How To Repair John Deere Plastic Hood

Cracked John Deere Lawn Tractor Hood John Deere hoods frequently become cracks in them. When they do, we get phone calls. "How exercise I fix my John Deere lawn tractor hood?" they enquire. "It's made of 'plastic'." they say. The "plastic" from which *most* John Deere backyard tractors are fabricated is polycarbonate. This is a very rigid plastic and, when it gets common cold, it gets breakable and breaks hands. With all of the vibrations from the mower, not to mention the bumps that the mower has to suffer, it'due south no wonder they intermission. Non only that, simply when yous turn off the mower, all of that heat from the engine tends to "melt" the plastic making it even more brittle.

This polycarbonate plastic was used for years back in the 90'southward on Ford, Mercedes, and Hyundai bumper covers. The car manufacturers don't use polycarbonate anymore for several reasons. When a polycarbonate bumper gets in a collision (especially in freezing weather), the bumper would shatter and non absorb much of the impact. Of form, the main reason the manufacturers don't utilize polycarbonate for bumper covers anymore is because polycarbonate is more than expensive and heavier than, say, polypropylene (which is what they apply now).

Polycarbonate tin can be hands repaired. We did it, and body shops did information technology for years. We notwithstanding practise it occasionally.

We had someone local bring us a John Deere backyard tractor hood that was cracked in several places. He used packing tape to hold information technology together. Of form, it didn't hold very well or he wouldn't have brought it to u.s.! He said he wasn't as well concerned about the appearance. He only wanted information technology repaired. That made this job much easier.

Since we get so many calls about repairing John Deere lawn tractor hoods, we thought we would do the world a favor and show you, stride-by-step, how to repair them.

Step-Past-Step Instructions

Footstep 1

Equally you can see, this John Deere lawn tractor hood was cracked all the way downwardly the length of the hood. The program is to remove the tape residue, align the crevice, and tape it together temporarily, then weld the backside.

Footstep ii

We need to get that tape residue off. It doesn't come off with lather and water, so you'll demand to go some Super Prep Plastic Cleaner. It has some mild solvents and alcohol in it that will emulsify the tape remainder without attacking the plastic. Wipe it off with a make clean paper towel in one management. If you demand to clean it some more, be sure to expose a clean part of the paper towel. Otherwise, you are merely spreading the goo around.

Step 3

To hold the harm in alignment while repairing, we used some Aluminum Record. This aluminum tape is really thick and more rigid than that stuff you go at home comeback stores. Not merely that, merely it is super sticky.

Pace four

Polycarbonate tends to become crusty and oxidized over time. The oestrus radiating from the engine oxidizes information technology quicker. Your welding rod will not melt together with the crust, and then yous need to get rid of the crusty surface. To get the all-time weld, you demand to weld to un-oxidized plastic. Nosotros used a rotary tool with with a carbide cutting cycle to remove this crusty, oxidized surface.

Step 5

We used the polycarbonate strips to weld forth the crevice line. This volition give a stronger repair than using the 1/8" inch (3 mm) rods.

Footstep half dozen

To further strengthen the repair, and to help forestall it from re-breaking, we welded a "T" at the cease. Cracked plastics normally re-pause at the edge, so past "T'ing" off the repair at the edge, you will reduce the chance of a re-pause.

Footstep 7

Later on the weld cools off, it is rubber to remove the aluminum tape from the other side. After peeling of the record, we noticed that the repair was actually potent. We had originally planned on welding along the scissure line with the 1/8" inch (3 mm) rods, simply that would have been ugly, and John Deere owners seem to be really proud of their green machines. Even though the owner *said* appearance wasn't important, we decided NOT to weld the visible side in the involvement of advent.

Step eight

We "T'd" off the repair at the edge to strengthen that spot (since that is normally where re-breaks occur). Since we didn't weld the visible side, we decided to "T" it off in several locations on the backside to recoup for not welding the visible side.