Defender fun

[valhalla]

Not strictly my own project, just the first of three Defenders that I need to dispatch this summer. Having brought the new chassis up from Sheffield for these cars, I now find myself with no more excuses to delay any further.

This is the fruits of 1.5 days of work. The job of getting everything ready for the lift is very quick, but releasing 30 seized fixings can drag on a bit, especially in a tight space where the grinder sparks start to bite into your face a bit.

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The trouble with the later Defenders is that the design around the rear crossmember went a little doolally for the TD5. Somebody thought that it was a good idea to bolt a strip of angle steel across the top of the crossmember, specially so it traps mud and salt against this critical component. This particular car is well past the point of no return. The rear crossmember is like a patchwork quilt of rusty steel.

So I have a couple of weeks to semi-restore this car before the owner wants it back to MoT. Then the next one starts, which is even more fun (come from a farm, not MoT'd for a wee while.....).

I think you can see where this is going, but a tantalising shot of the new chassis might whet your appetite;

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[valhalla]

The project is slowing down a wee bit; one or two interruptions today, for example.

I'll get some of the pictures uploaded and posted tomorrow, but having got the engine and gearbox out yesterday, the extent of the problems is becoming clearer. This is a Defender that has really worked for its living in a former life in Cumbria, and the chassis is telling its own story. It is utterly rotten from the middle backwards, almost like it had been used for towing a boat (which it never has, AFAIK).

I got the fuel tank out early this morning, and can now state that this is the worst LR chassis I have seen for many years (only "bettered" by some exhibits at the Old Sodbury Sortouts, where people sometimes trailered "projects" to the autojumbles). Pictures to follow.

The current status is that the chassis is almost stripped, denuded of axles and suspension this afternoon. The time is dragging-on, as every fixing is fighting back at the moment, just like the old Series_III days! The parts order list has hit 30lines tonight, and I reckon that is only half the requirements.

[motorhead]

What was the company called where you got the chassis from? 

[Roverman]

Looking at the trailer picture it looks like a great place to work, wonder full scenery but I suppose living and working there just take it for granted  all the best with the landrovers a great job. 

[valhalla]

Jun 30, 2017 19:30:17 GMT 1 motorhead said:

What was the company called where you got the chassis from? 

These are from Richards Chassis, near Mexborough.

I like these ones, because they are made like the early Series chassis, i.e. in four strips of (thicker) steel, rather than two long pressings welded together for each rail (which necessarily require a thinner gauge of steel to press).

I had a prototype of one of these chassis in 1990, and it is still going strong today, after lots of heavy towing work, and two not-very-careful owners!!

[valhalla]

Jun 30, 2017 20:32:09 GMT 1 Roverman said:

Looking at the trailer picture it looks like a great place to work, wonder full scenery but I suppose living and working there just take it for granted  all the best with the landrovers a great job. 

It's a rare occasion to have the sunshine, let alone put the flash away for the camera!! We are just coming out of the tail-end of the "dry-spell" which is typical for the West Coast, and we are about to enter the "rain season" which covers July and August. Not a great time to be outdoors, as the sun has to be reasonably strong, and the wind needs to blow, to avoid being plagued to death by midges. Hence any jobs that are forced to be outdoors can quite often take months, rather than days, to complete, as they require a magic and very rare cocktail of weather conditions....

[valhalla]

The work today has slowed down even more. A fair bit of time has been taken-up by stripping the suspension components apart to re-bush all the eyelets, which is the main job tomorrow, if the press holds-up.

I did manage to get the old chassis finally gutted, and the exchange has taken place under the ramps;



The old chassis was slung under the ramps to allow the suspension to be removed, and to allow easy access around the framework. From Wednesday lunchtime, when the engine had just been taken out;

 

the progress to last night had got to this stage;



which was not bad, considering all of the seized fixings and very, very rusty bracketry!!

[valhalla]

The main reason why this Defender had been taken off the road was that I had condemned it last year, on the basis that it could not be welded any more. In the grand-old Ladybird book of garages parlance, it really was "It's F F M B T" on several areas, but specifically the rear crossmember and longitudinal rails adjacent. I had pretty much had enough of cutting-out and letting in new metal on the bulkhead outriggers and longitudinals near the spring mounts, knowing that a bigger picture was appearing at the back (which I had already repaired in several places).

The owner thought he would submit it, just the same in February of this year, and surprise, surprise, it failed;

 

Now, the MoT tester (who I know quite well) might be accused of being just a little bit picky about the rear offside rail / crossmember, but he probably had a good guess that the nearside longitudinal rail was hiding a nasty mess beyond the fuel tank. He was right;



and as it turned-out, when I had removed the supporting bodywork for the centre outrigger (it's supposed to be the other way around  ) then it was only a matter of time before I accidentally leaned against another bit of the chassis, which quite literally broke away before I had realised what I had done;

 
 

So all in all, a bit crusty this old chassis, and worthy of an MoT fail. I like an optimistic owner....

[valhalla]

Half day today, so concentrated on preparing the suspension components for refit. That means pushing all the bushes out (10 in total), cleaning the rust back to clean metal, prep'ing the metal, then giving everything a good coat of paint.

In this case, there is little incentive to using the pukka chassis-black and phosphoric acid route (Jenolite), as the owner is not too interested in the finish underneath. Reluctant as I am to short-cut the whole job, I compromised with some NOS Hammerite light blue paint that I got for an aborted job a couple of years ago. It's better than the nothing that all of the suspension arms had at strip-down this week, but is not great at staying on for years and years. It will look fine for a bit, and hold the corrosion at bay long enough to snag everything once the vehicle is built back up.

I did have a temptation to use some of the special paint I have been using for my pre-war Rover, but it's a bit expensive (and difficult for me to re-acquire) for that sort of testing. What I sometime do, in the interests of research, is apply things to the suspension arms on Defenders to see how it all copes with the  weather on Skye. As the suspension arms are over-the-top on these 4x4's (unlike the Japs), then there is little harm in applying anything that might not stick. On the plus side, if finish can cope with the salt, water, and continual oil-leaks, then I reckon it is safe for my more delicate projects.

I use a unique colour paint on Defender restorations for a good reason, inside all the bush eyes as well. Can anyone guess why?

[Rhubarb]

So you can tell it apart from factory?

[Noberator]

Jul 1, 2017 22:29:12 GMT 1 valhalla said:

Half day today, so concentrated on preparing the suspension components for refit. That means pushing all the bushes out (10 in total), cleaning the rust back to clean metal, prep'ing the metal, then giving everything a good coat of paint.

In this case, there is little incentive to using the pukka chassis-black and phosphoric acid route (Jenolite), as the owner is not too interested in the finish underneath. Reluctant as I am to short-cut the whole job, I compromised with some NOS Hammerite light blue paint that I got for an aborted job a couple of years ago. It's better than the nothing that all of the suspension arms had at strip-down this week, but is not great at staying on for years and years. It will look fine for a bit, and hold the corrosion at bay long enough to snag everything once the vehicle is built back up.

I did have a temptation to use some of the special paint I have been using for my pre-war Rover, but it's a bit expensive (and difficult for me to re-acquire) for that sort of testing. What I sometime do, in the interests of research, is apply things to the suspension arms on Defenders to see how it all copes with the  weather on Skye. As the suspension arms are over-the-top on these 4x4's (unlike the Japs), then there is little harm in applying anything that might not stick. On the plus side, if finish can cope with the salt, water, and continual oil-leaks, then I reckon it is safe for my more delicate projects.

I use a

unique colour paint

on Defender restorations for a good reason, inside all the bush eyes as well. Can anyone guess why?

So it can be applied with a brush or roller or sprayed.


Do you get it from that place in Nottingham who is a specialist in Land Rover and Classic vehicle restoration Coach Enamel Paints?

[Joepublic]

Jul 1, 2017 22:29:12 GMT 1 valhalla said:

I use a unique colour paint on Defender restorations for a good reason, inside all the bush eyes as well. Can anyone guess why?

Something to do with theft? I.e. If the Landry is stolen and recovered you give the left over paint to the owner and its forensically linked to the paint inside the bushings housings?

[valhalla]

Jul 1, 2017 22:44:37 GMT 1 Rhubarb said:

So you can tell it apart from factory?

I'll give you half a point for that one! You're on the right track....

As most people know, Defenders are a bit quick to be snaffled and stripped. If you paint everything from tip to stern in a unique paint colour, whilst you have the chance to do so, then it makes the job of breaking these a lot harder. Being able to recognise when your parts come up at autojumble or on a certain auction site is made much easier if there are identifying marks all over the components. The vehicles still tend to get stripped and shipped-out from places like Portsmouth in containers, but there is a better chance that if the police find such a haul on its way out of the country, they might just be able to recover some of your car.

The problem that the criminal fraternity have is that if you paint every last bit of suspension, inside and out, then they have got to strip and clean a lot of heavy stuff that otherwise does not easily unbolt on the move, making their life just a little bit harder.

To add to their pain, I deliberately score the insides of some of the components that cannot be accessed by mechanical brush / grit-blast, then pour paint into those voids. Suspension bushes normally broach-out anything in the bush-eyes, but with Polybushes, that is also somewhere that you can score and paint, without losing all of the evidence when the bush is pressed-home.

There are lots of other ways that I uniquely identify each Defender I work-on, so the whole lot adds up to a much bigger headache for the light-fingered types than they might have first bargained upon. In fact, I usually ensure that the light-fingered become the severed-fingered, but that's a different discussion.....

[valhalla]

Jul 1, 2017 23:41:42 GMT 1 Joepublic said:

Jul 1, 2017 22:29:12 GMT 1 valhalla said:

I use a unique colour paint on Defender restorations for a good reason, inside all the bush eyes as well. Can anyone guess why?

Something to do with theft? I.e. If the Landry is stolen and recovered you give the left over paint to the owner and its forensically linked to the paint inside the bushings housings?

And you, Sir, get the full marks! As per my post above. Making it much more difficult for Sykes. Especially if I mix my own colours on the way!

[valhalla]

Still going slow. I have written to the owner as things have progressed. It appears that this chassis had a comensurate amount of rot in everything that was attached to it, so more of a restoration than a straight chassis-swap.

Having got most of the suspension sorted-out, it was necessary to get the powertrain back into the chassis this afternoon, as I need to get the bushes at running-height on the front. The whole lump went straight in first time, no damage (which is unusual for me) and a good fit across the four mounts, so I'm very happy there;

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The exhaust is now fitted as far as the rearmost mount (nothing left of the original) which will need to be fabricated to fit the chassis and rear exit pipe - this is one of those bits that seem to be evading a straightforward purchase.

I'm hoping to get the main circuits around the engine fitted and filled tomorrow, but my biggest task in front of me is to thread the electrical cables back through the chassis, after checking it all for damage and corrosion - Defenders often have "welded" harnesses from multiple chassis repairs around them! I have been told that the rear wiper did not work ever, so that is one specific circuit to check.

I should have been starting on the bodywork today (sorting-out the corrosion around the body mounts), but every little detail has had to be attended-to on the running gear. For example, the brakes are diabolical, and that now seems to be due to most of the hydraulic pistons having partially seized in their bores. So three new calipers are on order, plus some new discs/pads on the front. Except... the front discs need the hubs off on these early Defenders, and I know from my notes that the F/O/S hub will need the drive-flange slicing off with a grinder. F/N/S unknown, but likely to be the same. So lots of extra work, for the sake of getting the car much, much better than when it arrived.