Practically Classics Forum

Rust is a way of life. (when you own a land rover)
I am a bit jealous that you have a rust free landy, that is the holy grail.

Holy something that's for sure

TerryG wrote:Rust is a way of life. (when you own a land rover)
I am a bit jealous that you have a rust free landy, that is the holy grail.

No Terry, it's a Land Rover - it may look as if it is free of rust...

I took various photos this morning, but it's a bit late to start messing with them and posting them here tonight!

Today's intention was to spray some stone-chip on various bits that need to be fitted soon (wheel arch protectors and sill supports being the main ones). It was lovely and calm at five this morning, so I was hopeful (I can't spray in the garage at the moment for various reasons). It was a little windier at half past eight, but it soon turned into a good strong wind that, with front and back garage doors open, has cleared a lot of the stuff off the floor! I don't think the neighbours would like their newly painted (white) semi-detached houses to be splattered with black, so had to do something else!

The stuff arrived from Frost's for the fuel tank and I wasted half an hour just going through the leaflet that came with it. They do some nice stuff and seem to have expanded and improved the range in the last couple of years. I thought I might make a start cleaning the tank (with the stuff in the kit) and took the pick-up pipe and sender from the tank. I'm glad I bought the other tank now - the sender on the military one is seized and rather corroded but the first tank I bought has a nice free-moving sender with the terminal for "low fuel" warning lamp. I know I'm probably speaking to soon - I will test it before I fit it! I didn't get any further with the tank though.

I managed to get the welder to play nicely with thinner metal and welded the patches in the door pillars (and etch primed them). That just leaves the foot-well to sort out and I can get on with putting it back together!

I chopped the old exhaust into Golf boot-sized pieces and found another hole where the Montego downpipe joins the flexi-hose! I suspect that the old system didn't restrict the turbo as much as I thought - it's a big split!!

OK, the dog decided to change beds at six this morning (and again half an hour ago), so I will get some pictures sorted before I get on with the chores!

The join between SWB front and LWB back chassis:



As I wrote earlier, the fuel tank hid this nicely! I'm not too keen on the back brake pipe - apart from the join in the picture, there's a big curve where it goes to the bracket on the back chassis: I would have made a new pipe for the full length of the run - and made a much neater job of the end of the run!

The new sill supports look better than the old ones. OK, they are blue "Smoothrite" (as smooth Hammerite was called when I bought the tin about thirteen years ago). It's blue because the (tractor) trailer wheels are blue - which is why I bought the paint. The reason for using it on the outriggers is mainly to get a good thick layer of paint on them and reduce the chance of galvanic corrosion between the supports, floor and seat box. I will be spraying them with stone chip later on today if the wind doesn't get up again.

Note that I have bought another box of vinyl gloves (on the Workmate). I bought the last box just before Christmas but can't remember when I started using them - probably late January.



Also note - you can see the excess brake pipe just in front of the shock absorber mounting.

I saw a little crusty bit on the passenger side foot-well and, as there had been a repair there before, made the mistake of touching it with a flap wheel! Yes, there's more of that blue paint - the trailer wheels didn't need a lot of paint!



I suspect this photo is an object lesson in why you should always cut the rusty metal away before welding! It's also why I have a new panel winging its way from somewhere (it should arrive today). Mind you, a couple of sheets of plastic replaced the steel wing liners/splash panel things. I know the steel panels rust, but I can help them a lot with plenty of stone-chip paint and cavity wax etc. Annoyingly, I may have to take the wing off to make a top mount for the splash panel - which will mean that the top of the wing will need respraying.

One good thing about a camera is that I can see that there is a bolt missing from the wing to A pillar: there are two in slots, designed to make it easier to fit and remove the wing. I'm pretty sure I'd have taken the two main bolts out first and the wing would have dropped down on me!

I bought a couple of pieces of alloy sheet and made a panel which stretches from the top of the wing to the bottom replacing the splash sheild and fully covering the footwells, 5 years later the footwells are still perfect.

kevin

Probably the wise move Kevin! The plastic stuff seems pretty feckless - but there again, whoever rebuilt my Landy wasn't a skilled mechanic (probably a farmer's lad!). There isn't much inner wing left on my Land Rover, so I'll be using my old floor panels to repair that - and make a decent home for the new washer bottle that arrived this morning. I know the original metal splash panels don't last well and it will be fun making them fit: the mounting on the nearside wing has rotted away and the inner wings have been mutilated in the past. I haven't looked at the offside one - yet!

I had a bad day yesterday - I was just sending an email and about to go and make a start at about ten when Phil came. It was one by the time he went - but he did go and get me some 1 1/4" copper pipe, so I can't complain! I started the Landy to show him the new exhaust in action and, typically, there was a lot of smoke from the downpipe-manifold joint. After walkign the dog and having lunch, I spent what was left of the afternoon cleaning the manifold's face - it looked fine when I started the job, but almost shines now! I can't put it back as the (tin) gasket has flattened unevenly, so I will need to find a replacement before I put it back together.

I didn't do much better today; though Phil's van was on next door's drive (he was servicing their boiler and doing something else with the system), he didn't call in, so I can't blame him! I spent a while taking the n/s wing off, but had to stop as my apprentice had decided to lie beside where the door would be if it was still on! I don't know if she's bored - she likes to lie in the garden and uses the patio door (it has a lower step than the back door to the garage and garden doors). However, it's doing Cumbrian rain today, so the patio door is shut as was the garage door (on the other side of the house) as Cumbrian rain is horizontal and blows straight onto the garage doors and swirls round and through the patio door!

I have a suspicion that the offside wing will come off - so I can get sort the splash shield in there too. It may be wise to do it sooner rather than later - it will be a lot easier to get at the exhaust manifold! Hmm, this is getting dangerously close to a bulkhead removal job: that will be the only bit left on the chassis before long! Obviously the best time to put a nice galvanised chassis on - and fit a 200/300 TD engine and 5-speed box while it's stripped down!

I wonder how much an unfinished project is worth these days

tractorman wrote:....I wonder how much an unfinished project is worth these days

Almost certainly more than it owes you, given how much essential work you're completing yourself.

I had a quick check on my budget last night. I'm not sure if I can sort the electrics, exhaust gasket, dashboard, fuel tank and MOT for £46.00! I won't say what the budget was, but it would almost have bought Phil's "new" Delicia (He got some serious discount from the £6100 asking price!)

OTOH, he is still waiting for the promised diff (his whines at 50MPH+), the aircon leaks (almost as if a hose is missing), the door mirrors won't retract (I suspect limit switches, but haven't looked) and there were one or two other minor niggles. The tax disc and V5 haven't shown up yet (though it is taxed and supposedly registered in his name), but I'm not sure if that's a DVLA or seller's problem - it's a recent import and Phil is the first UK owner.

There are some nice looking Range Rovers (as per Wheeler Dealers) locally that are going for a lot less than I paid for the Landy (about half to be more exact - and less Wheeler Dealers paid for theirs). Two are the 2.5D, so perhaps that's why they are so cheap! Of course, they would need tax and cost a shed load more to run, but Range Rovers don't rust like Series LRs do they

Nah, I'll stick with the joy of leaf springs and deafness!

A picture of the wiring that led to the nearside lights:



While the Electrical men laugh at Instrument wiring, as an Instrument Engineer, I think my wiring isn't bad - especially when I see something like this! I think I have enough of the correct wire(s) to sort the mess, but suspect I will have to do a major rewiring job before too long.

I had Sunday off - started watching the GP, waited for an hour for the restart and fell asleep by the time the safety car had gone in! I woke just before the end.

However, I spent Sunday morning tidying up in the garage and cleared a lot of stuff from the workbench. I unbolted the heater and fan from the bulkhead before cutting a lot of the footwell away.

The before shot:



The workbench this morning:



One of Monday's jobs was to get the heater fan stripped and rust removed, followed by a good coat of "galvanising spray" and, last night, a coat of black gloss (as I had some black gloss to use up!). It had a second (last) coat this afternoon. I want to do the heater, but don't want to drain the cooling system just yet - there are one or two alterations to do that will take a day or two to work out - and I would like to get the exhaust sorted and tested before I "disable" the engine.

I spent a while with angle grinder, wire brush and flap disc (not at the same time!) and got a lot of the grot off the military fuel tank. It had many coats of various colours and a lot of sticky black underseal. Even though I got most of the much off with the wire brush, the flap disc still got clogged with black sticky stuff!



There is a hole!! if you look carefully at the black bit on the RH side of the bottom, you can just make out the hole, more or less straight down from the bottom swage - about five or six mil and very neat. I tried my faithful rust detector (a screwdriver) and that was the only hole I could find. The photo makes the tank look really bad - it is much better in the flesh (so to speak).

I made a good start this morning, but the postie brought two parcels (one had some spot weld drills and panel sealer, the other was a pack of tips and a shroud for the MIG - I know I'm on borrowed time with the only 0.6mm tip I had) and the Hermes lady brought a cover for the clutch housing (a rusty eBay "Buy it Now" that cost less than a rustier one I didn't win in the auction). The dog was pleased to see the Hermes lady - she gets lots of cuddles and treats from her!

I spent a while getting the paint and rust off the cover and decided that it was a good day for sandblasting! So the cover got a quick blast and a couple of coats of etch primer and then the seams on the fuel tank got blasted too. I hope to patch the tank tomorrow and have a "kit" to clean and seal it (from Frosts). Cleaning and sealing is a two or three day affair, so that's the weekend booked!

Hmm, the Hermes lady didn't bring any treats for the dog, so she wasn't too popular today! However, she did bring a new gearbox "cover" that is in very good condition and cost about what the one (that I also missed the other day) made in auction. The postie had brought some fixings for the back of the wing, some gaskets for the fuel tank and the sender that I ordered yesterday! I am just waiting for a spark plug and air filter for the mower and then I hope I don't see any parcels for a while!

I was welding the fuel tank when the post came and had made a large enough patch to allow for iffy metal around the hole. I should have made a MUCH bigger patch as I blew a hole fairly soon after I started welding! I managed to fill the holes I could see and another pinprick hole near the drain plug. There was certainly no sign of light coming through when I looked through the filler hole, though I wasn't sure if the metal was OK below the seam (and between the double skin). I gave it a coat of weld-through primer (and finished the last aerosol of that!) and, later on, I got my pressure washer back - the neighbour got the last fence panels cleaned yesterday - and gave the inside of the tank a gentle blast with the foam turned on - and soaked my leg! So the welding had blown a hole in the bottom of the tank - and the double skin masked it.

I swore a little and have decided to modify the civilian tank (which is sound) to take the military filler (it'll be a lot easier than modifying the Landy to take the civilian filler tube). I will have to be more careful with the civilian tank though - I can't smell petrol, but it certainly isn't as dusty inside as the military one was. I don't intend to use the MIG on it though and will have to find my old fashioned soldering iron!

And the slugs are munching my cabbages! I must be feeding the birds too well!!