Hello OTT forum. Some may remember last year I purchased a G5200 to restore, to use, in memory of my Dad. He had a G4200 that I missed out on and figured the 5200 would surfice. I really liked that mower of his and it would throw that grass a country mile!! It would dry before it hit the ground!! The salesman who sold me the 5200 said, “that deck is trash, it’ll never cut grass”. Anyone who knows these machines will tell you, the decks were their weak point. Being a machinist, an having a lathe and mill in my shop, I figured I could “give that deck a new life”!! Well, here it is almost a year later. I figured about 100 hrs on the deck alone!! I’m not a fabricator by no means, but I learned several lessons on this project. One, you can do more than you think you can, if you don’t sell yourself short. Two, it don’t get done until you start it. Pretty simple. Three, it gets old, if you do it ever day. Sometimes, a week went by, without striking an arc. It’s pretty much done now, except for some paint on the sheet metal and tupperware. A few pictures. Sorry for the long post, but almost ever day I checked this OTT forum and gleaned tid-bits of information to help me with this project. Thanks for all the intel!! Now, I hope I’ve got a few cuttings left in the grass growing season to dial this hoss in!! Semper-fi & This We’ll Defend, Mike in the Smoky Mnts.
