RUDDY RUST

I’ve tried to think ahead on this project as for example painting all the frame parts early so they can have few weeks to thoroughly dry. Annoyingly I had overlooked the handle side bars which had become hidden in the corner of my workshop.  These are the bars with the raised ‘Pugh…Atco…  B’ham’…..etc  letters in the casting. I intend having this lettering picked out in gold and obviously the green paint will need to be absolutely dry beforehand. Autumn has now set in and my workshop is cold and damp so these bars may have to hung next to a radiator indoors, much to the delight of Mrs Grass !

This week I’ve been de-rusting the other rear roller from the ride on attachment. Not quite as straight forward as first appeared. De-rusting with the power sander then using a large rotary wire brush gave an acceptable finish but a few rusty pin holes and minor indentations remained.  As I propose leaving these as bare steel (as original or were they painted ?) they will need to be lacquered or will rust over in no time. I can’t lacquer over even the slightest trace of rust so the entire surface had to be treated with Kurust  after initial sanding and then lightly sanded again to remove the purple Kurust from the surface* leaving the treatment only in the indentations. And this whole process will have to be repeated on the mowers rear drive roller.  This exercise took a day.

I also appreciate that the lacquered coating will be penetrated and the bare steel exposed the second the rollers are reinstalled and the mower hits the ground so I’ll make removable rubber sleeves to wrap over these as well as the front wooden rollers for when the machine has to be moved.

As if to prove my point I finished sanding these rollers just after sunset and it was too dark to commence lacquering. They were stored in my garage for just 18hours and in that time they were covered with fine specs of rust. So for the third time I have today had to use the rotary wire brush to remove every trace. This time as each roller was finished it was promptly wiped over with spirit and given several coats of lacquer. Anyone who’s carried out bodywork repairs on a car will know that as soon as bare steel is exposed it should immediately be protected by a surface coating or the dreaded rust will inevitably return.

* Too late now but on reflection I would caution against using Kurust where a polished bare steel finish is required.  On the plus side the Kurust does it’s job and penetrates the metal sufficiently to get underneath the rust and protect the underlying metal which is fine where it will be subsequently painted but on the minus side the treatment does stain the steel and despite thereafter being both sanded and cleaned with a rotary wire brush the purple streaking left by applying the treatment with a brush does remain visible albeit faintly.