Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

It is known that Ariens attempted a different painting technique for a few years in the early to mid 80's..
something "new and improved"..(im not sure exactly what it was..might have some early "powder coating" technique or something like that..but im not totally sure)
several years later, this new method was shown to be a failure, as machines began prematurely and radically rusting..
Ariens then switched back, and the problem went away..

looks like this machine falls into the era..
owner care (or lack of care) wasnt a major factor..all buckets rusted just from normal use..
much like the Automobile manufacturers sometimes have a run of "bad paint"..so do the snowblower manufacturers..
and this explains why the rest of the machine looks "normal" for its age, but the bucket is a disaster..
I have seen many photos of rusted buckets from this era, while the machine itself is still functioning normally..
Not sure of the exact years, but its believed to be during the 80's..

the good news is, apart from the rust, the machines from this era are probably in better shape than they look..
only the paint was bad, but not the mechanicals in general..give the machine a new bucket (or strip and re-paint, if its in better condition than
the one in this thread) and you are back in business..and since they look so bad, you can probably get them cheap..

Scot

They call that cancer.  Cars used to rustaway just the same way till they made galvanized one side body metal, and crip and corrosion resistant coatings a reality.  Snow blowrs need to be rinsed and washed constantly if they are used on salt laden snow.  In the early 70's Toyota's and Datsun (now called Nissan) used to look just like that after a few years a salted roads.

I just did some googling on this issue..
Ariens was far from the only one with this problem during this time..
many of the other snowmobile manufacturers, and Auto manufacturers were having the same issues at the same time..
(more like late 80's into the early 90's..not early 80's as I said before)

Turns out it wasnt really their fault..
it was new "environmentally friendly" paints..mandated by the government..

Scot

In my area of New England you could hear those old cars rusting in your driveway. I had rotted frames on several of my older cars when I was young and could only afford old beaters.

The salt they use on the roads here would make a new car look very old in 4-5 years. The new galvanizeed metal makes all the difference now.

In 1994 I bought an MTD Snowblower from Sears-Roebuck with the 'Craftsman" brand on it, it was 9 Hp 26" with tracks (Virtually identical to Cub Cadet model 700 you can buy today, also made by MTD)  The paint began peeling away from the unrusted metal within a few months.  This was the new 'Powder Coat' paints used because the old rust resistant paint and primer combo's of prior years had been outlawed by the Government VOC rules, and obviously they hadn't gotten the whole thing down pat.  After 15 years it still never rotted away to the condition of the Ariens pictured here, which tells you how abused and neglected this Ariens machine had to have been treated.

New_Yorker wrote:
I dont agree the Ariens in this thread was necessarily "abused and neglected"..
Once the paint was gone, and rusting began, even the most well-cared for machine would continue to rust, just from normal use..
Keep it going for 10 years or so, and the result is the machine at this top of this thread..
and the rest of the machine, tractor and engine, looks fairly normal..not abused.

I think the sad shape of the bucket can be 99% blamed on the bad paint..not owner neglect.

Scot

I should have worded the subject a little differently.  I wasn't really trying to fault any person(s) that owned this blower.  But whoever owned it last sure tried to get every last use out of it. 
The cutting edge is bent back about 1 1/2" on the end.  But you can't see it from the angle of the photo.  If I had to guess I would say that at least in some point in it's life it was used on a gravel drive.
Which promoted and accelerated the rusting process.

Looks almost new.  Nice work!

Your work got me inspired and thinking about restoring an old Toro Snow Hound.  I really like how these little things look.  It's small, doesn't take up much space, and fairly simple to work on.  My son is 6 years old and very mechanically curious.   When he's a little older, I might do it as a father and son project.