Discovery Rust - Boot, Sills and Wings

Ian, just a pointer, try not to add too much weight to your car where possible, I really struggle with mine because it is so heavy!

Even Nige from Megasquirt commented that my car must be very heavy just byookinv at my fuel map!!

It is a big deal on slippery hills, got bags of power and lockers all round and 4 wheels spinning flat out in 2nd and still it just sits there halfway up the hill cos its too damn heavy

Would love to do a pnp one day with all the spares and tools out of the car, would be a different beast, bet I carry 200kg in tools and spares

Like the look of those recovery points

Re: swivels, I think I might buy a couple from the breakers and see what I can do with them. Although I fear welding a redrilling holes on a small lift will cause problems as the holes would most definatly overlap, a larger lift may not? If there was some way of obtaning swivels before drilling that would be ideal.

Somebody must manufacture them somewhere!

Having them slotted is probably a recipe for disaster, am I right?

Correction arms do sort out the spring seats, caster and axle position though (they are longer) so are generally the best option for sorting the problem.

Otherwise I am SURE that qt would have started making caster correction balls instead!!

The arms sort castor and pressure on the mounting bush. Modified swivels would only fix castor

Paddocks used to sell them.

The std trick is to use 6 hole swivels and redril them. the new holes are one full hole over so effectively you get a slot.

Rovertym do them in Aus but at $300 just for the redrill they are expensive even over there.

New swivels are £90 each side teflon coated and then you need someone with a CNC machine to drill them, in my case 8.5 degrees over and then you fit them. As Noisy said it doesnt solve the spring seat issue which has cause one shock on mine to fail allready and rub away the paint work on both bodies in less than 1000 miles.

Longer radius arms are better for geometry and if we were talking dragsters, they stop the axle from tramping (bouncing up and down on acceleration)

TBH i would love someone to say to me, here's my workshop and lets crack on and make some of your ideas. I would be busy for ever lol

could you not weld up the old holes and get new ones re drilled, therefore ther will be no slot, im thinking a lot idea is also a bad idea

F*ck me my brain is fried, taken me two evenings to read this thread and get up to speed on the Hornet! Amazing work you're doing man, really inspirational. Got some serious skills in the innovation and DIY department, you can pretty much make anything with that welder and some steel lol. Keep up the good work anyway, keeps newbies like me from falling at the first hurdle!

PaulMitchell1984 - Sound idea but ultimately more work and the hardness of the swivel housings may be compromised by all the heat from welding up the holes. Heres a picture of what they need to have done. Here we have an extra two holes which are location holes drilled so the flange on the axle can be drilled to suit the new location on the swivels.

paddocks did them originally at £160 each side.



You can use a homemade jig and a slot drill but that is really not ideal lol

b3nc123 - thank you for the comments, it is nice to feel like I am adding something back to the forum that has helped me so much in the last year. Not all bad to say it was built on a gravel drive with standard toolbox tools and not even a vice lol. I must be mad

Now onto the next edition of the recovery points. My second idea is to take a piece of 8mm plate and slot it for the shackle bow to fit in, (so you don't put stress on the pin through twisting) and then bend it and weld in to another mirror image, like so



on the back I would weld a brace piece



and here it is on the bumper profile



By doing this any indirect pull, say towards you, will be resisted by the brace piece and the profile nearest you, as this profile will be in compression. The item shouldn't bend really in my opinion. Only problem is it takes so long to cut a piece in 8mm with just a cutting disc

Potentially hugely over engineered also Ian. It's amazing how much work a jate ring can do and that's simply a hoop but all the effort is on a simple M10 8.8 bolt!!

Your design work is truly outstanding and I doff my cap to your fabrication skill, but if you do want my input, it is that you may be designing these parts hugely over-capable and thus just adding unnecessary weight.

The favourite recovery hook for challenge vehicles is simply a loop of 12/14mm bar welded on at each end

Cheers, Sam

Cheers dude, Just trying to ensure that nothing breaks. at the moment I will be the one that gets pulled about as I am lacking LSD or lockers plus better off road tyres, all of which some of my laney friends have. Whilst I am initially OK with this it would be too embarrasing to have to be recovered and the point ripping off the bumper lol. The old Hornet has a rep ya no.

I have two jate rings at the moment. One on the rear hooked up to the chassis, only one as the bolt to the towbar that was, is rusted in and snapped. As yet I havent got it out.

the front is just more difficult as I have nothing there at the moment other than the winch hook (which should be ok anyhows) and the factory tie downs made of cheese. And not your normal mature cheese either but your fancy lardeedar, throw my hands up and surrender like a frenchy brie cheese.........

Yes I had a Brie moment when getting recovered at a pay and play one.

I had sheared a swivel ball clean off (evidently was made of Stilton) and so had to get dragged onto a handy recovery truck just to get me out of the site.

Somebody attached the winch to the Brie hook and its didn't take long for the dairy to give way with an almighty amount of winch fling.

I cut all the remaining ones off to stop it happening again!!

However, perhaps some big loops would be better?

Plenty of space for winch hooks and generally strong with no frills!

Yeah hoops have been mentioned by a friend of mine. 10mm bright bar bent over and fed through the steel bumper, bent over behind and welded. But it still looks like hoops haha. Similar to Gwynn Lewis ones. I might just get them but then again I have the plate in the garage you see....

I suppose I could just use some strong tubing and weld that horizontally on the bumper underside and use that to put the jate rings through.

But would they look OK on the front? its quite tidy at the moment.

thats mine, I can get some more pics/measurements if you like? It was made by someone else though as I don't even know how to turn the welder on yet! :lol:

I have jate rings as well as I already had these... I have yet to test them whilst being really stuck in the deep stuff but they seem solid enough!!!

Cheers matey. What size shackles are they then. They look monstrous lol

Yeah those are the typical solution, always seems sufficient.

Always got a shackle handy too!!

Competition cars use the bent bar hoop method, tbh Ian if your honking of making something I wouldn't look into it any further because the hoops seem to be the favourite.

Most comp guys might only use quick strops though I suppose...?

Not sure mate, all my shackles are pretty big to be honest, i'd rather they didn't fail lol!

I think they look bigger than they actually are in that pic though

disco147 said:

thats mine, I can get some more pics/measurements if you like? It was made by someone else though as I don't even know how to turn the welder on yet! :lol:

I have jate rings as well as I already had these... I have yet to test them whilst being really stuck in the deep stuff but they seem solid enough!!!

Click to expand...

Are they lights or flash reflections at the end of the bumper?

If the answer is lights - photos needed

how about lifting shackles for printing machines/other heavy machinery, iv got 2 on my rear bumper, rated at 16t i think and welded from behind bumper and around the sides, taken alot of stick so far