Mower Deck Improvements (still no time result - It's been 10 days - lawn is starting to get long)

With the mower deck off, I decided to fix and sharpen the blades (I hit a brick not too long ago). I also welded up a hole that has formed over years of use. I always imagined the metal to be pretty thin (like sheetmetal on your car) because it used to have holes torn through it. Ummm, no - it's close to 2mm thick. In case you can't imagine that...heavy enough that I could hit it hard with a hammer and it wouldn't really dent.