Grassroots mowersports... that is, questions about my riding mower deck

I have a base model LA series John Deere lawn tractor. It's "adequate" but I've run into a few issues. 

Besides the steering design  having spring from the bottom end of a retarted monkey, the mower deck is... frustrating. 

It works. But it's a few years old, and nearly all of the paint has come off at this point. Where paint was remaining, for the most part it was simply trapping moisture underneath. 

So, I'm thinking POR-15. Is there any reason NOT to strip the deck, wire brush it (or sandblast, I suppose... I have a compressor, but no sandblasting gear) and use POR-15? Would it be worth doing top (where the deck accumulates dry, blown stuff for the most part) and bottom (which is essentially all bare metal, and cut/wet grass sticks? 

My thought is top at least, and if I do the underside, then maybe things wouldn't stick as much? 

Any experience with this? Is it a waste of effort on my part? Should I do the top only or top and bottom? 

Do top and bottom in POR15. The grass clippings that accumulate on top of the deck can rust it out just as easily as the underside. Paint over the POR15 if you can, then use cooking spray to keep things from sticking as much on the underside.

POR-15 won't last long on the underside of the deck, tried it on a couple mowers. After a season, the underside was back to bare metal, with only a bit of por-15 in the middle. Por-15 isn't UV resistant, so it would have to be topcoated after putting it on the top of the deck. Best to spray a light coat of primer on it before it dries, then later you can paint it.

In reply to STM317 :

Agreed. Pretty much all of the surface rust is on the top. 

My low-end J-D lawn tractor is 15 years old now.  I've never done anything to the deck except keep it out of the rain and try to mow dry grass late in the day whenever possible.  I'll clean heavy accumulations of clippings off the top of the deck when I notice them.  It's missing some paint, but I'm pretty sure it will last another 15 years, at which time, it may well be time for a new one.  Stripping it and re-painting it sounds like a fine idea, but way too much trouble for me to consider.

Am I the odd bird out who uses the air compressor to blow off the deck (top & bottom) after every use?  Yesh.

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

I know for a fact that I have done this at least once, and you're right, it is the best way!

still in progress. Absent a sandblaster, I attacked the remaining paint on top with a scraper, drill brush / 3m pads and my kids (they mostly used the scraped). With the top down to pretty much bare metal, we primed it and now haev the first coat on, using Rust-Oleum oil based paint. Other than the hassle of cleanup, results seem good so far. I'll try to check back in a year or so with a status update. 

Not showing off. Good operators work heavy equipment as if it is an extension of them. It is really cool to see a operator of that skill do there thing.  

As for picking the car apart. Nothing unusual. Just recycling it.  Separating the various things. 

EastCoastMojo said:

Am I the odd bird out who uses the air compressor to blow off the deck (top & bottom) after every use?  Yesh.

I use my leaf blower at point-blank range to clean off the top. The bottom, I have to remove the deck to get to it, so that happens at the end of the year. Remove blades, sharpen them, scrape out all the packed-in grass, lube in all the zerk fittings, and then a quick spray of rustoleum on the underside.