How should I prep my new mower deck?

[bull]

I own a Husqvarna push mower with a Honda engine and has worked great for years but recently the deck rusted through. Rather than get rid of it and buy a new one I got a fairly good deal on a NOS deck body which I'm going to swap out. This time, however, I'd like to put a coating of some sort, on the underside at least, that will prolong the life of the steel. I had been cleaning the underside but probably not often enough, and looking at the paint on this new deck makes it obvious they didn't put much more than a thin, rinky-dink coating of paint on it.

So what would you do to it? I was thinking of having it powder coated but then I'd have to drill all the holes out. I was also thinking of having it coated in Rhino-lining but I don't know much about that stuff. Basically I want to seal out the moisture as best I can with something that will last.

[sunfire69]

there are a lot of things that work well for a lot of people but for me...IMHO...each spring I take a wire wheel and clean off all the crud from the deck ( I do my push mower and riders the same way)...then I take a couple cans of cheap silicon spray and soak all the now bare metal and the blades I also clean these off, sharpen and re-balance them...Anyway I soak it all down with the spray what ever is cheapest and let it set in the sun and dry for an hour or so....then I wipe away any excess with a paper towel and put it all back together. The first year you do it there will still be some grass and crud on it but after the second year there will be very little crud on it...I don't clean the deck during the year and this way seems to keep the decks clean and rust free for the most part. I sharpen my blades every year anyway so cleaning the decks and spraying them is no big deal....I don't like any kind of "paint or permanent coating" on the under side because it WILL crack and allow moisture in and then it's hard to get at...plus rhino lining is pretty rough I would think it would hurt the mowers ability to throw grass out of the mower...
Remember with silicon after you put it on the only thing that will stick to silicon is more silicon...it will penetrate the metal to an extent so nothing will stick to it....not paint not rhino lining and not grass....just one persons way of doing it...

[bull]

I did find this last night so I think your opinion of bedliner is valid. If you "use a spray-on bed liner to create a rough surface that will act just like an untreated deck, causing buildup and adding weight to the mower. Not the way to go."

Then I found out many people use a graphite paint called Clean Deck. I wonder if a dry graphite spray lube would work the same. I use that at work and it sticks about as well as paint.

http://cleandeck.net/

[Silver R/T]

Personally I spray mine with WD40 to keep grass clipping from sticking to the inside of the deck. I would rhino line or use some sort of undercoating. The smoother you can get it the better it will repel debri/grass clippings.