guess is they will have to be 
broken/cut in another 30 years.

However now I am left with two shoes and I was wondering: How common are 
these parts? If they're rare/NLA then should I re-shoe them somehow? My 
guess is I could weld on a chunk of metal and they would be good for 
another 10-20 years, but I was wondering what other people think.

Thanks!
C