I hate how nasty things get under my mower decks over the years.
Over the years I've seen so many 'rust through' from the inside out.
I'm wondering about taking the spindles out and getting them sprayed with the spray on truck bed liner. Anyone ever tried it?
Otherwise I'm back to cleaning, priming and painting again! I usually just use good Rustoleum rusty metal primer and lay it on a few coats and then just use whatever paint I have laying around (I'm the only one that will see it). Then I use the spray on graphite to make the grass come out easier but in the end it's still rusty under there a few years later.
I've got a couple of 'collector' decks off my old IH Cub Cadets (I steer away from their MTD stuff if I can). The one I really want to try the bed liner spray is off my 60" Swisher. That's my 'main mower' and I have it all apart for a full rebuild including a new engine. I've talked to a few of the bed liner places that have tried it and of course they think it's a great idea!!! They all claim that they do a few jobs 'now and then' but of course they can't (or won't) give me any follow up two or three years out. It's something I don't want to do every 2 or 3 years...
I'm doing that now!!!
Any other ideas of suggestions would be appreciated...
it will be time to mow before we know it... actually I mowed a few small patches last week but finally winterized the mower and put it in the back corner of the barn where the snow blower had been. Snowblower started right up and is ready to go plus I have the blade on one of the CC's.
For what it's worth...my humble opinion...
If you got the deck down and off already...pull your blades, sharpen or replace them. Pull or tape off the spindle bearings. Clean, wirebrush the deck for paint prep. There's a product out there that you spray on that halts, seals and restores rust if you have a non-aluminum deck. Then do your Rustoleum primer if you wish or need too.
Then spray with gloss enamel. It will clean easier. Think along the lines of painting a kitchen wall. What's easier to clean the grease splatter off of: full gloss or semi-gloss?
Then hit it after dried with spray on Pam vegetable pan coating. Works great on snow shovels and snow blowers too BTW. During the season you can also just give a spray to the reject chute to keep it flying or going into your bagger. Cheaper, more available than graphite or silicone. And yeah, even "greener". And if Mama comes up short with an empty can of Pam one day just claim ignorance.

And I'm assuming you're taking care of the spindle bearings, from a grease fitting point of view.