Cleaned up my old John Deere LA110

[wavinwayne]

I'm moving to a new place in 2 weeks, so I got my old 2007 LA110 back from my father in law and cleaned it up today. SO MUCH RUST. That's all my fault from abusing it for the first 14 years of its life before I gave it to my FIL; he's had it since 2021. I treated the poor mower as poorly as I treated myself for all those years. Thankfully I am in a much better place today. Going forward I'm going to take good care of it and get all the life I can out of this mower before replacing it. I may even try to find a used deck that's in better shape than mine and swap them out. Before and after clean up pics below:

 

[fantastic]

To be fair I don't think JD used their greatest painting techniques on these tiered models. Although yours is an 07' it does look like that design goes back even older? Get some paint on that metal to get some remaining life out of it. Good for you to get some more hours out of it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MasterSolenoid]

Looks a lot better.
May I suggest:
Remove the adhesive from the hood
Use a vinyl restorer on the plastic parts (Armorall or equivalent).

 

[97prizm]

I'm moving to a new place in 2 weeks, so I got my old 2007 LA110 back from my father in law and cleaned it up today. SO MUCH RUST. That's all my fault from abusing it for the first 14 years of its life before I gave it to my FIL; he's had it since 2021. I treated the poor mower as poorly as I treated myself for all those years. Thankfully I am in a much better place today. Going forward I'm going to take good care of it and get all the life I can out of this mower before replacing it. I may even try to find a used deck that's in better shape than mine and swap them out. Before and after clean up pics below:
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Have you tried naval jelly? You brush it on the rust and it converts it. Then you can prime and paint to seal up the bad spots.

 

[wavinwayne]

Have you tried naval jelly? You brush it on the rust and it converts it. Then you can prime and paint to seal up the bad spots.

This deck is beyond that I'm afraid. Several spots on it are already rusted through. Shortly before giving it to my FIL in 2021, I had to fab up an L-bracket and drill a couple holes in the deck to re-attach a piece where the weld at the deck had broken. I'm currently searching for a used deck. They're easy to swap out. With a deck in decent shape, I think this mower could easily go 10 more years. It will be garaged going forward.

 

[wavinwayne]

Looks a lot better.
May I suggest:
Remove the adhesive from the hood
Use a vinyl restorer on the plastic parts (Armorall or equivalent).

The adhesive will be removed. My FIL put the adhesive backed velcro strips on there so he could attach his pick up tool to the hood.

 

[wavinwayne]

To be fair I don't think JD used their greatest painting techniques on these tiered models...

Correct. The paint has sucked on this mower since day 1. The rest of the mower has been pretty bulletproof.

 

[jeepman3071]

+1 on just repainting it if the deck is still solid. I owned a 2005 G110 which is the garden tractor version they sold at Home Depot for a few years. The deck paint flaked off pretty easily even though mine was stored in a garage. Rustoleum sells a Deere yellow matching spray paint.

 

[wavinwayne]

+1 on just repainting it if the deck is still solid. I owned a 2005 G110 which is the garden tractor version they sold at Home Depot for a few years. The deck paint flaked off pretty easily even though mine was stored in a garage. Rustoleum sells a Deere yellow matching spray paint.

Hopefully this deck will hold together long enough for me to source a replacement. It's in really bad shape and not solid; worse than the pics show. Luckily the majority of the mower frame appears to be fairly rust free.

 

[fantastic]

Hopefully this deck will hold together long enough for me to source a replacement. It's in really bad shape and not solid; worse than the pics show. Luckily the majority of the mower frame appears to be fairly rust free.

Another thing to note that I happened to learn here recently just thinking about it & that is mowing once the grass is dried up. Many mow first thing in the morning & that is when the grass is wet so things rust quicker. Wide brim hat & 35-50 spf.

 

[wavinwayne]

Another thing to note that I happened to learn here recently just thinking about it & that is mowing once the grass is dried up. Many mow first thing in the morning & that is when the grass is wet so things rust quicker. Wide brim hat & 35-50 spf.

Mid day to afternoon mower here, since forever. In the humid Alabama summer, the only people I see mowing early in the mornings are commercial guys. The early morning dew is so heavy in the summer, it's like mowing in the rain.

All the rust on my mower is from me leaving it out in the weather uncovered 2007-2021. Stupid for sure, but I was doing lots of stupid things in those days. I am living a very different (1000X better) life today.

 

[Ausfahrt]

Correct. The paint has sucked on this mower since day 1. The rest of the mower has been pretty bulletproof.

Nice. I have the same year and model. Years ago before I retired I even started a thread on this forum and asked the collective here which of my two lawn tractors I should keep and haul from Florida to Vermont. The answer was resoundingly to keep the Deere and that's what I did. I have nearly 400 hours on mine, how many on yours?

 

[wavinwayne]

Nice. I have the same year and model. Years ago before I retired I even started a thread on this forum and asked the collective here which of my two lawn tractors I should keep and haul from Florida to Vermont. The answer was resoundingly to keep the Deere and that's what I did. I have nearly 400 hours on mine, how many on yours?
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View attachment 267275

Yours is a slightly different model (L110 vs my LA110). Not sure what the differences are, if any; maybe the engine??. My mower does not have an hours meter, so no clue how many hours it has.

 

[Ursatdx]

If it's a Briggs single you should adjust the valve clearance.
It's recommended at 500 hrs. Mine put a pushrod through the head at 505 hrs or so.

 

[wavinwayne]

If it's a Briggs single you should adjust the valve clearance.
It's recommended at 500 hrs. Mine put a pushrod through the head at 505 hrs or so.

I may, but I'll have to do my homework first, as I've never adjusted valves before. I just did a little back of the napkin math, and I'll estimate this engine has 1300 hours on it.

I installed a new air filter in it today. The one I replaced was in there since new, so only a short 18 years. I replaced it with a fresh OEM air filter, and the engine instantly ran better; it was being choked for air for years. No more abuse.

 

[loneryder]

This deck is beyond that I'm afraid. Several spots on it are already rusted through. Shortly before giving it to my FIL in 2021, I had to fab up an L-bracket and drill a couple holes in the deck to re-attach a piece where the weld at the deck had broken. I'm currently searching for a used deck. They're easy to swap out. With a deck in decent shape, I think this mower could easily go 10 more years. It will be garaged going forward.

You need a new deck. That one is dangerous.

 

[wavinwayne]

You need a new deck. That one is dangerous.

I agree.

 

[gman2304]

You might consider removing the seat pan to clean all the dried grass, leaves, twigs etc from around the belts, pulleys, and transmission. Easy to do with only about 4 bolts involved.

 

[wavinwayne]

You might consider removing the seat pan to clean all the dried grass, leaves, twigs etc from around the belts, pulleys, and transmission. Easy to do with only about 4 bolts involved.

I blew out every nook and cranny with my Makita leaf blower before I washed it. There's no build-up of anything left on this machine (except rust).

 

[blkwtr]

The key to longevity on these lawn tractors is maintenance and keeping them dry. No moisture, no rust. Store in a dry place, don't mow when the grass is wet, don't wash down with water, remove that wash port on the mower deck. If the mower does get wet for some reason, blow it dry with a leaf blower. Also, remove those rubber foot pads and make sure the area underneath is bone dry. Here is a recent picture of my 20 year old 2005 John Deere L100 with 1800 hours on it. No rust! If you keep it dry, it can't rust.