All I wanted to do was Paint the Rear Cross Member!

Rear cross member needed a rub down and coat of paint, which turned in to a few patches welding on, so in to the garage it goes....



Then things kind of snowballed from there really....








So I guess this is going to be a restoration thread.... on a 1996!

:lol: haha :lol:

Thats on of the reasons i dont take mine apart in the summer months.

Good luck. i hope you dont find too many nasty surprises.

BIG_GINGA_BEARD said:

:lol: haha :lol:

Thats on of the reasons i dont take mine apart in the summer months.

Good luck. i hope you dont find too many nasty surprises.

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I always said to work on the Land Rover in the summer and the car in the winter. Or just buy another Land Rover for the summer :lol:

I know what surprises, or not so surprising things lie ahead, those pics were in 2011!

Ok so at this point I thought I could replace the cross member and the few inches of chassis you get with it, patch the various holes and paint it all up.

So on with stripping:







Ok so front and rear all stripped all that's left is the bulkhead, built up and I'm on my own. Some careful placement of blocks of wood and tyres and some levers and hey presto:





Now out with the engine and gear box:



Finally axles and any other bits:



Here you can see how rusted it is:



How bad is too bad to repair?

would say if you can afford it get a galv chassis and done for long time then

There appears to be a weather system in your garage. :lol:

Great stuff...and post moar.

Dan_Trials said:

How bad is too bad to repair?

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Mine was just like that. In fact, the rear outriggers didn't exist inside the chassis!

You can repair it - If you really want to! I wanted the practice so took my time and welded in nearly 1.5 sqm of fresh steel in the correct gauge. New chassis is definately the long term solution but it all depends what you want out of it. And what is more valuable - time or money!

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!

To address a few points:

Galv chassis: In 2011 when I started on it I got all overwhelmed by how much it needed and so decided to save up for a galv chassis. It sat semi dismantled outside for exactly 12 months by which point I decided I am crap at saving money and if I had done a bit of welding every weekend for the last 12 months it would be done by now.

Weather system: Moar!

Time or money: Well you always run out of both but the way I see it is I'm going to be in the garage welderating things anyway so might as well have a crack at this!

Some moar pics of rottage:

New chassis time

Then there's the bits I fixed:

So the whole chassis haha

200tdi ayre said:

So the whole chassis haha

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Yeah pretty much! But it's good fun and I've seen too many threads where someone can't afford a new chassis or even to have their one repaired and usually they end up selling or breaking their Land Rover and it's not really what they want but it's the only option they have. Hopefully if this just turns one person from a disheartened owner in to a fixer welderator it will have done the Land Rover community good. On the other hand it might all fall apart on it's way for MOT but I'll take pics!

Nice welding and fabbing

200tdi ayre said:

Nice welding and fabbing

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Thanks mate. This is all nice and easy compared to car panels, no silly compound curves and no filling and sanding!!

Dan_Trials said:

Ok so at this point I thought I could replace the cross member and the few inches of chassis you get with it, patch the various holes and paint it all up.

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Did your garage also get a restoration? It looks like it changed from first set of photos to second? Also did you clean your gearbox's up as they suddenly looked very bright and clean! Must be that weather system in the garage!

Dan_Trials said:

Yeah pretty much! But it's good fun and I've seen too many threads where someone can't afford a new chassis or even to have their one repaired and usually they end up selling or breaking their Land Rover and it's not really what they want but it's the only option they have. Hopefully if this just turns one person from a disheartened owner in to a fixer welderator it will have done the Land Rover community good. On the other hand it might all fall apart on it's way for MOT but I'll take pics!

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Glad to see the determination. I would say that islander mentality of fixing what you have has prevailed here. Does the LR end up near the sea much or is that just from the salt air? I would be tempted to invest in some POR15 and some chromate primer.

I remember when I was working at Faslane asking exactly what paint they use on the periscopes that they always look so rust free and the guy said it was the chromate primer they used. The thing had been on a sub for years and it looked better than a LR chassis would after 24 months!

discomania said:

Did your garage also get a restoration? It looks like it changed from first set of photos to second? Also did you clean your gearbox's up as they suddenly looked very bright and clean! Must be that weather system in the garage!

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Yes in the 12 months it sat out side I gutted out the garage, ply-lined one of the walls and painted it all. The change in colour of the gearbox is actually oxidation from sitting out side with no body on!

discomania said:

Glad to see the determination. I would say that islander mentality of fixing what you have has prevailed here. Does the LR end up near the sea much or is that just from the salt air? I would be tempted to invest in some POR15 and some chromate primer.

I remember when I was working at Faslane asking exactly what paint they use on the periscopes that they always look so rust free and the guy said it was the chromate primer they used. The thing had been on a sub for years and it looked better than a LR chassis would after 24 months!

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Yeah possibly but I was all up for getting a galvy chassis and when that didn't go to plan I just started thinking "if replacing the chassis wasn't an option then what would people do?" It's also a bit annoying really how easily some people just say "new chassis" and people believe them. I know fine well in a few years the remaining original bits will need some attention and I'll always be welding something on it but I just want to prove that you can fix them.

As for salt air, this probably didn't help!



My plan at the moment once it's all welded is to go over the whole thing with a wire wheel then loads of Kurust (or similar) then either POR15 or Galvafroid. I'm swayed more toward Galvafroid as I use it at work a lot so can get it at a decent price. Then about 10 coats of chassis paint. I'd also fill all the box sections etc with wax.

I will look in to Chromate Primer, getting paints etc shipped here can be a pain but our local fisherman's coop may have it.

Thanks for your help and input

Dan_Trials said:

Yes in the 12 months it sat out side I gutted out the garage, ply-lined one of the walls and painted it all. The change in colour of the gearbox is actually oxidation from sitting out side with no body on!

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Ah I see! I thought it looked totally different from the first set of pictures.
So if I want a gearbox to look that clean I need to let it sit outside for 12 months?

Dan_Trials said:

As for salt air, this probably didn't help!

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No that didn't help much!

Dan_Trials said:

I will look in to Chromate Primer, getting paints etc shipped here can be a pain but our local fisherman's coop may have it.

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Almost guarantee they will stock it, if not have a word with them and ask what the local fishermen use to protect their boats. Judging from the above picture their boats and your LR see about the same amount of salt water!

Dan_Trials said:

My plan at the moment once it's all welded is to go over the whole thing with a wire wheel then loads of Kurust (or similar) then either POR15 or Galvafroid. I'm swayed more toward Galvafroid as I use it at work a lot so can get it at a decent price. Then about 10 coats of chassis paint. I'd also fill all the box sections etc with wax.

I will look in to Chromate Primer, getting paints etc shipped here can be a pain but our local fisherman's coop may have it.

Thanks for your help and input

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See the Galvafroid. As far as i know it only works if it is directly painted onto the metal, else it won't sacrifice itself. So you can't use kurust or anything else first.

I'm not sure what your doing with it at work.