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Post by valhalla on May 9, 2023 23:37:11 GMT 1
Slow but steady progress today. The objective was to get everything removed between the bulkhead and the rear tub, but I didn't quite manage to get the frames out by this evening;
The rusted fixings are still fighting back, but I'm dealing with them pretty effectively as-suits each situation. I tried the Dremel on one fixing, but that was a waste of time!
The D-posts are now exposed for all to be able to see the devastation, this is the RH one;
The issue here is that the body-tub alloy skin between the D-posts, effectively the centre-passenger heelboard and crossmember support panel, has started to disappear into white-powder. Some of the tub has fallen-away with the rotted crossmember that it is attached-to, and I haven't even hit any of it directly, yet!
The RH bodyframe has fallen-out at the D-post join to the sill, so it will not take many fixings to remove this entirely in the morning....
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Post by valhalla on May 10, 2023 22:22:46 GMT 1
Sadly, the few remaining fixings to remove for the sideframes were problematical, mostly at the front-mounting foot to the bulkhead lower bracket; I need to preserve the sideframes as best as possible, yet at the same time I need to ensure no damage whatsoever comes of the bulkhead, as that is the main bit I'm hoping to keep.
Each side has 2x fixings, and Landrover being Landrover, they chose to use a stud-plate with nuts on the rear-most part of the joint, and the plate on the front-most part, which is up inside the bulkhead lower foot each side.....Now, you don't need to be experienced on these vehicles to guess what happens to the plate between the studs.....and what you are left-with is the cheese-heads on the studs, no access to grind them, no decent access to get into the nuts within the sideframe brackets, and the whole lot quite happy to wizz round without undoing (this is 25years old).
The Dremel was used on on nut on the O/S, and that was too slow and painful for words, but it worked once I had put a chisel up against its remains. What I realised was that if the nut was really loose, as it was with one flat ground-back to the thread, then it would shock round with the 3/8" drive rightangled impact driver.
So the other three nuts got the "full treatment" from the induction heater (red-hot), then immediate application of the impact-driver whilst I held the stud/cheesehead sort-of stationary with a prybar up into the bulkhead foot.
The D-post on the R/H side had already parted-company with the rest of the frame, but the N/S needed to be "loosened" in mechanical vernacular to allow me the pleasure and ease of getting the main frames off first, then get each D-post out of the rear body-tub as a separate entity;
The main job, then, this afternoon was to try and get all the tub remaining fastenings and tabs out of the way, ready to begin lifting the tub away from the rear chassis tomorrow. I'm not there yet, and I'm covered in filth from under the back-end of this Defender, but some things are "coming quietly" and some things are just a PITA.....by design.....
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Post by valhalla on May 11, 2023 23:35:27 GMT 1
The tub is off this evening - slightly later than hoped, but I had other jobs to do in-parallel. It's now outside, and upside-down on pallets, as it is so light with all the stripping I have done, myself and Mrs. V. were able to just lift it off the chassis by hand; I've never been able to do that before!
It's not in bad condition, and I'm quite please that the floor crossmembers look to be reusable, as that is going to save quite a bit of money (there are 4x floor-supports on the main floor). The biggest problem with it remains the front closer/heelboard for the centre passengers, and to that end I intend to de-rivet the panel, and buy a new piece to go back in. This is going to be easier than local-repairs to both sides at that panel.
The chassis is now exposed for viewing from the bulkhead backwards, and it doesn't look good.....
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Post by valhalla on May 12, 2023 22:51:59 GMT 1
Poor day today....too many interruptions!!
I concentrated on getting the front-end stripped, but failed to get as far as I wanted-to. The task right now is to remove all the bodywork forwards of the bulkhead, as that is the next main lump to come off; the chassis needs to have nothing above the powertrain, so the rolling-chassis can moved to the spread, and the engine/gearbox assembly lifted-out and onto a couple of pallets.
To strip the front end, the very first thing was to remove the front bumper and winch, and this is where it all started going wrong today.... Neither is a light item, being of the true, old-school "heavy-duty" constructions. I remember thinking back in 2007, when these went onto the front of this Defender, "Well, they are both beefy enough to withstand anything thrown at them, so this is the last time I'm going to have to lift these, which is good, because I'm not getting any younger!". How wrong I was back then....I reckon now that I'm stronger than I was 15years ago, as I had no issues whatsoever with just lifting these off on my own, other than the "Chinese Puzzle" of threading a seized drum-load of kinetic rope and eyelet and hook, all through the fairlead apertures, to permit the winch to come off the bumper first.....After 30mins of trying to unseize the winch-clutch, I gave-up and cut the kinetic-rope eyelet open.....the rope is old now...... My "renewed youth" might also be because half the weight of these things has gone back to nature.....
So after lots of interruptions and other jobs thrown at me, I got the rad-pack off the front by this evening. Not a 5min job in this case, as you normally remove the fan assembly, then the cowling, to get access to the 300Tdi hoses and clips. Only in this case, the M8 flange screws that secure the viscous-unit to the hub are seized-solid (they are usually pretty tight - they self-tighten in service) and you need to get 2-off of these out to get a decent (proper) spanner on the viscous hex, in order to give it all a decent whack with a mallet to shock it loose. I ended-up just cutting the hose-clips off in stages (all have suffered with the 3.5years of standing over soft ground, even though they were new in 2017, and were decent, branded clips) then swinging the rad-pack forwards to get to the bottom hoses, before pulling the assembly forward off the fan;
I still have to get the fan loosened, as it's imperative not to have a vehicle out on the road with any of a) seized viscous thread to hub b) seized 4x M8 flange-screws securing drive-pulley to hub, or c) knackered heads on those 4x fixings. All has to be good if you ever want to work on the front end of these, as these all have to "just work" to get enough access for timing-belt replacement, or timing-up the FIE pump, or just replacing the aux-belt/tensioner. At least I stand a chance to get in there with the induction heater now, then I can clean the threads and apply some more copper-grease.
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Post by valhalla on May 15, 2023 23:47:49 GMT 1
The photo is poor - blame the camera on the phone!!
I got the wings off the Defender (eventually) today;
The bulkhead was photographed inside and out, and with the exception of one small area on a strengthening fillet on the N/S footwell, and the photo'd problem here on the O/S footwell (the seam at the top of the footwell, where it meets the vertical bulkhead panel to the left of the brake servo), the bulkhead is in pretty good condition for 25years old.
This is due, in no small measure, to the Bilt Hamber wax-injection I did on the bulkhead in 2004 (6years old), but I only used Waxoyl elsewhere. I can unreservedly recommend the Bilt Hamber Dynax-S50 wax for anything that really matters; this has got to be one of the toughest tests an injection wax can face, and it is going to be used again for the next 25years of service, plus (now) in the sills and body-sections of all of my classics that I restore.
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Post by OldGit on May 16, 2023 18:16:00 GMT 1
Thats good news - and there's nothing better than nature doing it's worst and proving you right!
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Post by valhalla on May 18, 2023 22:37:04 GMT 1
Slow progress - hence no piccies this last couple of days; family both sides are visiting at the moment, so limited time to fiddle with "old Landrovers"...
The bulkhead is being stripped of parts at the moment, so that it can be lifted more easily, and it all needs removing for welding-repairs anyway. No more bad surprises, yet.......
The new parts are starting to arrive, pretty thick-and-fast right now. Big "surprise" was when I was handed an additional postage bill of over £340 for the doors and other assorted panels - probably insurance for all the knocks and bangs they are doubtless going to endure, and I (doubtless) am going to complain-about when they get here.... I'm guessing they will come on a pallet, but it struck me that these pieces would be best moved by boat up the West Coast, as they have to come from Liverpool.
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Post by valhalla on May 24, 2023 23:18:34 GMT 1
No progress at-all this week; I'm doing a few "paying jobs" to help ease the cashflow through the garage.....
I pushed the Defender onto the rear ramps, 4-posters, and promptly pushed the poor thing off the lefthandside ramp-plate - this is one reason you don't move a project around unnecessarily - it just causes damage, especially where you no longer have any steering control. Fortunately I was able to reach over the centre of the chassis with the digger arm, and assist the jack being used to lift the offending wheel back up onto the ramps, and swing the whole lot a foot sideways at the front.
I now have all the doors and tailgate in brand-new hot-dip galvanize, both skins and frame. The 4 doors arrived today, all safe-and-sound in a decent pallet/packing-case. They look just fantastic; I cannot wait to get them painted and start building them up. As the side doors are a particular weakness (amongst 1000's others) on Defender, I'm keen to make some improvements and mods to these to ward-off fatigue-cracking over the next couple of decades, not least that our roads are little more than farm tracks right now!
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Post by valhalla on Jun 5, 2023 23:35:27 GMT 1
Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I'm grinding inexorably towards where I should have been 2weeks ago, which is everything fully stripped-down, assessments made, and new bits all ordered and accounted-for.
Well, the front axle is off the chassis and on the rear, 4-post ramps tonight, so that just leaves the dismantling of the rear suspension tomorrow morning, then the rear axle came come off as well, and the old chassis will be ceremoniously lifted out of the workshop and put somewhere handy for a few weeks; it will be used to transfer circa 20 clips and ties from old-to-new, and it will be used for reference measurements when building-up the bodywork, almost certainly there will be critical differences that will need to be resolved at the time.
I managed to get some photos of the old chassis whilst it was outside last week, having just taken the powertrain out of it, and the state of it all is pretty bad! Several areas have just disappeared over the last few years, and they were not even on-the-radar, so some surprises all-round there.
The big deal is going to be whether the new chassis has suffered outside, or not, over the last 5years or so. It should just be "nicely patina'd", which is to say easier to paint with a bit of "grip" on the rear crossmember. No question that if it still all looks good, then it has stood the test-of-time before going under my vehicle; I usually leave all my chassis-piles for a few months outside, to confirm all is good inside and out, so that I can rectify each one before it goes anywhere near a customer's vehicle.
The last of the "big orders" has gone in today. Not quite as bad as I feared, so the cashflow should be fine on this one. There are still other bits to sort-out as I go (there always are - as more and more detailed work is done on each area of the vehicle), but the large-ticket items should all be accounted-for right now. The main thing is that no corners have been cut, as-yet, so I'm happy this is going to be a durable restoration. Today's parts are coming from YRM, and these include the majority of the heavy-duty galvanized brackets around the suspensions and body-mountings, as well as the new galvanized body side-frames/sills, and all the stainless fixings for the build.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 6, 2023 0:07:16 GMT 1
The hold-up on the work has mostly come from the stripping of the bulkhead; knowing that it was going to need some work, I have removed absolutely everything from this component before I even bothered to unbolt it.
The bulkhead has to come out of the way for the powertrain removal, but what has also come-to-light is that the passenger footwell has similar, if even worse, corrosion to the top of the footwell where it meets the vertical face of the bodywork. Both sides have gone quite locally in the same way, both have been limited by application of DumDum to seal adjacent components (steering-column and associated clamps on the RHS, heater-box on the LHS), so perhaps I was just unlucky in my application of wax back in 2004.
Liberal application of Waxoyl inside the footwells is what has kept the surface-corrosion at bay on both sides - Defenders are always wet here, so you take the carpets out, and wax the t*ts out of the interior, before laying rubber mats over the top of the wet wax. Works a treat, as the picture shows, and I have decided that no carpets are going back in on this rebuild - I'm going the "full tractor route" with PU fitted matting/sound-deadening.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 6, 2023 0:25:41 GMT 1
A happy stage is always at the point where the powertrain comes out;
The unit is already drained at this stage, and should only need cursory attention to fluids and filters before refitting. A moot point is always, "Do you do the timing belt whilst it is all out?" and in this case, I'm taking all the history into account before I decide. The belts on these are far more durable than most, and 10years is not unreasonable for a lightly-used 300Tdi, but.....this one has been parked for 3.5years in the same place, so I'm tempted to just fit the kit whilst I have good accessibility. I'll whip the timing case apart once the unit is back in the chassis, and think about it. To do the job properly, you need to fit decent stuff, and replace the lot....seals, everything.
To be frank, this vehicle was mollycoddled before it came off the road, and the maintenance was always on the basis, "No expense spared", so I wouldn't be happy cutting any corners here either. I rely on this Defender to work hard and get me home every time, 1500miles at a day's notice, so I don't want to have any doubts in my mind. I also find it easier, certainly with the customer-paid resto's, to get all the maintenances together at one odometer reading, so there's no doubt about when everything is next due, but also (not least) it's a PITA to have to bring a vehicle back in for work when it has only just had a resto done on it - it takes the shine off the experience for both me and the customer.
Amongst things that are now "surprisingly bad" on the naked chassis, the nearside bulkhead outrigger has not only disappeared in spectacular fashion, but the main longitudinal behind it has also disappeared, despite me having checked this all over not long before the MoT-fail (amongst a couple of others) on this chassis. As far as I can tell, the camera images inside the chassis never suggested any problems here - suggests it has rusted from the outside inwards, due to the dreadful water-trap that the rotted outrigger has presented to the elements;
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Post by valhalla on Jun 6, 2023 0:46:39 GMT 1
Another revelation, in the last day or so, is that the colour of this vehicle is not Bairritz Blue, it is (I believe) Cairns Blue. The two are not completely dissimilar, but Cairns Blue is very slightly lighter in some lights. I cannot find a colour-code anywhere with the documentation of this vehicle (should be "JEU" for Cairns Blue) but it was a flashback I had of the time I bought this Defender, back in 2004, that made me think it might be Cairns Blue; the magazine advert had mentioned Cairns Blue in the details, though I cannot find a copy of that advert now. This colour was used for some NAS 90's that went out to the USA around about the time my Defender was made, and the paint-charts suggest that the 1997MY Defenders would just be at the front-end of the use of this colour by LR.
What I'm going to try and do is get a sample of this paint, probably solvent-based, and see if 1) how close it matches to the existing bodywork (wheelarch lips), and b) how I get on with a metallic. I have never done a metallic before, but given that I'm going to be doing complete panels at a time, probably horizontally, then it might not be too bad. Otherwise it's back to Plan_A and use a flat-colour that's close.
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Post by OldGit on Jun 6, 2023 7:26:50 GMT 1
The paint code (as I'm sure you're well aware) can be in either LRCxxx or the three letter suffix and should be on the VIN plate on the bulkhead above the brake pedal. Sometimes the person responsible for such things was on holiday, off sick or just couldn't be bothered so it might not be there.... You could try www.vindecoderz.com/Shame about the bulkhead corrosion, as you say, it just shouldn't be there!.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 6, 2023 21:53:54 GMT 1
The paint code (as I'm sure you're well aware) can be in either LRCxxx or the three letter suffix and should be on the VIN plate on the bulkhead above the brake pedal. Sometimes the person responsible for such things was on holiday, off sick or just couldn't be bothered so it might not be there.... You could try www.vindecoderz.com/Shame about the bulkhead corrosion, as you say, it just shouldn't be there!.
Yes, indeed! The paint-code that I'm looking-for, JEU, should be on the VIN-plate on the brake pedal box.....but unbelievably, the areas for paint-code and trim-code have been left unstamped. Any other manufacturer, I would have said this looks a little fishy, but with Landrover.......well, you just accept mediocrity with everything you look-at........
The code for Cairns Blue is LRC849 (or BLVC849), and that is something else I cannot find stamped-in anywhere. So I'm going to have to dig-out the original documentation pack for this vehicle (you can tell that it is original, the pages have gone soggy and stuck together...... ) and see if the sales documentation alludes to one of the codes I'm looking-for.
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Post by valhalla on Jun 6, 2023 22:03:03 GMT 1
Well, now the real work starts;
I had Devil's delight getting the rear suspension stripped right down to the components today.....red-rusty on everything I haven't ever touched, which is most of it, as this vehicle has been very reliable.
Something has struck me today. The rusting of the steelwork is not the only problem I'm facing right now. It seems that the rubbers have all given-up at the same time - gaiters are all soft & perished, splits have appeared in almost every component (loads of grease inside, joints all working, but rendered useless by splits that have suddenly appeared whilst parked-up) and even the bump-stops have just dropped-off of their own accord - I haven't even touched them, just the "percussive maintenance" of removing components elsewhere on the chassis has caused them to fail. So more bills than I had anticipated, but at-least it is all available and relatively cheap.
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