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Hi Folks,
I recently purchased a model STX38 (black deck) lawn tractor and the plastic hood has a few cracks, which I understand is not uncommon.
Has anyone ever repaired or reinforced these hoods from the backside using fibreglass resin, or perhaps epoxy?
If anyone knows of another way to repair and reinforce these hoods, I would certainly be interested in learning about it.
Thanks a ton :smile:

Look up plastic welding under auto repairers in the yellow pages.
Bone properly it will be better than new.
Botched using the wrong materials it will be unable to be repaired.

bertsmobile1 said:

Look up plastic welding under auto repairers in the yellow pages.
Bone properly it will be better than new.
Botched using the wrong materials it will be unable to be repaired.

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There are several well detailed videos on you tube about plastic welding and different methods for different types of plastics arm yourself with knowledge before attempting , as Bert warned , you don't want to make mistakes !

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...hs-adk-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt

I read on another forum, where a fellow said that he had success with epoxy. What do you folks think about that?

I have never found a good way to repair plastic and had it look good. So I just use metal patches on the bottom side with screws and nuts or pop rivets. Other then that see if you find a good used hood, maybe E-Bay. I am in the proses of replacing a hood on a JD345 now and ordered a new upper, lower hood, grill, and decals from the local John Deere dealer.

What I'm dealing with, at this point is several smaller cracks that I hope to be able to fix from the inside of the hood and two that I will have to fix from the outside. I'm more concerned with reinforcement and repair to stop the cracks from getting worse.

Blue Hill said:

What I'm dealing with, at this point is several smaller cracks that I hope to be able to fix from the inside of the hood and two that I will have to fix from the outside. I'm more concerned with reinforcement and repair to stop the cracks from getting worse.

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Drill a small hole at the end of the crack will help to stop the crack from growing. The problem with plastic is as it ages it gets brittle. They do make plastic welding equipment. For the price to buy this equipment you can buy a new hood cheaper. You can buy a new hood for around 200 dollars. Some auto body shops can do this type of work for you also. If you are not fussy about how it looks just patch it with some tin and screws. You will find that fiberglass or epoxy just wouldn't stick to plastic very well, but who knows give it a try??? you have nothing to lose at this point.

I have found some epoxy putty (J-B Weld) that looks promising. I'll try a small test on the underside and let you all know how I make out.

Blue Hill said:

I have found some epoxy putty (J-B Weld) that looks promising. I'll try a small test on the underside and let you all know how I make out.

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I use JB weld in my shop all the time and its a good product. Just rough it up with sand paper where you will be trying it and it will hold better that way. :thumbsup:

Well I took a stab at repairing my hood today. I had one, four inch crack, two more about an inch long and of four mounting posts, one was broken right off and one was cracked at the base. All of the repairs were carried out on the inside of the hood and remain pretty much invisible from the outside.
There's a product out there called QBond, which is supposed to be great for repair to thermoplastics, that uses a "special" powder and super glue.
I tried a variation of the Q Bond, using baking soda and super glue in that same manner as folks use the QBond as I had read where baking soda and super glue work just as well. I veed out the three cracks and the repairs seem quite strong. I then applied JB Weld epoxy putty over the four inch crack, laying it over the whole thing, about an inch and a half wide. The broken off post was super glued back in place beforehand and then the JB Weld was used on both posts to really build up all around them to make them much stronger than they were originally. It's too early to say for sure, but I think I have a good repair. By the way, I chose to use the water weld type of JB Weld epoxy putty, because it's much stronger than the regular type.

Hey all, I know this is an old thread but I’m hoping I can help someone with the problems I faced. My hood broke completely off on my STX38. And I wasn’t going to pay $400 for a hood considering I paid $400 for the mower itself. I was lucky that my grandfather had an extra hood from a LT155. With slight modifications it fits really well. I’m hoping this will help someone else with another option for a hood.