Dom's 109" (re)build

Tell me about it I was hoping to get so much done yesterday and today and just managed to paint a couple of brackets...

I tried to clean the engine yesterday, thought it would be a doddle. I started first scraping off with a plastic scraper the worst of the 1/2" thick baked on grime then attacked with gunk and an oversized electric toothbrush thing. After a couple hours of that I gave up and put back most of the ancillaries (bagged the distributor and other points of ingress) and attacked it with a pressure hose, more engine cleaner and scrubbing.

Three **** wet through hours and you can now see what colour the engine is supposed to be but the corners are still grubby. I think that's how its going to stay - its no longer such a fire hazard and should be easier to work on and there's no point getting it perfectly clean as it will no doubt wee itself when I put it back together.

I gave it a good blast round with the air line before leaving last night. I'll open it up and make sure all looks well this aft. Hopefully not too much water got in anywhere it shouldn't.

Dragged the chassis outside for a degrease, jetwash and dose of mordant solution to get ready for painting.It seems such a shame to make a shiny thing so miserable looking!

It all sounds so easy. It took about 5 hours and my back is knackered.

Would have been a lot easier if my mate had turned up to help, was a right **** dragging it out on my own.
Started stripping down the slam panel...rotted to buggery at the bottom but the rest seems fairly sound...a bit of welding there this weekend.

Ready by the weekend, Dom?

Notice I didn't ask which weekend!

whilst the galv chassis is nice and shiny, they don't look right on a vehicle imho without some paint or black wax, just looks like someone couldn't be bothered to paint it.

Thanks Herb...this is taking a while but at least its progressing now instead of going backwards. I think it might be a few weeks before the door handle and pin get used!

You're right Joe, I was half tempted just to bolt it together shiny and let it dull of its own accord but really, given the money spent, I'd like to paint it. Galv isn't magic and still gets eaten away, especially round here where the roads are gritted so often.

The main gate where my garage is is galved and two years on has weeping rusty patches and looks a bit crappy. Hopefully, worth the effort.

I know that I have to drill quite a lot of small holes for self tappers for things like the brake and fuel line clips and extra brackets for brake balance switch etc - what should I dress the holes with or is that taking it too far?

D

For both self tappers and clips I generally clag them with either Vaseline or grease.

Same any holes drilled in galv I fill with grease. Seems to be fairly effective at protecting it!

smart, that's my usual solution too.

Agree with the above, I put rivnuts in my new chassis. Just coated them with grease first.

My 110 is covered in grease in a pre strike on the usual areas of spot rust. Seems to have worked fairly well'

Grease is not a panacea for rust as I've found on the one I'm restoring...

Does the rust just develop underneath? Is there anything except maintenance and hardwork that will stop rust?

Nope, just a decent coat of primer and paint is better than just grease or tetraseal. As you say no substitute for maintenance

I thought that we were talking about screwed/screw holes?

You can't really get primer and paint inside most of them if they are in the chassis ... can you?

We were but then Tom mentioned doing a grease up of general problem areas - which on a Land Rover is any bit of steel - especially ones from the late seventies/eighties where the steel is actually 5% rust from the factory! I've found lots of rust under grease and tetraseal where water has tracked underneath.

The one I'm working on is especially bad as the PO had left two bolts out of the water pump so there's been a nice mist of anti-freeze sprayed everywhere removing paint from the block - under the layer of grease

Talking of rust, I need to get some steel together to replace one or two bits that have been eaten through by tinworms!

I could do with borrowing some Oxy/Acet gas bottles as I am better on gas and TIG than MIG when working upside down!

The burgher of it is that we are now on yet another long weekend

Done a bit more today - painted chassis with undercoat. Took my time and made sure I didn't miss any bits. Zinc Phosphate from Manor Paints with brush and roller, plus U-pol spray can for hard to reach bits. Looks pretty neat! Unfortunately top coat isn't being delivered until Monday so will have to find something else to do until then...

Oldseadog said:

Talking of rust, I need to get some steel together to replace one or two bits that have been eaten through by tinworms!

I could do with borrowing some Oxy/Acet gas bottles as I am better on gas and TIG than MIG when working upside down!

The burgher of it is that we are now on yet another long weekend

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I would have thought there'd be some garage would rent you there set for the weekend...

I think I'll be MIGing on Monday but on things I can turn over!

Word is already out Dom, however it's another holiday so nothing can get done until Tuesday at the earliest