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I recently purchased a lawnmower that is in need of a new hood. The replacement cost for the hood is $400 so I am looking at a way to repair the old. As you can see its severely cracked. I am more concerned with structural stability than aesthetics at this point. Does anyone have any thoughts on fusing the cracked plastic and fixing the gaping hold on the top of the hood?

Or alternatively I am looking if anyone knows of a model that would be compatible as a replacement. Its a Craftsman DLT2000 (Model 917.272264).

enter image description here

Steve Salowitz
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Sheet aluminum and pop rivets. Extra points for using old beer cans as the aluminum source, label side out, but flashing is a bit thicker than today's beer cans.

Hairy (loaded with fiber reinforcement) Bondo. "Bondo Hair" is the actual label on the can. Some screws or pop-rivets might still be needed to help the bond to the plastic at the edges. Looks awful, but quite sturdy.

Run with no hood at all. It doesn't really serve a functional purpose. And then you can start taking parts to a chrome shop and have a real hot-rod lawn tractor eventually.

Ecnerwal
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Buy a replacement hood ASAP if you have this thing sitting outside. An old hood will cost you $50. Everything under it will wear/rust much faster with no hood.

DMoore
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I can't tell from the image if you just have a chunk missing or if there is a crack as well. You can get anplatic welder for $20 from harbor freight.

Just used it to reattach a chunk of my platic bumper cover that broke off when someone hit me. Also used itnfor the cracks.

A few key things if you want to try this: 1. Take the cover off and do the repair on the I side. You may be able to use some high temp epoxy on the visible side tonreinforce. 2. Use metal screening with you plastic welding. The harbor freight kit has some screening but you probably need more. The screening is basically melted into the surface of the plastic. The weld will quickly break if you don't use the screening. 3. Watch a couple you tube videos on plastic weling withstand the screening. The best one I saw, the guy used a torch to heat up a flat metal tool he formed. You can skip that part if you get the platic welding. But the principles in the rest of the video apply.

If you don't have the piece to fill the big hole you can try sheet metal flashing or corregated plastic it doesn't get too hot.

joecap5
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