discovery 300tdi - Rebuild project

:welcome2: The time has come to carry out all the work that has been bodged by previous owners/garages.

I took my disco for a MOT last week, suprise suprise - Failed.

mainly welding.

so i decide to take the disco off the road and get the disco sorted properly. i'm lucky enough to have a brother who is a body repair expert and really enjoys his work.

whilst off the road i will be getting all the jobs done that i was putting off.

this week end the following jobs have already been done:

front steering ball joint replaced
rear brake calipers and pads inc all new fitting kits
new rear heavy duty springs both sides inc fittings
new rear shock absorbers both sides
new n/s rear shock absorber mounting bracket
new nuts and bolts for all new parts fitted.

Started cutting out the bodged jobs done on the drivers side inner & outer sills and floor.
we were supprised when we removed the carpet to find the front seat belt mounting was only being held in by the carpet...... best of it was it didn't fail on that when took for mot.... nor the sills....

all the bad has now been removed and this week end the new will be going in..... weather permitting....

i will be trying to upload pictures and keep you up to date with progress

And i thought mine was bad,
Clive.

hi clive,
what was yours like then?
we didn't think this was that bad, as we'd see a lot worse.

the part that amazes me was this lot didn't fail an MOT!!!!!!!!
they failed it on the front body mount which when cleaned up was just flakey underseal coated possibly a number of years ago.

we don't know what the other sides like yet, failed on the same front body mount.... but we'll see once this side is repaired.

from what my brother can see the only thing the MOT bloke got right was the rear cross member which was supposidly replaced for the last MOT according to the service history , but this isn't even welded, its just flapping loose at the rear and underneath. my brother says he'll just remove the tank and see whats been bodged, cut it out and start again .

i have purchased the parts and steel/panels needed to correct the bodges done over a number of years.

it just amazed me how people can do things like this and sell on to unsuspecting people most of whom take the fact that sold with full MOT is a good sign they are safe???????????
its a sure fact if i knew that the front seat belt mount was only held in by the carpet the car would have been of the road and not used untill made safe again.......

rant over, i'll keep you updated as work progresses. once all the work is complete and the "summer weather" arrives we were planning a full respray..... so will be solid and lookm half way decent once more......

done a few like that now, keep up with the pics!
will be interesting to see how you takcle it.
love the seatbelt anchor shot!

just finished getting the odds and sods needed for tomorrow - weather permitting
only able to work on disco at weekends.
hoping to get this side back in this week end...... all new panels and steel needed.
will keep taking pictures as we go.

hi all,
only worked on the disco saturday as sunday the weather was against us.
however we managed to get the drivers side new sections back in, new floor panel,new inner & outer sills, new body mounts, new sill/floor support,new seat belt mount, just new out rigger to weld in.
i have been taking pictures as we go and will down load as soon as i have the chance.

the new body mounts were made by my brother as well as the sill/floor support bracket,
i will as so list the pictures of these for you all to view.

at the moment the new panels are primed with red oxide,all will be painted with chassis black to protect so should be good for some years to come.

we still have plenty still to do, we're hoping to finish this side this weekend and start the rear section, weather permitting.
this will then just leave the passenger side to do, however we don't know what that side is like yet...........

markw said:

, however we don't know what that side is like yet...........

Click to expand...

if theres one thing i've learnt doin this sort of stuff, its clean all the
bad areas first to find the extent of rework, before i start patching!
good luck and look forward to the piccies!

Too true,
You never know just how far you have to go to get back to good metal.
We don't know what the rear section has to offer yet, but if this is a sample of previous bodge jobs should be interesting at least.....

Will keep taking pictures, i will get them added as soon as i get the chance.

I know when i did my first disco i found others projects/repairs interesting to see how they tackled the job, and the pictures explain so much better and gives the less experienced owners the courage to tackle their own jobs rather than pay silly money to some untrust worthy garages.......
this disco being a prime example..... beleive it or not i have a garage bill for £1200 for repairs done last year for the MOT which included new inner and outer sills both sides, new rear section, new front & rear springs,shocks, brake calipers,discs & pads....

We have already changed the rear brake calipers,brake pads and fixings, rear shocks and springs inc fittings and still have front caliper and pads to fit as they are very low and one caliper had a broken casting...... only done 3000 miles since last MOT......so no way all this work was done last year....!!!!!!

It shows they just bodged and pocketed the money ay ??????

i will get the pics on asap

Update:
due to the british weather no work done this week end,
these are the pictures to date

more pictures :

...Hi Mark.

Sorry you found all that trouble!.....but really pleased you found that seat belt before you had a bump!!!!

It is really annoying what peolpe will sell and buy with an mot. One of my classic's came with twelve months mot but it certainly hadn't been looked at with their eyes open......i bought it for spares at the time.

Anyway, best of British!.

Nick.

mark - you seem to have my Disco ! All the same problems on mine and same problem with MOT man! Failed on a few bits of rust around suspension mounts, but when my mate stripped it back we found loads more holes !
Only thing we not tackled is the sills. MOT gave me advisory on body mounts around front end of sill. Looks a big job but keep the pics coming, they are very useful to us - thanks !

man you guys would love our discos here in trinidad NO RUST ...we dont get snow. we have scraped discos with great body work just minor dents and dings . sorry i couldnt just send them to the uk for you all

defcrazy said:

man you guys would love our discos here in trinidad NO RUST ...we dont get snow. we have scraped discos with great body work just minor dents and dings . sorry i couldnt just send them to the uk for you all

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Surely you get rain? And if you scrape any vehicle its not big or clever..just need to paint them again.

the reason we break the 300tdi discos is for the mechanical parts to use in defenders so the body work is no use and are slow sellers here so we just have them . and yea we get rain but the sun does more damage to interior and paint

hi defcrazy,
can't beleive you have disco bodies being scraped over there
especially in such good condition, especially as most the discovery's here
all have similar problems with tin worm, but thats the good old british weather for ya.......
thanks for your interest.... i will keep you up to date of our progress and keep the pictures coming

hi andii88,
sorry to hear your in a similar situation with MOT,
it seems we all have similar issues with tin worm ay,
the best of it was this problem wasn't picked up by MOT bloke, the bits he failed it on were all good just flacky underseal or similar...!!!!!!

the worst part was the seat belt mounting especially as my wife and kids use the car.!!
and this wasn't picked up on...!!!!
we're hoping to start the rear section this weekend weather permitting..... will keep the pictures of progress coming, i found others repairs a great help when i did my first discovery so i hope this will aid others and give them the opportunity to keep their disco's on the road.

hi nick,
you can imagine my horror when we found the seat belt mounting being held in by the carpet..!!!!!!!!!
people shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like this, we all know people who have dodgy MOT's rather than take the risk of a full mot at an approved mot station.
the guy i used this time was a new MOT garage that has opened around the corner form where i live, so i thought i'd give him a go........... never again.......
when all my discovery is repaired i will be contacting my nearest minisrty of transport inspectorate at featherstone and will be giving them the details of the failure forms and the MOT station along with all the pricures of what has been found and corrected.
hopfully they will take this further and take appropriate action against the garage to prevent any one else from taking any unnessesary risks with their or their families lives.

defcrazy said:

man you guys would love our discos here in trinidad NO RUST ...we dont get snow. we have scraped discos with great body work just minor dents and dings . sorry i couldnt just send them to the uk for you all

Click to expand...

Disco's with no rust what do you peeps do for fun with all that sun hardly any rain no snow and ice freezing cold damp windy............................you can go right off some people ya know

Just to let you know ya ain't alone keep at it it'll be worth it in the end