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The 28 year old deck on my mower is getting a little tender in spots. The area where the right front caster wheel mounts had several holes blown through and was pretty tender overall, so I cut the whole shebang out.
I grabbed a piece of metal of approximately the same thickness as the deck, cut it slightly over size, rolled it to match the curve of the deck and clamped it on the inside of the deck.
Then I traced around it from the outside and whittled it down to the outline. A little touch-up here and there with the 2x72 belt sander and I had a pretty good fit.

Clamped the caster bracket in the previously marked location and plug welded it to the patch.
Prepped the outside edges of the hole in the deck and clamped the patch in place.
Then welded it with a series of little tacks. Most of it went really well, but there are a couple of spots on the vertical edges where I should have cut more of the parent material away. VERY tender. I'll clamp a piece of copper to the back side and weld those areas up.

Thinking I might mix up a batch of bondo and smooth out the inside. Two goals there: Keep the grass from catching on the edges and building up and seal the joint to help retard rusting.

Wow, nice project and great post and pictures. Helpful to me as I contemplate a similar job here. I made a similar but simpler repair on my bush hog last year, but the metal is much thicker and easier for my skill level. But my wife’s mower is getting “tender” too and involves more curves.

You’ve given me a lot here to study and learn from!

When you say you "rolled it"...do you have an English wheel, or shape it some other way? That's another tool that intrigues me.

Bkeepr wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:21 am When you say you "rolled it"...do you have an English wheel, or shape it some other way? That's another tool that intrigues me.

I have an ancient Pexto slip roll I rescued out of the trash when I worked at the school. Metal shop was re-equipping. Picture is of a "modern" one just in case you weren't familiar with the term.

I would like to play with an English Wheel sometime. Not sure I could justify putting one in the shop but being able to curve metal in 3 planes would be handy on occasion.

Lookee here, Paul

https://www.instructables.com/Design-an ... ish-Wheel/