[Dave in NY]

I have been meaning to get going on this deck shell for a while now. Last week I took it to a fellow I know that has a small abrasive blast business going. He blew it off for me and its plenty clean enough for me to start working on it. I knew that there would be some repair work needed as I could see some pinholes and a couple of obvious larger holes. No surprise there considering its age. A few days ago, I went in search of a source for patch metal. I plucked this Cub hood off a scrap pile destined for a one-way ride to the junk yard. My sincere apologies to the Cub Cadet fans!! At least I will be repurposing parts of it back to another tractor type project. The first piece I sliced out I goofed and had it just a smidge too small. I was plenty generous on the second piece. A bit of hammering and heating and I have a rough draft of the patch. I plan on making the patch piece fit the hole I cut in the deck. There will be lots of trimming. bending and fitting to do before I start any welding. I believe this project might take me a while as I don't want to warp the deck out of shape by welding too much in one spot. There will lots of cool off time between short beads of weld. It will be time consuming no doubt.

 

[Dave in NY]

I got the patch plate trimmed, ground, bent and fit to the hole I cut in the deck. Quite a process, I was about 2 hours getting things lined up just so. I used various clamps to hold the seams in alignment so the tack welding could be done. I took lots of breaks during the tack welding as I didn't want to warp the deck out of shape. I should have done this first but didn't think of it till I had the patch tacked in place. I bolted two old splindles to the deck and braced them with a piece of 1/2" thick bar. I believe this might help keep the surfaces where the spindles bolt to in a common plane and correct distance from each other during the welding process. Hopefully, it sure can't hurt. I sliced another patch piece from the Cub hood and have it roughed out. This area has some pin holes and is rather pitted and thin in spots. There is also the mounting bolt hole there for the idler pulley assembly pivot. I haven't decided if yet if I want to cut that part of the deck out and fit the patch plate like I just did with the other or just put the new metal over it on the grass side of the deck. I already drilled some holes through the deck that I can create spot welds with. Going to think on it and make the call tomorrow.

 

[Dave in NY]

Life has kept me rather busy lately and time for the deck project has been limited and the work sporadic. But I have made progress. My inner voice told me to not cut a big hole in the middle of the deck in close proximity to where the gearbox and center spindle mount. I could see potential issues with warpage and alignment with that much cutting and welding. I very slowly stich welded the patch in place pretty much like I showed in the last pics. I couldn't reach the center of the deck but in only one spot with any of the clamps I have on hand, so I used a spacer collar, nut and bolt under a piece of angle iron clamped to the deck to hold the patch down firmly while tacking and then stitch welding. Took me hours, as I waited several minutes between welds and also had to move the angle iron and sleeve/nut, bolt arrangement for each weld. I was 2 days on and off in between other things getting it welded in place. Possibly that was a good thing because I didn't seem to warp the deck out of shape as it still sits flat on the floor on all four corners. I did find that the deck is rather thin in spots, and I had to resort to brazing a few places because I couldn't seem to not blow holes through it with the mig. I also decided to braze in some of the deep pock marks. I sealed the seams of both patches by soldering with a propane torch and common 50-50 solder. If had cut out all of the pitted and thin pieces this thing would have resembled a patch-work quilt. Waaayy too much time and work for me. I plan to fill some of the pits with JB Weld, I can't see trying to braze in that many. I'm not attempting to make this like new. It's a bit past that point for me. It will be solid with no rust holes and maybe even not look too bad.

 

[KennyP]

You did good!

 

[Dave in NY]

You did good!

Thanks! I still have a ways to go yet. There is supposed to be a somewhat warm day coming up this coming week, possibly I can get a coat of primer on it. We'll see.

 

[Dave in NY]

Not much for pictures today. I finished filling a few pitted spots with JB Weld on the grass side and did a few dabs of Bondo on the top side just for cosmetic reasons. Gave both sides a good coat of the Rust Reformer just because. That has to cure for 24 hours so possibly tomorrow afternoon I might shoot a couple coats of red oxide or maybe some sandable primer that I have on hand. We'll see what tomorrow brings.