Hi Paul,
As far as quality welders in Sydney are concerned I can't help you there, but maybe someone from that neck of the woods could hopefully chime in.
Yes Solid decks have also been known to crack, but no where near as easily as the twin railers do.
The current 3.5 Briggs sloper engines are quite good and are no where near as rough as the earlier style upright older Briggs designed power plants were.
I've recently bought one myself and installed it on my 20 inch Solid deck and it's probably the best improvement on the machine that I've experienced.
Cheers,
BB.
