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bizzo15

52" 5xi mower deck restore...calling all mower deck rebuilders!

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bizzo15

Hey gang,

 

It's been awhile since I've posted here but my 5xi has been running flawlessly so I haven't need to pick your brains....until now!  So at the end of the mowing season last year I took my deck off to put it away and I noticed a crack on the rear of the mower on the discharge side right where the rear wheels mount to the mower.  My intention was to deal with it over the winter but of course that never happened. I got around to pulling the deck out the shed yesterday and looking at the crack and it is a bit bigger than I remember and something I definitely want to address before it gets worse.  At first I was just going to take the blades off clean the underside of the deck really good, get the crack welded and repaint the underside.  As I got to taking the blades off I noticed the center spindle was noisy and decided I was going to rebuilt the spindles with fresh bearings while I was working on the deck.  After struggling to get those off due to the carriage bolts wanting to lift up out of their square and spin and it taking way longer than it ever should of to remove the spindles I've decided to strip the deck completely and restore it.  The more I looked at the top of the deck there was plenty of spots with paint chipping and rusting that it just makes sense to me to restore this thing to tip top shape and get another 10-20 years of use out if it.  That's where all you experts come in, I've only ever replaced the spindles on one other mower deck and it was green.

 

I'm looking for recommendations...I'm leaning towards finding someone to sandblast the entire deck for me and then getting it welded and ready to paint.  Is it worth it to pay someone to sandblast the deck or should I suck it up and wire brush  and strip the deck to bare metal myself?  I'm leaning towards having it blasted because I don't have the hours to dedicate right now to stripping the deck myself and I feel like blasting will do a better job of prepping the metal for fresh paint.

 

My next question is regarding the spindles.  I assumed there was going to be a snap ring holding the bearings into the spindle but upon examination I don't see a snap ring in any of the spindles.  Also, on one of the spindles the blade side bearing actually fell out when I removed the pulley and the shaft.  Are these bearings just press fitted into the spindle housing?  If so, am I going to need a press to reinstall new bearings?  I don't own a hydraulic press, but I do have a heavy duty ball joint press, not sure if I could use that to press them back in.

 

My last question for now is regarding paint...what kind of paint should I use for the underside?  I'm leaning towards something similar to por15 to stop the rusting but open to any and all recommendations.  Lastly, I own an air compressor but don't own a spray gun nor have I ever sprayed anything with one.  Will I be able to get a decent paint job using rattle cans?  I'm not looking for show quality but I want it to look good and reflect the amount of time and money spent to restore it.  Mostly I want a durable paint that will last for years to come.  Will I be able to achieve that using rattle can paint?

 

Ok, enough of the questions for now..here's a pic of the crack that started this all and a pic of my progress so far.  Thanks for any and all help in advance, there's always a ton of helpful people on here and it's appreciated.

 

IMG_7284.JPG

IMG_7277.jpg

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oliver2-44

If you decide to have it sandblasted, I would have the crack welded first.

You might consider having the deck welded, then strip it using electrolosis. (Google E-Tank)

While your deck is large, you could make an E-Tank using a kiddie swimming pool.

I've painted the bottom of a deck with POR15 3 years ago, this is its 4th summer.  It has held up excellent.  Others have said it hasn't held up for them.  I suspect it depends if you have a yard with good grass coverage, or a lot of dirt patches that sandblast the bottom of the deck.  I have good grass, but theres always a few dirt patches.  Rattle can paint takes at least a week, usually more,  to get hard enough to reassemble. 

If I couldn't spray with a gun, I would:

Strip with E-Tank.

Prime with rattle can self etching primer, sand lightly when dry (24 hrs)

But a Quart of Rustoleum Regal Red and some "Majic" or other brand enamel hardner from Tractor Supply. 

Give the top a brush brush coat of paint with hardner, let dry 24 hrs, sand lightly and give it a second coat of paint with hardener.

Paint the bottom with POR15 or the coating of your choice.  

Just my opinion.

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Lee1977

I painted 3 decks with Agriguard the one I used just to mow the yard it's still on. The one I used with the vacuum to pick up leafs and mowed on the gravel drive a lot of it is gone. I haven't look at the third one yet it mowed some rough areas so I don't think it  stayed on either.

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bds1984

There are a lot of recommendations that people will give you for what to apply to the bottom side of your deck, but generally we can all say that something is better than nothing and it mostly comes down to preference and availability.  Keep one thing in mind, most of what is applied to the under side of our decks dries hard, then chips and cracks, or evaporates.  In those chips and cracks is where moisture can settle and begin the rusting out process.  My mower decks get cleaned out a few times a year and each time they're coated in Fluid Film (brushed on or aerosol); if it is scratched off, it self heals.  I've been doing this on my mom's JD GT235 for twenty years and all my WH decks since I can remember and there is zero rust out; if anything breaks, it is due to wear and age, not rust.  
But for your deck, I will agree with fixing the crack and then stripping all the paint off before your apply a couple coats of paint with a hardener up top and at least the POR15 on the bottom.  

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shallowwatersailor

One thing that I do when repainting the bottom of a mower deck is after the primer I paint the bottom white. That way I can tell if the following red top coats have worn away and need to be retouched.

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bizzo15

Wow, lots of good suggestions here already, I appreciate it!  I have a couple more questions though, first I'm intrigued by this:

On 5/11/2020 at 10:21 PM, oliver2-44 said:

If you decide to have it sandblasted, I would have the crack welded first.

You might consider having the deck welded, then strip it using electrolosis. (Google E-Tank)

While your deck is large, you could make an E-Tank using a kiddie swimming pool.

I've painted the bottom of a deck with POR15 3 years ago, this is its 4th summer.  It has held up excellent.  Others have said it hasn't held up for them.  I suspect it depends if you have a yard with good grass coverage, or a lot of dirt patches that sandblast the bottom of the deck.  I have good grass, but theres always a few dirt patches.  Rattle can paint takes at least a week, usually more,  to get hard enough to reassemble. 

If I couldn't spray with a gun, I would:

Strip with E-Tank.

Prime with rattle can self etching primer, sand lightly when dry (24 hrs)

But a Quart of Rustoleum Regal Red and some "Majic" or other brand enamel hardner from Tractor Supply. 

Give the top a brush brush coat of paint with hardner, let dry 24 hrs, sand lightly and give it a second coat of paint with hardener.

Paint the bottom with POR15 or the coating of your choice.  

Just my opinion.

This seems relatively easy to do and I have most of the materials to accomplish this, if I were to go this route do I need to strip the remaining paint first or does electrolysis remove paint as well.  If I go this route my plan would be degrease and pressure was the deck prior to dipping it, a cheap kiddie pool seems to be the best option to have a vessel large enough for the deck. I'm thinking I would line the perimeter with hardware cloth as the anode, has anyone used this before as an anode? I feel like it would work well due to the surface area but since I've never done this I'm not entirely sure. 

 

Also, I received a quote to have the deck sandblasted for $125, for those who have had stuff this size sandblasted does that seem like a fair price?  Obviously I'd like to keep costs down but I also want to make sure I do this right so it lasts a long time.

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bizzo15

Oh and I almost forgot, I'm going to rebuild all 3 spindles with new bearing but I have some questions as I've never had to do this on any of my horses.  The bearings appear to be standard 6205 RS bearings so I'm probably going to source some decent quality ones like Koyo or similar.  Should I remove the inner facing seal on each bearing to allow the grease to penetrate them?  I guess I could just take apart the spindles and see how it's setup now :D  Speaking of taking apart and assembly of the spindles, it doesn't appear there's a snap ring holding the bearings into the spindles, is it just a press fit on these Xi spindles?  If so will I need a hydraulic press to get the new ones in or will a seal and bearing driver work?

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oliver2-44

When I redid my 322-8 I used an E Tank to remove all the rust and old paint. I couldn’t fin washing soda so I used swimming pool Ph+. I cooked it about 24 hours, then took a stiff brush and knocked all the loose stuff of. Then repeated this until all paint was gone. Some parts that had really tight paint took 3 days others with poor paint took 1-2 days

I like the hardware cloth anode idea. I think I would still weave some metal scrap Into the hardware cloth to increase the surface area. 
 

Regarding sand planting, the $125 soundS like a good price if that includes all the deck hardware. 

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bizzo15

Well it's been a little bit since I've updated this thread so here it goes.  Buddy of mine welded up the cracks in the deck and I sent it off to be sandblasted.

 

 

IMG_7602.jpg.5032743e89223f874f1fb2bdbab54b9e.jpg

 

I've never painted anything that has been sandblasted before so I wasn't sure what to use to clean and prep before paint but I ended up using Klean Strip Concrete and Metal Prep on the deck

20200617_193233.jpg.57a8995a0d1fc44cdbde48b95a8f37ce.jpg61412427287__D45B946E-D445-4884-844E-ECEF0C4ED9C8.jpg.f0ab4faabed4974fc1cffaf3484b9bcc.jpg

 

I let that sit on the deck for 24 hrs so it could try completely per the instructions and it left quite the residue.  I wire brushed all that off and then used some Rustoleum self etching primer to prime the deck 

20200619_204744.jpg.5edb577b5c67c385b5531ce53be2bed5.jpg

 

20200619_204756.jpg.d710ddce5b2b0c47e752a54391caf98c.jpg

 

20200619_204810.jpg.a2cc489bba0788dcf98327fc15f41a14.jpg

 

Now I'm torn on how/what to paint the top coat.  I'm tempted to buy a HLVP gun from harbor freight and give spraying the deck a try but I can't figure out what paint to spray.  I'd like it to match as closely as possible to the original color and more importantly be durable.  I understand the bottom of the deck won't hold up but I really want to top of the deck to stay nice for as long as possible.  Any suggestions?

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chex313
On 5/13/2020 at 8:56 AM, bizzo15 said:

Wow, lots of good suggestions here already, I appreciate it!  I have a couple more questions though, first I'm intrigued by this:

This seems relatively easy to do and I have most of the materials to accomplish this, if I were to go this route do I need to strip the remaining paint first or does electrolysis remove paint as well.  If I go this route my plan would be degrease and pressure was the deck prior to dipping it, a cheap kiddie pool seems to be the best option to have a vessel large enough for the deck. I'm thinking I would line the perimeter with hardware cloth as the anode, has anyone used this before as an anode? I feel like it would work well due to the surface area but since I've never done this I'm not entirely sure. 

 

Also, I received a quote to have the deck sandblasted for $125, for those who have had stuff this size sandblasted does that seem like a fair price?  Obviously I'd like to keep costs down but I also want to make sure I do this right so it lasts a long time.

I paid a $100 in 2015 so that sounds right.

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