300tdi mot repairs/ rebuild

Well I thought I might share my trials and lack of tribulations of my M reg disco purchased in January. I knew it would need a little work when I bought it but did not think it would be a full 6 month plus rebuild to get it back fighting fit.

Any way when I purchased him ( now named Brutus by my girl friend) he had a few little bits fitted. They included 2" lift on standard shocks with yellow heavy duty springs, tank guard, had front and rear bumpers, cheepo winch, cb and some big special tracks on standard wheels.


Pic from the add before I bought it.

So I used the disco for 4months getting to know all the little and in some cases major issues until it became mot time. So I thought I would give it a quick once over fix the few faults and put it in for a mot, few hours checking and striping parts I realised that the mot station was a long time away.

I decided to make a list of what I thought it needed and will add to it if I discovered anything else wrong and I did.

The list started with new discs and pads, patch boot floor, replace sills, patch front wings, then found out the front shocks were gone, brake pipes were gone along with radius arm bushes and the callipers needed rebuilt. So I knew I was in it for the long run.

Anyway I will up date this as soon as I can and post some pics if I can work out how to do it.

Right so as I was saying I removed all the interior doors and wings to see the full extent of the rust that was hidden from sight.
This is what I found.


http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/deeboy82/daa9b0e200f4a1e29c96aeeae6bd6c2c.jpg



Boot floor was looking not to bad, I suspect it had been replaced before but due to poor prep work it had rusted through again.





The drivers side was just as bad as the passengers side just forgot to take any pics of it.

Right so my plan off attack was to first patch the rear end. Inner wings and boot floor, was surprised to find the rear cross member had been replaced and was solid, just needed a good clean and paint. Anyway I got cutting and patching the rear arches first.


After some investigation it looks like the body had dropped at some point crushing the joint of the boot floor to the rear arch splitting the seam and making it rust. Prob why the rear cross member has been replaced already, so looking at the work needling done to the rear boot floor and thought fook it I'll remove the floor and replace the three panels and the braces below.
Lucky for me I found someone on eBay selling all panels for the boot floor including seat belt plates, outer arches and rear cross member, won the lot for under £120

So floor came out and I found a little bit of a mess on the chassis.


Little bit of cutting some new metal and a buzz with my mig it looked a little better

Yet again I only took pics of one side but had the same repair on the drivers side as well.

Once I had finished the chassis work it was cleaned down and painted with 4 coats of por15 and will be given a good coat waxoil


Then the arches were repaired and side floor sections fitted.
.

I have left the boot floor out at the moment to give me more room to work on brake lines suspension mounts and rear a frame if need been.

Well done.

Looks good , keep it coming

Looking good wish I had the skill and time do do this to mine.

One question, what were the signs that the front shocks had failed?

John506 said:

Looking good wish I had the skill and time do do this to mine.

One question, what were the signs that the front shocks had failed?

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Thanks.
I was getting a bad bit of wobble and thought I would check the shocks out. There was no rebound at all on them. Could compress by hand and the would stay compressed once I let go of them.

I like to watch a rebuild unfold.

One day when mine is on the road I will share my story, but good work so far, been there done that and more

Now I have spent New Year's Day with the other half I have now got time to continue the wright up.

So my overall plan was to do the body work and mechanical repairs to one side at a time due to limited space in my garage due to an other on going project.
Next up was the passenger side floor and sill and outer arch.









I removed the old sill and replaced with 4mm box section.






I have also carried out the same repair on the drivers side. I vas very surprised to find both the outer arches and rear arch seat belt mounts were nearly rust free. So much so I have not needed to touch the seat belt mounting points but did replace the outer arches because I had some here.







So far that's both sills, rear arches, boot floor, front foot well and bulk head all repaired and painted with 3-4 coats of por15.

Update number 3.

I had a good bit of repair work to do on the front end, both inner arches and light boxes were rotten. Started with the passenger side since it was not to bad and could be fixed with just removing the rust and fitting some repair sections I made.







Then moved on to the drivers side. It looked a little more rusted and was not going to be a easy fix. Not only the wing and light box that needed fixed but the front body mount was gone as well.
Again I forgot to take before pics but 90% of you will know what a rusted disco will look like.
So I started with a flat section of steel and decided to fab up a full inner wing in 4 parts, I don't like buying things that I can make lol. I think it turned out ok.





It was then painted with 2 coats of por15 then seam sealed in side and out and then another top coat of por15.




As some might see I have changed the shocks and springs but more on that later.

While I was at it I replaced the brace and lower section of the inner wing. Again painted with por15 then wax oiled.




New body mount thanks to yrm


While I was at it I found one of the many water leaks on my disco.


Some tricky cutting, welding, sealing and painting I was left with this.


Only thing left to do is spray the full inside with upol raptor rubber truck bed liner. That will need to wait a few days till I bond the boot floor in and paint the rear end.

Wow, epic bit of renovation, makes my spending two days ****ing around with the font of mine look pathetically slow. When I had done mine I also ended up sitting there knowing in the summer I'd be taking off the wings and re painting them and all the carpets out etc to get a pre-emptive anti rust strike on it.

Yours will be no where near as bad as mine since you have got a jap import. Should be quite rust free.

Yet another small update, not having time to work on my disco sucks ;( anyway few wee bits arrived in the post yesterday. Full filter kit from landrover and some heavy duty steering arms from paddocks.


Also got an hour to finish of the sealing on one of the rear arches.
First a coat of under seal



Then a good covering of wax oil to be extra safe.



I am hoping to have some more time on it at the weekend.

Like the box section cills
Gonna pinch that idea for mine maybe double them up and use them as rock solders.
Will post up some picks when they're done

Wish I could say it was my own idea to use box section to do the sills but I seen it on this site.

Defo take some pics and let us a all see how you get on. The general landyzone user dose like looking at pics.

jase750 said:

Like the box section cills
Gonna pinch that idea for mine maybe double them up and use them as rock solders.
Will post up some picks when they're done

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Ahem.........

DiscoPol said:

Ahem.........

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Awesome better get the camera out

Me likes too!!

But how did you keep it all straight while you fitted them?

DiscoPol said:

Ahem.........

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Discopol it was indeed your thread that made me go with the box section.

Dieseldog69 to answer your question, I left a small section of the A bad B pillars attached to the floor and took some before during and after measurements.
So far nothing has looked like it has moved.

Neildisco300 said:

Discopol it was indeed your thread that made me go with the box section.

Dieseldog69 to answer your question, I left a small section of the A bad B pillars attached to the floor and took some before during and after measurements.
So far nothing has looked like it has moved.

Click to expand...

Glad to have helped, its a lot easier than it first appears to be in the end isnt it?

Yeah have done it to two discos now and it's worked out easy both times.