newbie looking for Craftsman 21'' deck (3-in-1)...is rust this common?

[JDsLawnCare]

If you were closer I have a Craftsman deck that Id give to you.

 

[AnthemBassMan]

I uploaded a video on YouTube with my Craftsman mower. Took the housing off the engine, cleaned the cooling fins and everything from under it. Put on a new muffler, cleaned & gapped the plug, new air filter, then scrubbed the crap out of it. The only things left to do are to resharpen the blade and fill her up with some fresh 10w30 synthetic oil. This thing is still solid as a rock! While cleaning it, I found a bit of bubbled paint around drain hole on the deck. It peeled right off and the metal is still mostly shiny. Don't mind my rambling during the video.

L8R,
Matt

 

[jon mopar]

If you were closer I have a Craftsman deck that Id give to you.

I would actually pay the shipping to get a spare deck, if it was decent. Wouldn't hurt to have another

I managed to pick up another deck in the mean time from a late model MTD. It was in decent condition. On top looks great, but the underneath is getting soft. The guy who gave it to me said that he painted it every season, couldn't stop the rust. Sounds familiar. You can tell they don't use the same quality of metal like in the early 90s-previous. So I do want to pick up another solid deck at some point.

Anyway, in the mean time, after some modification, some parts swapping, and some elbow grease to shine things up... the newly restored craftsman lives to cut another day for now. I reused the old rear wheels and brackets, but painted them all to match. I also gave the underside a coat of rust paint and fluid film to hopefully slow down the inevitable.

I peeled away the paint, gave a few taps with a hammer, and I was left with were holes...she was toast. Looking at it, you might think mine was kept outside, but that wasn't the case. Always stored in the garage, and the first couple years I had it, I used to clean, sand, paint bare areas, then spray wax the underneath of the deck...but it was like the rust was inside the metal, because there were bubbles underneath as well as on top. So I just gave up. Despite all the rust, the underneath still had original paint! that should say something about the metal quality.

 

[JDsLawnCare]

Next time i go out to our property ill snap some pics of the deck.

 

[motoman]

Those clean mowers are too pretty to use:laughing:

 

[Mudface777]

I have something similar to AnthemBassMan . Its a 5.0 Craftsman chipper/blower/vac. A friend of mine found it on the side of the road and said I could have it. So I fixed it up and now it runs like a dream. The issue was the fuel line. I think its the ethanol in the new gas. Anyway its pretty cool but no idea how old. If you want I can make a video showing it run and work.

 

[AnthemBassMan]

Looks great! It looks like my mower on steroids! Fire away with the video...

 

[Mudface777]

Ok cool I will do a video

 

[Mudface777]

 

[AnthemBassMan]

Very sweet! And what a good price too! That thing will definitely make Fall cleanup a lot easier to deal with...

L8R,
Matt