How To Repair A Hand Mower Deck With Bondo

I was lucky plenty to be given a petrol lawnmower final year which although well used was notwithstanding running fine, only the only downside was a big rusty hole in the bodywork, besides known equally the deck. I was lazy and untreated this hole has got bigger and bigger and in the end did event the performance of the mower.

The effect is that the grass ended up non getting sucked into the bag but instead followed the path of least resistance and spewed out of the side!

As you can encounter it was a pretty big pigsty in the mower deck!

Tools for the job

All the things you demand you can go from Halfords as there'due south non too much difference between the mower bodywork and a car's so here's what I used:

Hammerite Kurust (Amazon)
Fastglass Drinking glass Fibre Kit (Amazon)
Wire castor (Amazon)
Former pigment castor

If yous've not got a Halfords almost y'all then all this is also available online from Amazon.

Remove the rust

If you don't get rid of the rust then there'due south no point in doing the job equally the whole mover will fall apart at some point and then hither'south where the Hammerite Kurust comes in.

Clean the surface area. Ensure the area is clean from grass and dust etc then go at it with a wire brush. This will remove whatsoever loose paint and rust and give you a sound surface to work from.
Utilise the Kurust with an old brush. The Kurust volition convert the rusty area into a solid and inert surface. If you want to go geeky and so it really converts iron oxide to stable iron complexes. Please notation you shouldn't put the castor dorsum into the original pot as that could spoil it, so starting time off transfer any Kurust y'all intend to utilise into a separate pot.
Leave information technology to dry and do it's magic. It but actually takes 15 minutes and then this really is a job you can do all in one get.

Glass Fibre Kit

The great affair about the glass fibre pack is that it's got everything you need to finish the job along with simple instructions.

500ml of resin
hardener
matting
mixing cup
gloves
stirrer
application brush

Repair the hole

Cut out lengths of drinking glass fibre into handy and workable sizes. At that place's plenty in the pack so cut a lot every bit it gets messy subsequently on.
Put plastic gloves on (again supplied in the pack)
Mix some resin with the hardener. Only brand plenty you tin can use in 5 minutes every bit it will set pretty quickly!
Brush the mixed resin onto a strip of glass fibre and and so put the strip onto the mower pigsty, viscous side down. Generously utilise more resin to the fibre and stipple the brush so that you tin can see the fibre glass starting to split up which will betoken that it'southward been fully applied.
Repeat with the remainder of the strips assuasive a slight overlap. These volition fully harden in 20 minutes so if you want to apply another layer of fibre glass and then you tin.

Job washed and a new trunk of polyester resin and glass fibre! It'southward amazing how hard it sets and I've still got lots of resin and fibre glass left. The gloves, castor, and pot all went in the bin as they weren't worth keeping especially equally they were covered in resin only they were cheap enough.

So there you go. For less than £20 I've saved the life of my mower and tin confirm it works fine equally I was using it later in the day.

It'due south not pretty only it does the job.