Another 90 Rebuild

RAMBIRKETT said:

How did you separate the old panels off your rear tub to replace them? I've got new rear wings for mine to go on

Click to expand...

I had to drill out the spot welds. It means that I now have some pop rivets across the rear panels that weren't there before.



I think it looks ok though.


Just thinking, with mine being off with, no body cappings etc, I could check for hidden spot welds if it would be of any help.

RAMBIRKETT said:

How did you separate the old panels off your rear tub to replace them? I've got new rear wings for mine to go on

Click to expand...

I've had a quick look for spot welds on the rear wings. There are about 35 obvious ones on the side. There are quite a few under the rear corner flashing, but you can't replace those anyway. There will also be some down the door seam, but I can't see mine at the moment cos the tub is standing on that end.
That's a hell of a lot of pop rivets along the side and the door seam ones may be problematic with the door seals.
If I were doing it again I would look for a replacement tub first. Replacing the tub panels is a time consuming pain and it's raising a few bodywork geometry concerns. I know they're just tractors but...

Al2O3 said:

I had to drill out the spot welds. It means that I now have some pop rivets across the rear panels that weren't there before.

I think it looks ok though.


Just thinking, with mine being off with, no body cappings etc, I could check for hidden spot welds if it would be of any help.

Click to expand...

I think I'll end up going the same route with the drilling them out and riveting/ silkaflex.

Al2O3 said:

I've had a quick look for spot welds on the rear wings. There are about 35 obvious ones on the side. There are quite a few under the rear corner flashing, but you can't replace those anyway. There will also be some down the door seam, but I can't see mine at the moment cos the tub is standing on that end.

That's a hell of a lot of pop rivets along the side and the door seam ones may be problematic with the door seals.

If I were doing it again I would look for a replacement tub first. Replacing the tub panels is a time consuming pain and it's raising a few bodywork geometry concerns. I know they're just tractors but...

Click to expand...

I have seen some people just bond them on with only a few rivets. Silkaflex or tiger seal is pretty strong stuff!

RAMBIRKETT said:

I have seen some people just bond them on with only a few rivets. Silkaflex or tiger seal is pretty strong stuff!

Click to expand...

Yeah, it is good stuff. You will probably want to clamp it some how, while the adhesive bonds, if you are not putting all the rivets back in. I should think most of the weight of the side walls and roof go through the wings. You'll have a load of holes to fill too.

I've spotted this guy on another forum thats replace his wings and it looks factoryish

REPLACING SPOT WELDED BODY PARTS - Defender Forum - LR4x4 - The Land Rover Forum

Sorry, mate. I'm not a user of that forum and so can't see the pictures.

Fitted the floor in today.
Picture of dry run.


Drilled the holes through the tub in to the floor plate.
Peeled the plastic off the floor, cleaned it and sprayed with etch primer. Then sprayed with black paint where the sikaflex would be bonding bits together. Put the floor back in and realised I'd sprayed the wrong side
Sprayed the other side
Sikaflexed around the edges, the top hats and the floor support piece and started riveting it all together.

It's a two man job. Either that or get nose to tail in sikaflex, which isn't recommended. Been there

Still got some rivets to go in through rear panels to corner wing supports and rear body support and through the floor support into rear body support. Nearly there, though.

Tried the vinegar trick on some seat belt mount bolts.
Before


After


Great results, not sure if pics do them justice.

A question. How have you got the rivets in where the floor is really close to the bulkhead? I can't see me fitting my rivet gun in there...

james6546 said:

A question. How have you got the rivets in where the floor is really close to the bulkhead? I can't see me fitting my rivet gun in there...

Click to expand...

Unless there is a different type of riven gun to yours and mine you can't get to them!
I only drilled 4 holes through, but I wish I hadn't drilled any. I had to put those rivets in from underneath or leave a hole. Or fill the hole with something Just don't drill the holes!

The two rivets in a pair in the black strip are through the bracket underneath that holds the top hat. The gun can get in to them ok. You can see one of the rivets I had to put in upside down. It's going to be under the carpet, so I'm not too bothered about it.

Al2O3 said:

Unless there is a different type of riven gun to yours and mine you can't get to them!
I only drilled 4 holes through, but I wish I hadn't drilled any. I had to put those rivets in from underneath or leave a hole. Or fill the hole with something Just don't drill the holes!

The two rivets in a pair in the black strip are through the bracket underneath that holds the top hat. The gun can get in to them ok. You can see one of the rivets I had to put in upside down. It's going to be under the carpet, so I'm not too bothered about it.

Click to expand...

My rivet gun is one with long handles like a pair of garden shears so there is no way its gonna fit. I'll just get as close as I can.

My plan is to mock it up and drill holes in the floor, then put the top hats in and rivet them to the steel bits with some duralac in between, then put the floor in and rivet that to the top hats. I don't care about there being rivets in the floor. I think that should work, but don't quote me on that! Def a job I wish I hadn't started...

Cut some pieces of rubber pond liner to use as insulation between the top hats and galvanised floor cross members. Then pop riveted them all down.
Could then get the tub out of the conservatory and sat it on the chassis.


The bulkhead has been sat in the garage since the primer went on it and so I put that on too, just to create more space indoors.


When I slid the tub in to place I noticed a gap between it and some of the lugs on the rear cross member. The black arrow shows no gap. The white arrows show the gap, which is about 4mm. Does a plate go in here? I can't remember one, but I'll trawl through my dismantling photos.

Looking good mate
Always nice to get bodywork on, As for the gap nothing goes inbetween the two.
One of mine was the same, But when I put all the bolts in the rear crossmember and tightened them up it pulled the tab in flush like the rest.

aaronmorris said:

Looking good mate
Always nice to get bodywork on, As for the gap nothing goes inbetween the two.
One of mine was the same, But when I put all the bolts in the rear crossmember and tightened them up it pulled the tab in flush like the rest.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a morale booster to get to a significant stage.

Good news about that rear cross member lug. One less thing to sort out!
Cheers, mate.

give the sticking out lug a tap with rubber hammer to move it in it looks like its sticking out :rolly: more than the others ,,,shes looking great there matey

Will definitely give it some gentle taps with the rubber mallet.

Yeah, she's starting to look better with a few more bits stuck on, even if they are just temporary. Keep the neighbours happy for a while. They are very interested and like to see things 'happening'

Think I'll start fitting brake pipes at the weekend, weather permitting. Front calipers have been refurbished and have new ones for the back.

Can you get new ones powder coated or is the process too hot for the seals?

Anyway, the calipers will need to be bolted on so I've decided to do the vinegar trick on the bolts.



To be fair, the threads are in decent condition. The heads should look a lot better cleaned up.

Should see a difference by the weekend.

A wikipedia search tells me 200 degrees for powder coating, is that too hot for the seals?

What material are the seals made from? What about getting them plated again?

Good work on the tub!