New Discovery Owner

berg450 said:

which rails you mean?

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the chassis rails. The longitudunal ladder of structural metal that your prop and exhaust are sat within. Its hard to tell from pics if its just general muck or actually flakey.

I use these

Ok, understood. First I have removed the loose parts by using a chisel (see this video) after I have used wire bruss similar to yours.
Mine was not as bad as on this video but slight hammering with chisel removes the layers which are corroded (if any) and after you can finish with brushing.

Glad you didn't find any holes! Enjoy your new car

resto_d1 said:

Did you prod those rails with a screwdriver?

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Yes I did and they are very solid. Only surface rust, no holes.

resto_d1 said:

Glad you didn't find any holes! Enjoy your new car

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Yes it's a relief - the rest of the car is so good it would have been a shame. Plan is to now go through the chassis and make sure it is all as well protected as possible.

I think the previous owner cared about this Discovery. Engine bay very tidy indeed.

Nice example that is well worth taking to the next level as the OP intends. Being a recent new D2 TD5 Auto owner myself this thread has been of interest. Attached my before n after images, DIY by myself along with hours and hours of other enjoyable jobs since buying a few months ago. Images maybe of interest to the new owner OP.

Big-Larry said:

Nice example that is well worth taking to the next level as the OP intends. Being a recent new D2 TD5 Auto owner myself this thread has been of interest. Attached my before n after images, DIY by myself along with hours and hours of other enjoyable jobs since buying a few months ago. Images maybe of interest to the new owner OP.

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That's looking very good underneath. What was the process in terms of tools used and products etc. In preparation I have acquired a few things such as a needle scaling gun to add to my angle grinder with various brushes, the Bilt Hamber rusts treatments. Planning to go through it section by section as I haven't the time to do it in one hit.

Mine likely needed jobs doing which yours doesn't so apologies for sidetracking but as you can see here my alloys were scabby and me being a tight wad on a tight budget I diy refurbed them - while each wheel was removed I took advantage of the opportunity to access everything possible via the arch to wire brush, rust convert, etch prime and then two or three layers of top coat stone chip protecting product. Its surprising how much of the chassis rails can be accessed this way and as you mention "stage by stage" approach I did the same, a corner at a time and then lastly getting underneath and doing the same to the remaining chassis rails areas and drivetrain.

As you see I also sanded, primed and painted the arch trims, mine were the usual aged scabby faded mess and let the bodywork down so rather than spend almost £200 on a new set I DIY'd ! These are just a few jobs I have been doing in recent weeks in the evening mainly, once the kids are in bed, it's my therapy in my man-cave and truelly rewarding taking my fundamentally good 1 owner, FSH etc etc D2 to the next level for many years of future service, either mine or the next custodian. Yours looks like it deserves the same level of TLC ☺

The last image of the pair was taken at my local sports centre recently , I couldn't resist parking my Epsom Green one alongside the black one and taking a sneaky pic

Good luck and enjoy.

Jon

PS. The line up of products in the image were supplied locally to me in belfast as the best equivelants I could source as the brands you mention are not avaialable over here in NI. However, you are along the right lines and I agree with the chap that said "leave the waxoil and hammerite products on the shelf" , as he said, too safe and enviro friendly to do the job intended like most products in the main stores nowadays.

That is very interesting to see what you've done. I'm having the same issue with the arch trims. I was planning on replacing but the issue seems to be getting them off as they are stuck fast. I've got some bumper paint which give the perfect finish but I realise after one attempt that you can't just rub down the rough plastic as it has degraded to a kind of granular texture so it needs to be filled. Quite tricky to get the surface the same as the surrounding good plastic.

I'm 'looking forward' to getting on with the rust work. Did you take out the fuel tank? My concern is the rust I can't see.

My arch trims were very rough and i sanded them by hand to a smooth finish before priming. My friend simply replaced his and he did say that even with the heat gun they were a bitch to remove but certianly very doable.

No I did not remove my tank. My vehicle has never towed/worked or been off road and the rear chassis sections are good (for a D2 anyway!) So I am hopeful amd confident that dropping the tank wasn't necessary. I spent a lot of time and effort underneath treating and preserving, it's such a shame that we have to go to this trouble, my 34 year old Volvo is a solid as a rock underneath with no visible rust on any chassis sections. Good ole British auto industry hey

Sounds the same as mine - I don't fancy that particular task but I suppose it would be nice to know there wasn't anything lurking unseen. I just finished my rear step which looked awful on first glance and now looks like new and is very solid. Shouldn't pick the easy jobs first!

Lovely chassis for a d2 what did you treat it with?

As I mentioned above, the good quality brands you all have available are not distributed over here in NI so I approached a specialist paint supplier to the industry,( fleet, haulage, buses etc) for an aerosol rust converter, aerosol heavy duty chassis paint and an aerosol wax and the long lances with a 360degrees spray pattern to fill all chassis box sections and sills - every visible hole got that long lance shoved down it!! The supplier had to put each product into cans for me as the industrial clients buy in huge drums and use their own spray equipment, decent of him to goto the trouble for me but then again it all cost me £120.
To be honest, once you've got the vehicle up on ramps and spent an hour or so with a wire brush, using aerosols its quite an easy and satisfying job... don't dred it, embrace it!

Those silver TD5 Decals for lower front wings and tailgate like a Defender were the cheapest and most enjView attachment 162969 View attachment 162969 enjoyable little upgrade........ little things - little mind!

I made a start today on the rear chassis and peripherals. All looks good and I have got as much off as I could and then coated with the Hydrate 80. Looking at this long term it seems absolutely obvious that if this is going to work then you need to take out the fuel tank as it's obscuring way too much that is clearly going to be affected. I squirted the treatment will into the cavity between the chassis and the tank but no way will it get as far as I'd want. The advantage of taking out the tank would be that you could at least update the fuel pipes as they are apparently prone to fail.

There is a lot of slightly corroded componentry which I will look at replacing as I go. Not sure if anybody has made a hit list of underbody items that are worth changing,.

Tomgc61 said:

Just picked up a Discovery 2 after a lot of searching. Its a Sept 03 so I assume 2004 MY. 51,000 with two owners. Adriatic Blue, black leather. Not sure which model this is. ES? ES Premium?

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Fantastic buy, well done on your d2. I'm looking for a 2004 hse or es premium with similar mileage right now. I'm in southern Ireland, but happy to travel for the right disco.
Can I ask what you finally paid as prices seem crazy for some currently uk listed landmark versions.

I paid a bit over £6k but it went in for a service straight away and I added a pair of tyres to match the new Maxxis ones it had so now stands me in at about £6.5k - I have a list of things that I would like to do. Drivers seat is really good but I'm going to put a new seat foam in as it's a bit soft. Fitted that is about £200. Headlining is going very slightly but will undoubtedly get worse so as that is done by the same company in Birmingham I'll be saving up to do both those together so add another £400. I'm having the fuel tank out to do any potential rust and replacing the fuel lines as a precaution. Rest of the rust treating will add on about £100-£200 in product. So that will bring it up to about £7.5k all in but I will have a long term proposition. I use it off road only half the year so I'm resisting the urge to beef it up a bit as it's such a nice standard example but I love the look of these with a bit of height and winch bumpers etc so might start looking at some reversible improvements.

Sounds good to me... i still love mine albeit I don't use it as much as I perhaps should favouring the garaged princess, weekend family outings and camping holidays approach and a crappy mk6 Fiesta 1.6 as a daily!