1965 Series 2a Station Wagon in Holland

Well he had high hopes - high apple pie in the sky hopes...

...one of those days - I'm expecting next week to be a nightmare for other things so I was keen to crack on with it today and get some stuff done. One plan after another went tits up for one reason or another and I got nowhere.

Oh well.

The new sand blasting addition (the kettle) has done such a good job on the under seat battery box that it is starting to rust again =>



I gave it another wazz in the cabinet and used up some Fertan I've got kicking about.



You're not meant to let Fertan dry out - I will - I reckon it is better than nothing and gives the steel a bit of protection whilst I get other stuff done. The Fertan will be sand blasted away before better rust killing products are used and the thing gets painted.

Unexpectedly I managed to squeeze in an hour of Land Rover

So...

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY FIFTEEN

On advice from the metalmeet guru's I made up a new wood buck / hammer form (they said to use a chasing tool - but hey I wasn't really sure what they were on about): The main message was "to realise that this is a 3D problem not a 2D representation" - so flip the panel round if need be and use a chisel to crisp up the edges from the underside.



I had to cut the grooves close to the edge of the block for clearance on the panel



Simply put the block of tropical hardwood (with the groove cut in it) on the floor - positioned the panel and tapped carefully with the hammer and chisel. (Small force needed)





The edges are a bit better. I still have some "fiddling with it" to do but it is a step in the right direction.

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I've now put in the fold at the top of the panel



(Still using the vice mounted folding press - good purchase that - very useful and versatile for not much money)

Straightening edges with folding pliers =>



Cut once (!) =>



Bit of a comparison picture (in case you've forgotten where this bit goes)



Time for a bit of nut scratching - I think I might make the ends / sides next before I make the lower folded structure.

Stretch said:

Got some work on the replacement head done today

Cleaning =>

View attachment 106119

View attachment 106120

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Removed hot spots

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Lots of de-coking

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Valve lapping

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Found the exhaust valves to be a bit too pitted (when I looked a bit closer). Weirdly the valve seats in the head don't look too bad

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Seeing as replacements are cheap I'm going to replace with new...

...masking =>

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First coat of engine paint looks like it is sticking (!)

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Click to expand...

Remember the diesel cylinder head refurbishment I did last year?

(Back on page 14 => https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/1965-series-2a-station-wagon-in-holland.298002/page-14 )





Turned out to be wasted effort.

Bit of a shame - the work I did was on a cylinder head that was a bit too new for my engine / model year.

For most people this isn't a big deal - I know - but it is one of those immediately obvious visible things when you open the bonnet and see the new style injectors instead of the clamp down versions. I do think this vehicle "deserves" to be put back as original as possible so sourcing a correct head ended up on my to do list.

(Remember I bought this vehicle as a donor vehicle for my Mercedes OM617 - so that shows how plans can change)

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There seems to be a bit of confusion about when the clamp down injectors were changed by Land Rover to the more common type.

The answer seems to be about 1968 - when the engine number suffix changed from "J" to "K" - note engine suffix is different from chassis suffix! "K" was first year of the more commonly seen injectors.

According to the parts book the "last correct" part number for this diesel engine cylinder head with the clamp down injectors is 601469

I got this one brand new from Blanchards =>

(Not mega cheap but probably cost me less money than finding a second hand one and getting it machined / rebuilt)



Lots of nasty sticky paper - might get re-used to catch flies and mosquito's!

One of the tips I've picked up for identifying these heads is that the thermostat housing is slightly thicker - here's what the newer versions look like =>



Kind of pointy and thin.

The older versions look like this =>

{Excuse the fly paper stuck on the end}



The new head came with hot spots fitted - so that saves a bit of cocking about. I do need to get some more valves though (as I'll try and sell the other cylinder head complete)



Looks like wax protective caps for the freeze plugs...



Strange thing is the part number on the casting is different to that ordered. I was in a bit of a flap about that - especially as the head came in a British Leyland box - I had to check to see if the clamp down injectors do indeed fit before...



...Blanchards say this is a casting number - I'm not so sure - more research is needed. 598081 might also be a cylinder head part number - I'm going to ask about on the series 2 club forum to see if my suspicions are correct.

Shocked - I thought this week was gonna be a drama...

...I unexpectedly managed to slope off to the Land Rover today (yeah!)


BULKHEAD (partial) DAY SIXTEEN

Lots of ball scratching and sighing today I'm afraid.



^^^^ That's more for me than you! Sorry - need a memory jog

Gone is gone =>



With that little bit of angle out of the way I could drop the new panel into position on top of the old parts and make some pencil marks for the bits I need to cut and fold for the ends.



The edge of the hole isn't quite in the right place so I need to sort that out in a bit - going to get the edges / ends of the panel sorted first so it is all a bit stiffer



There's a kind of complicated folded "ski slope" part to this panel on the ends where it joins with the A post (door pillar). I've decided to cheat and cut and fold and weld in a bit instead of trying to hammer form the shape. I reckon I'd balls it up so cheating is the way to go.

Adding in a bit of stiffness to the bottom part of the panel - putting in the folds and cutting to size =>



(Time to buy an air nibbler me thinks - yeah yeah I've said that before)



Clamped into position to assess distortion due to...



...a slightly out of whack fold =>



I didn't manage to get that lower fold (LHS in the picture above) as straight as I'd have liked. So that also needs to be fixed.

But still all in all a little bit of progress today - bit by bit...

...oh yeah definitely no update tomorrow (unless something arrives in the post) as I'm off to see a GAZ 69M !!!! <= Goggle that if ya don't know comrade

Well - fun and games buying cars again. I went to see one of these (NB this is not the vehicle I went to see this picture is lifted from wikipedia) =>



I was surprised at how dinky it is - it is a little bit smaller than a series SWB - same kind of tractor-like qualities.

I would have been interested in test driving it if the head gasket wasn't buggered and the seller actually had some ownership documents...

...it could have been a good place for my rebuilt OM617 - I'd have to swap the axles to something more substantial though I guess...

No interest in Ruskie stuff then?

Oh well back to hash tag busy doing other stuff but just about managing to do something on the Land Rover dot com =>

Cleaning up replacement starter motor

(Sorry about the pictures - again I mislaid the real camera and had to rely on clever telephone which seemed to have some sort of grease - possibly Burger King - on the lens. It is all a bit "days of yore" misty kinda like stuff for the first few pictures until I realised what was occurring)



I took off this band because I want to paint



The casing has holes in it where the brushes live. The band has a bit of plastic-like stuff wrapped on the inside...



...this "holes in the case near to the brushes" design is shown in the parts book for the petrol engined starter motors but not for the diesel. Strange. (I hope I've been sold the right stuff - more investigations are needed - I'll pull the Lucas numbers off the case tomorrow and start a new fact finding mission {oh joy})


^^^^^^^^^
Look at that weld! Now that's old school - proper job - and the bugger was still round afterwards!

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As usual - wire brush - degrease - masking tape - Brunox

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY SIXTEEN

Today I managed a few nano-seconds on the ends of that pesky vent panel.

MTAD (masking tape aided design) =>



(Top quality - much effort expended)



Trial fit



Careful welding of edges (will weld other side later)



More or less in the right position I think



Trial fit on the bulkhead with old panel still in place - LHS looks too big in this shot but the "ski slope" is longer than it needs to be



RHS looks better in the picture



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Next stage is to mark out where the holes go for the captive nuts that sit on the underside of this panel I'm making - reposition the edges of the vents - cut the vent holes so they look neat and tidy - and then grow a pair and cut out the old panel...

...once the old panel has been removed and I've repaired the upper parts of the A / door posts then and only then will I be able to see if the ends to this panel (that I've made today) match up nicely. I've measured and measured and I'm hopeful they will fit - BUT - as there's a chance they won't there seems little point in finishing off the welding and making the pretty side nice at this stage. So the bits are kind there - more or less - but as usual they need a bit of help before they are considered to be done - but that depends on another bit...

Fingers crossed!!

rob_bell said:

Fingers crossed!!

Click to expand...

I'm not worried if I need to cut it and add in a bit or cut it and take out a bit it'll come good - to be honest I'd be more worried if I had to modify something I'd bought, but because I've made it from scratch...

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY SEVENTEEN

(This means I've messed about with this bulkhead for approximately 34 hours so far - make of that what you will!)

Before =>



I did a bit more of the old MTAD





Just to get those last positions before I went and gone and done did it =>





Once the big cuts were made lots of little ones followed so I could pick off the old panel from each spot weld



1960's bubble gum? =>



<= 1960's bubble gum?



Ye gads...





So that's what the outer side looks like on the inside (if you get what I mean)



Angle grinder + wire brush for a bit



(Don't knock crappy tools at the Lidl - they do alright for what they are and help preserve the nicer stuff you might have)



I'm leaving it to soak in Rustyco (ignoring the instructions) over night. I'll wire brush again and probably treat again before this bit gets a coat of Zinga.

Happy days

This outer panel is stiffer than I expected so that's good (I've been worried that perhaps I should have put it all in a jig - we'll see)

Next up the upper door posts - Hmmm - gorra figure out a way of not making too many wooden shapes (can't be arsed with too much of that)

Buttoned up that front differential!

Had to drill holes in the lockers for the serrated (axial) nuts 'cos they didn't have them when they got here



Then wire locking the bolts on the caps





And finally the sodding thing has been packed in a box and sent off to the roof!



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It is amazing what you can do eh?

Remember it looked like this when it came off =>





And to think all it needed was a new inner cage, a new set of differential side and idler gears, a new pin for the gears, new axial bearings, new pinion bearings, a new crown wheel and pinion (bought as a set - despite what some ebay sellers say about them being interchangeable - bull ****!), new seal, new serrated nuts and new lockers...

...just incredible - Trigger's broom / Granddad's axe or what!




(The only bit that's 'riginal is the case)

Stretch said:

No interest in Ruskie stuff then?

Oh well back to hash tag busy doing other stuff but just about managing to do something on the Land Rover dot com =>

Cleaning up replacement starter motor

(Sorry about the pictures - again I mislaid the real camera and had to rely on clever telephone which seemed to have some sort of grease - possibly Burger King - on the lens. It is all a bit "days of yore" misty kinda like stuff for the first few pictures until I realised what was occurring)

View attachment 129357

I took off this band because I want to paint

View attachment 129358

The casing has holes in it where the brushes live. The band has a bit of plastic-like stuff wrapped on the inside...

View attachment 129359

...this "holes in the case near to the brushes" design is shown in the parts book for the petrol engined starter motors but not for the diesel. Strange. (I hope I've been sold the right stuff - more investigations are needed - I'll pull the Lucas numbers off the case tomorrow and start a new fact finding mission {oh joy})

View attachment 129360
^^^^^^^^^
Look at that weld! Now that's old school - proper job - and the bugger was still round afterwards!

#######

As usual - wire brush - degrease - masking tape - Brunox

View attachment 129361

Click to expand...

I've been getting a bit worried about my replacement starter motor and its originality. My spares book (April 1987) version shows pictures that are different to what I've got. This book shows a picture of "every starter motor you ever see for a 2.25 diesel Land Rover" when you search on line for it. Whilst these starters have the piggy back solenoid they are a lot smaller than the beast I've got me mits on...

...the numbers on the starter I've got as original replacement is 26189B

Search for this number on the interweb and you can find that this is a 2.2 or 2.1 kw starter motor fitted to tractors (and also that someone called Lucas with prisoner number 26189 got himself locked up in the US of A in 1999).

It wasn't looking good until I found a copy of the original series 2 and 2a parts catalogue and saw this =>



Phew - result - that's a 26189A - that's good enough the difference between "A" and "B" is something I can ignore!

I'm now trying to find part number 25 in the picture above - the cover band. I'll let you know how it goes...

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY EIGHTEEN

I know this is tedious - but the only way to stop me from posting up more metal bashing pictures is for you lot to start doing these types of repairs for yourselves!

Today I made a start on the upper A posts. (These are the hidden strength that is not normally visible on the bulkhead corners)

I thought I had made a picture using the MTAD method for the curve I want to copy but it seems as though I didn't. Oh well here's a bit of wood about to get cut to shape and abused.



Trim along the masking tape to get the shape you want and then trace along side with a pencil / marker



Cut the wood with a jigsaw (technical I know but it has to be done)



Make a second hammer form by tracing around what you've already got and clamp metal between the two





(Stop - hammer time)



(Yawn yawn - working from the joint between the bits of clamped wood - hit it from the crease and bend the metal upwards (or downwards if you're so inclined))



Ignore the pointy crease and keep on hitting from below and then a little bit higher and eventually you'll get it to stretch over the form you want



This corner ended up being "higher" than the rest of the flange because the metal has to go somewhere so I trimmed it with tin snips to get this =>



I'm now wondering if it was smart to make this edge first - may be - may be not - we'll see. I might make the other inner A post structure differently...

...er - to be continued (I'm off making another bigger hammer for for the next stage)

Blimmin' marvellous, keep the updates coming!

Headtester said:

Blimmin' marvellous, keep the updates coming!

Click to expand...

Yep - updates - updates - updates: Some days it all goes tits up. No updates today!

After yesterday's disappointing events (which will be disclosed at a later date) I've gone back to the front panel whilst I'm waiting for something to be delivered that will hopefully help with a solution for the bulkhead A posts.

So - re-cap - underside of the front panel (bit that holds the radiator and grill in place) is a little bit rusty on the replacement panel I've got. The reinforcing rib is a bit of a bugger to get out.







I decided to bend back the side of the panel to get better access to this reinforcing rib



I broke out the oxy acetylene for this.

{Today I only had the clever phone - so I hope you all appreciate / can imagine the pure comedy req'd to make the picture above - folding pliers balanced on the edge of the panel - burning torch in one hand - gloved hand on the phone trying to get the effing touch screen to respond! Could have been another "selfie" (not quite I know) disaster}

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Rambling aside =>

I do like my gas welding kit - something you need to be wary and respectful of of course (!) - as it is ideal for these thicker bits of metal. (1.5mm for the front panel) If I had a smaller nozzle on the torch I'd be using it all the time for thinner sheet welding but that as of yet hasn't been arranged.

Here I'm using it to heat the folded edge of the panel so I can bend it out of the way. Without heating I'd distort the rest of the panel and possibly induce a little bit too much work hardening in the metal - snapping it off. Whilst a normal blow torch can be used to do this you'll probably end up using poo loads of gas as the heat will escape throughout the structure. The oxy acetylene allows a really concentrated heat to be applied that is much hotter than the blow torch. I'm not going as far as welding - kinda going all arty and waving it about so a large area goes red: Then using the folding pliers to bend the edge back whilst it is still warm.

'Cos this is a folded sheet construction I'll be able to just bend the edge back when it is cold. I've warmed it bent it and air cooled the steel now. So at a rough guess it is more or less "half hard" - the state at which most sheet steel is delivered (after it has been through rollers). Bending work hardens the steel to help with rigidity of the panel which is desirable for this type of construction. Of course over time on rattly old Land Rovers things might crack but 9.9 time out of 10 it looks to me like the Birmabright is the first to fatigue so on the whole the steel is of a lesser concern (I hope - fingers crossed etc)

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The initial idea was to get more space to cut and remove that strengthening rib and try and save the main part / outer skin of the panel...



...Cut bend - grab - wriggle...



...only to find about half of the underside of the outer / main part of the panel is rotten.

Not really worth trying to fix a new rib to that - and removing the rib in-situ is a pig. So...



...I decided to remove a big chuck from the bottom of the panel and weld in new metal for the big bit first and then fit a new reinforcing rib.



It kinda went alright - not too too much distortion despite the heating and bending of the edge and the heat from the cutting disc



It does need a bit of encouragement to stay flat at the moment =>



But I've left the ends of the sides in place so I have a reference point for the next stage in the repair.

To be continued (but will probably flip back to the bulkhead for a bit as the thing I've ordered has indeed turned up)

You are the master of multitasking. I have to finish one thing before I start another otherwise chaos rules. I admire your skills with metal bending and bashing. There are two odd shaped panels near the rear of lwb station wagons, that form the forward half of the wheel arch. They cost a fortune so I was thinking about having a go at making them. Mine have suffered corrosion around the rivet holes. The main thing putting me off was forming the curved flange but your wood former is a good idea. Originals are ally but I was thinking of making them out of steel.

Col

Colthebrummie said:

You are the master of multitasking. I have to finish one thing before I start another otherwise chaos rules. I admire your skills with metal bending and bashing. There are two odd shaped panels near the rear of lwb station wagons, that form the forward half of the wheel arch. They cost a fortune so I was thinking about having a go at making them. Mine have suffered corrosion around the rivet holes. The main thing putting me off was forming the curved flange but your wood former is a good idea. Originals are ally but I was thinking of making them out of steel.

Col

Click to expand...

Thanks chap.

Do you mean these panels?



(If so have a look back on page 35 =>

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/1965-series-2a-station-wagon-in-holland.298002/page-35

I recommend 5251 aluminium especially as it is quite easy to find in the UK - in fact I had to get mine sent over, as Holland was "eh? what? why?" - the interweb seems to think 5251 is the closest modern alternative to Birmabright. It is way easier to form than steel - especially for that curve)

39 pages I have just sat a read the full lot, what an inspiration you guys are I only have a freelander I bought this week as a toy to start scaring my hands on lol will deffinetley be moving up to defender next year

Stretch said:

Thanks chap.

Do you mean these panels?

(If so have a look back on page 35 =>

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/1965-series-2a-station-wagon-in-holland.298002/page-35

I recommend 5251 aluminium especially as it is quite easy to find in the UK - in fact I had to get mine sent over, as Holland was "eh? what? why?" - the interweb seems to think 5251 is the closest modern alternative to Birmabright. It is way easier to form than steel - especially for that curve)

Click to expand...

That's the one. My whole landy is shabby but that's how I like it. Those two panels though are taking the pist. At some point I will have to tidy the body up, the paint is literally falling off in flakes. Those are the only two panels that actually need changing. Your post (page 35) will be a great help. Ta very much.

Col