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Hey guys. I have a non-self propelled Craftsman 21'' 6.0 rear bagger w/mulch, and the body is just toast, so I need another one that will fit. Not fussy with the color/brand, just as long as it works. Anyway...

At first glance, you'd assume neglect brought this mower to wear it is today, but I hear Craftsman had a bad run, and many rusted. Every year, at the end of every season, I would clean it out, and repaint underneath the deck, but it seemed exposed metal rusted instantly, and it became very rusty. I eventually gave up...and the last 3yrs it went from rusty to barely usable (the caked on grass is the only thing holding it together haha). This was kept inside too.

Great working mower otherwise, and I feel it's a shame to put it out to pasture....the motor still has some life left in her.

I know others with the same generation mower, that had the same complaints.

This is mine. That rust is actually cracks and holes. The section with the front wheels has actually rotted off....embarrassing, I know



This is my neighbor's. He used to actually wax it every summer, and and hose it down once every month. Yet it's still covered in rust bubbles, and the body has a small hole...he's gotten frustrated at it too, and is getting rid of it.


and this is his brother's. I'll admit, he hasn't really done much to taken care of it, but he certainly didn't abuse it. The paint peel is impressive, but his is the most solid of them all.


lastly, this fellow has one identical to mine, rust completely out. He rebodied it

Haven't heard much about excessive rust on the Craftsman's. This is a pic of my 1991 Craftsman II mower. It's sporting the beastly 3.5hp Tecumseh engine...



L8R,
Matt

Nice old Craftsman!

It seems the ones from around late 90s-2000 are the culprits. I have a 5.0hp Craftsman from the late 80s that rock solid, and it's never cleaned out. Same with the old 4.0 Noma I had....seemed no amount of neglect would kill them.

Maybe they went with a run of bad metal??

this one surprised me. Mint, but around where the engine bolts on....toast.

Man, that deck IS rotted around the engine mounts! I've never seen any look like that around here. I'd be a bit too hesitant to use that to mow.

L8R,
Matt

Last year I bought a Craftsman 3 in 1 from 1990 and it was rusted out so much grass would fly out through the deck. Ended up buying another one for $40 that ran good with a solid deck but was a franken-mower with an engine from a Murray. So I took parts of the rusty deck mower and installed them on the good deck.

The corrosion looks like some of the chinese paint jobs I have. My (un) favorite is a mill-drill stand . My dog peed on it once and it came apart like an acid bath. The base metal was already corroding. Seems like the paint prep on that deck run may have been bad. If not too much work try to catch 'em early and sand blast followed by immediate solvent wipe down and primer. You probably know there are some really good rust paints in spray cans.

Good prep is essential. Make sure it is sanded down to bare metal with no hint of rust. Then wipe it down with mineral spirits or paint thinner to remove any oils. Then get a good self etching primer from an auto body paint shop. After that, Rustoleum or Ace Hardware have a great implement paint line in spray cans.

L8R,
Matt

I have noticed what I consider to be a high propensity to rust out on mid-to-late 1990s mowers as well (several brands). As a matter of fact, I just parted out a 1996 Yard King with the Kawi FC150V engine on it yesterday because its deck was rotted out (and it has a heavy-gauge hi-vac deck). The metal seems like it was made from several layers of thin foil which were then sandwiched together, the way that it rusts out.

Now here's the weird thing - I have a mid-1960s MTD that I am still using (as a mulcher now - it's essentially the same deck design as shown in the first post above), and it has nothing but 'protective' surface rust that has not progressed for at least 20 years. And I don't work that hard to keep it clean underneath!

So how can much newer mowers (even the steel-deck Hondas) have what appears to be a much worse rust issue?


My own hunch is it has a lot to do with the metallurgy, and I suspect by the late 1990s we were getting a lot of imported (we all know from where:wink, recycled 'junk' steel, and THAT is why it rusts out so much faster (going thinner by a gauge size or two probably also factors in). Which, of course, the mfgrs. are OK with (so long as it happens outside of the warranty period). That's my steel-penny $.02 . . .

redmon, Yep, sounds plausible. The rolling mill said oops, let add a layer . Or the forming press was weak so tried piggy back sheets. Without prep in between. Masters of knock offs.

Man that thing had to of been kept in the weather for a long time in order for it to do that. And around the engine mounts. Thats crazy. I would get a new deck for it and put the engine on it.

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

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

JDsLawnCare said:

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

Click to expand...

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.

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

Those clean mowers are too pretty to use:laughing:

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.

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

Ok cool I will do a video

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

L8R,
Matt

Yea it will. Hey and if you dont mind could you subscribe to my youtube channel. I am going to be making review video and repair videos as well.

Consider it done.

L8R,
Matt

Thanks man