JB weld. Available at Home Depot.

JB Weld is a great product. I have had great results with it. However, as in any weld, a joint can only be as strong as the material that is being joined. My point is that if the plastic broke in the first place it probably needs to be beefed up a bit. The flexing on either side of the "weld" may cause it to break all over again. Maybe a couple of strips of sheet metal and some pop rivets are in order?

Like redsky said, a reinforcing material on the underside of the hood, saturated with JB Weld would be excellent. Something like a 3-inch wide strip of fiberglass cloth from an auto paint or hobby store. Just be sure to roughen the hood surface first to really make it stick.

You know, you guys are right.

I WILL put a couple of braces across on underside. I think that will hold it together. And, fill in the cracks on outside with bondo.

You know you CAN'T just make a post like that and leave us wondering how you "broke" the hood. Come on.... and if it's not a good story, make one up!!!

"You know you CAN'T just make a post like that and leave us wondering how you "broke" the hood. Come on.... and if it's not a good story, make one up!!!"

Yah! I thought these new tractor mowers had hoods made of "aerospace polymer materials", virtually unbreakable, supposedly. So what really did happen??

I have found that JB weld does not work well on plastic. If you rough it up with sandpaper it will help but JB weld gets too hard (and brittle) for a large plastic repair. There are products made to repair bumper covers for cars it is flexible and can be sanded and painted to match. It is available at good auto parts stores like NAPA. Another good product is fiberglass reinforced body filler such as dynahair but it can be messy if you never worked with it. If you must go with a glue type product, Gorilla glue is the absolute best glue I have ever used on plastic. You will still need to rough it up and reinforce it. A hood gets a lot of vibration and a brittle epoxy won't last. Seriously, I would stay away from JB weld or Loc-Tite weld for this type of repair.

Must of ran into something?? usually new drivers on Hydrostats pedal drives acidently push the wrong pedal thinking it's the brake. I will amit I done it.

Sunlight IMO will weaking the poly over time especially if it sets out all day all year and really gets brittle when it cold also IMO. I would not set anything heavy on top of the plastic cowling, usually most are made so anything you set on them will slides or rolls off.

As far as JB weld or any other two part epoxy they will be stronger than the material around them, but the weak spot will still be crack, you just can't see it. reinforcement is a must IMO.

Rough up the top and bottom of the hood with 80 grit sandpaper. Do it real good. Then get some fiberglass cloth (cloth is stronger than mat). Pre cut three pieces to fit the underside of the hood, and one or two to fit the top. mix up some resin (epoxy is best but poly will work). Start on the bottom. Wet the whole surface with the resin. Carefully lay on the cloth. Ad just enough resin to saturate the cloth. Then put on the second and saturate, then the third and saturate. Let the resin harden. Turn the hood over and do the top the same way. When you are done, paint it to match the tractor and it will be stronger than new. Maybe not too pretty but it could be sanded and smoothed with a skim coat of bondo and shouldn't look too had. For some pointers on fiberglass, look for "repairing fiberglass boats" on Google.

Here's a tip that works great. This way allows for the least amount of repair on the finished surface.Been doing it for years on motorcycle/ATV plastic. With a soldering gun, just melt the pieces at the crack (both sides). Then I would use a fiberglass resin and patch on the underside. JB is a good product, but it's not very flexible. That hood needs to flex with the mower.

You could also try to use Pig repair putty. Your best bet is to bet it between the two pieces, and hold them together for a minute or two until it sets. then apply 2-3 thin layers of it over the crack. It is not going to look too nice though if you do it on both sides, but that is the only way it will likely take the abuse. However, it is like JB weld in that it is rigid and another shock could break it.

How about this one. My mother in law came for a visit. When she got there, I excused myself and said I had to make an adjustment to my mower and left for the garage. 6 hours later, my wife came into the garage with a baseball bat to explain to me how rude I was being. But I ducked and she hit the tractor instead. When she saw the anguish in my face she took a couple of more swings at the tractor just for sport. Fortunately she only broke the hood.

That was a pretty good guess, lkbum! Let's see if rbig will confirm it!

Lay some paper clips in the glue/JB weld and cover them with the glue/weld. They are made of tough metal and their shape gives them wonderful retention in the glue.

I keep my old jigsaw and sawsall blades.They make nice stiffeners when using jb-weld on panels.

Before you go to a lot of bother give the dealer a call and price them, you may be surprised. Also Google for it and see if its sold online or Ebay. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes there are a lot of spares out there flying around for around half the price of a dealer.
Auto body shops use a product called FUSOR, its a brand name but synomamous with the glues they sell for plastic body panels. You just roughen up the surface on the back side (gouging with a knife blade or file end ect works best) then spread on a layer. Then you press in some fiberglass mesh like they use in drywall corners. Screen scrap works too. Then you spread on some more over it.
Finally you fill the crack on the outside after beveling it out like a weld preparation. When dry you can smooth the back side some and sand then paint the front side and it should be fine. No matter what you do though it won't be as strong or long lasting as a new hood if you can get one.