Since the last time I posted on here I had a son born in August, I've bought 1 more tractor and I have started another hobby of wood working.
I did do some work on the MTD 990 last fall. I built a electrolysis tank to clean rust and paint off the part. I ran a couple of tanks full of parts through and got them primed before it got to cool to paint outside.
Electrolysis worked really well for removing the rust and old paint. After the parts "cook" in the tank old paint comes off easily with the putty knife and wire brush. The rust becomes like carbon and also comes off with a little work with a wire brush.
Here are a few before shots:
and here they are after primer:
The rest of the tractor is currently piled on a pallet in the corner of my shop awaiting its turn.