mower deck rust

[buckwheat]

I am servicing/cleaning my riding mower and am seeing rust on the deck..........what can i apply to stop or slow down the rust?

[micky]

On top of the deck or underneath the deck?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Oren:

Does anybody have experience with just applying a rust converter and leaving it at that? i.e. Cosmetics not an issue, so no paint afterwards...

[Vic Smith]

Yep. POR-15 is tough.

[J Burns]

I second that! I bought some in the 90's. I think it was two 4-oz bottles. I believe the company that produced it was small. One item I painted was a rusty iron rail. Years later, when I needed to repaint, I couldn't find the bottles, and the website seemed to be out of business. I see they have a website now, and Amazon sells it.

Other stuff I've used is okay bare if not subjected to things like abrasion and prolonged moisture.

For stuff that would be exposed to weather, I've preferred oil-based primer and a top coat. The last time I tried it, I use Rustoleum spray primer and Rustoleum spray top coat. It had plenty of time to dry, but in rainy weather, it would bubble.

At Amazon, I see customer satisfaction for the Loctite brush-on stuff is high, but it's low for the spray stuff.

I've always wanted to paint the underside of a mower deck, both to stop rust and the keep pulp from sticking. Here's advice from a mental-health therapist.

What she considers best is unclear to me. She says epoxy primer should have an oil topcoat for protection from the sun. I'd love to see how an epoxy topcoat would perform under a mower deck.

She refers to a Paint Quality Institute article. I can't find anything about it at their site.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Oren:

Lawnmower attachment and a snow blower attachment... BCS... they didn't even prime either one before painting.

[clare]

Paint protects the coating barrier - which is rather fragile.

Pour 15 is tough stuff, but it still requires adequate preparation if you want it to hold. I use it on the wheel well lips on my truck to keep the rust-critters from taking a nibble.

[clare]

Likely cheap powder coat job. Looks good. Fis\rst scratch and you can peel the whole thing like an orange.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per [e-mail]:

Exactly what I am seeing.

[Robert Green]

Same thing with the interior edges of my microwave. Peels very nicely and looks positively awful. )-:

[micky]

Me too, but some of the answers seemed to assume the opposite, so I wanted the OP to say which.