Another 90 Rebuild

RAMBIRKETT said:

What material are the seals made from? What about getting them plated again?

Good work on the tub!

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No idea what the seals are made of. Standard Britpart seals. They are new calipers and I wanted them powder coated to match the front ones which I have had refurbished.

Cheers about the tub. It has taken hours to rebuild it.

Well, it's been wrapped up over the winter and today is the first day the covers have come off.
Have to say I've had the wind taken out of my sails a bit because some of the areas I've rubbed down, treated and primed are showing signs of white powder or rust again. It's a bit of a sickener!
Back to the drawing board, I guess. Any encouraging comments gratefully received.

Al2O3 said:

Well, it's been wrapped up over the winter and today is the first day the covers have come off.
Have to say I've had the wind taken out of my sails a bit because some of the areas I've rubbed down, treated and primed are showing signs of white powder or rust again. It's a bit of a sickener!
Back to the drawing board, I guess. Any encouraging comments gratefully received.

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Keep going, it is worth it when it is finished

What did you use to treat the ali? Mine has been fine and all I used was aluminium filler and etch primer.

As for rust, yeah I feel your pain on that one...

Cheers, James. On the ali I rubbed down to what I thought was bare metal and used etch primer. On the steel sections, like the reinforcement corners on the rear panels, I used a steel treatment called aquasteel. I'm busy warming some etch primer cans to respray some bits I have just rubbed down again.
Too much watching of Wheeler Dealers, where everything seems to work out perfectly!

I suppose primer isn't the best thing to leave it painted with over winter.

Al2O3 said:

Cheers, James. On the ali I rubbed down to what I thought was bare metal and used etch primer. On the steel sections, like the reinforcement corners on the rear panels, I used a steel treatment called aquasteel. I'm busy warming some etch primer cans to respray some bits I have just rubbed down again.
Too much watching of Wheeler Dealers, where everything seems to work out perfectly!

I suppose primer isn't the best thing to leave it painted with over winter.

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I guess not. I have a couple of bits left in in zinc primer and it is still rusting through...

If it makes you feel better, a lot of my paint is flaking off as the shed we did it in was obviously too damp.

james6546 said:

I guess not. I have a couple of bits left in in zinc primer and it is still rusting through...

If it makes you feel better, a lot of my paint is flaking off as the shed we did it in was obviously too damp.

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Bad news, James. Sorry to hear that. Well, the primers warmed up in a sink of hot water. The garden pond was frozen last night, so the stuff in the garage is very cold. I'm off to try again!

Got a bit more rubbing down done on the wings and rear tub sides and put some more primer on yesterday. A few small marks to put a bit of filler in, so did that this morning. It's alternated between hailing, snowing and the odd sunny spell while blowing a hooley today, so no good outside.
I decided to get to work on the bonnet.



The steel frame is showing a bit of corrosion.





The ali is starting to go on the surface where it touches the steel, but it is not too bad. Once the rivets were out I had to use a nylon cord and a hacksaw blade to cut though the adhesive.



Rubbed the ali down a bit it the garden, but the wind was so strong I was struggling to hold on to the bonnet as it was acting like a sail. I'll rub the frame down tomorrow and treat it with rust inhibitor.
When the wind dies down and it warms up a bit I'll get some etch primer on.

When you guys say "zinc primer", which kind are you talking about?

They are not all made equal. If your talking about the ****e that comes in rattlecans from Halfords made by Upol forget it. You would be as well not bothering.

Best to use Bonda. Lay it on thick with a brush. There is so much zinc in this stuff you have to stir the tin every hour or all the zinc falls to the bottom.

That sounds like good stuff. I've been using Autotek Etch Primer which seemed to have good reviews. But, as you say, all etch primers are probably not equal. I think I'll have to take some of the blame though. You rub aluminium down and think you have got all the minute pits containing white powder out, but there are times you don't. It doesn't take much to miss to allow it come come marching back.
I've used Aquasteel rust inhibitor on the steel sections and that had great reviews. It may be possible that it has worked on the steel where there was still rust visible. On the bits that were rubbed to sjiny steel, perhaps the Aquasteel had nothing to react with and also prevented the etch primer from binding with the clean steel. Difficult to separate the two though.

Al2O3 said:

That sounds like good stuff. I've been using Autotek Etch Primer which seemed to have good reviews. But, as you say, all etch primers are probably not equal. I think I'll have to take some of the blame though. You rub aluminium down and think you have got all the minute pits containing white powder out, but there are times you don't. It doesn't take much to miss to allow it come come marching back.
I've used Aquasteel rust inhibitor on the steel sections and that had great reviews. It may be possible that it has worked on the steel where there was still rust visible. On the bits that were rubbed to sjiny steel, perhaps the Aquasteel had nothing to react with and also prevented the etch primer from binding with the clean steel. Difficult to separate the two though.

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I used Fertan on any rust, then normal primer. The worst bits are where the primer seems to have just flaked off the bare metal, so think I should have left it a bit rougher!

I bought a tin of zinc primer to see if it will stop the rust coming back on the end caps, but only got as far as putting the primer on, so can't report back yet. And yeah, it is a cheap tin of UPOL stuff I got off ebay.

Cleaned the steel frame from the bonnet and now have two coats of aquasteel on it. I'll paint it over with black rustoleum in the morning.



Got all visible signs of tiny pits with ali powder out of the bonnet and got a few coats of etch primer on. Glorious sunshine with no wind today



Started work on the roof, I haven't thought about this before, but are all Defenders riveted on the roof corners like this.



You can't tell by the picture, but the left hand three were rusting and have been put in after a roof repair. Wondering if the spot welds have been drilled out and rivets put in on both sides to make it look balanced.

Also, do all rooves have a rubber strip in the bottom of the gutters? Mine has and it is painted over the same white as the roof.

My roof is riveted like that (well actually not as well as that). I would assume it is standard as I can't see any signs of it being messed about it the past.

Cheers. Can you tell if yours has a rubber strip in the bottom of the gutters. It'll be hard to tell to be fair, cos its so high up. I never noticed mine had until today and I've had it ten years. Roof's on the front lawn so I can get a good view now

Good to see you back at it bud
Not good news about the panels, primer is porous so it could be that it's absorbed a little bit of moisture and brought it back up.

Cheers, Aaron. Thanks for the info, young man, you're a star. I know very little about painting but I'm learning - slowly.
Can you tell me about my roofind? Did you have rubber in your gutter?

Well, following the scare of the tub 1/4 panels not being square it's now been refitted and is a little better.
Today I've spent more time filling in a few dents and corrosion marks, rubbing it down, priming, rubbing down again etc. Filled in around the new galv corner cappings too and it is looking ok.





Rubbed down the roof gutter, which has a thick layer of seam sealer in it, cleaned it and then painted it over with a thin layer of seam sealer.



You can't tell from the picture, but the finish isn't great. It was dragging and got lines in it easily. I'm hoping it will go hard enough to rub down a bit.

I've noticed two of the sections of chassis that the tub rubber feet sit on has bolt slots in. My original didn't, does anyone know why they are like that?

More work on the tub today, replacing the strike plates. This is what both sides looked like at the start.



I used the YRM repair panels. I held them up to the tub and drew a pencil line on as a reference to the part of the bulkhead that's behind the seats.

I then decided how far up to cut the old part back. I went a few cm above the bottom hole for the support bracket to bulkhead holes. The pictures on the YRM site were similar.

I then drew a line and with a metal straight edge scored it several times with a Stanley knife. I then scored and cut the small 90 degree door seam section with the Stanley knife. It cut through the aluminium easily. I then finished it off with a pair of small side cutters.



The scored line across the front just snapped cleanly when I bent it up and down a few times.



I lined the repair panel up in to where it would be fitting and I must have been holding it together pretty tight, When I took it away I noticed the score/snap line of the original panel had put a cut line through the protective plastic on the back of the new panel, creating a perfect cut line.

After cutting the new panel I cleaned the exposed bit of original panel, wire brushed it and etch primed it.



I then marked out the holes for the support bracket, rivets and the seat box hole a drilled them out. Once they were drilled I etch primed the repair panel and then sprayed the tub section and the new panel with Dinitrol.



Then it was just a case of pop riveting it in.



Then did the same on the other side.

Looks like a god job. Those B posts don't look terribly strong to strike a door to (and hold it shut) at the best of times, so a little reinforcement and replacement goes a long way. I've put bits of reinforcement plate on mine because it looks like the doors had been forced open at some point.

How on earth do you manage to have such clean hands as a Land Rover owner?

The YRM replacement panels are thicker gauge than the original metal and make a strong repair.
As for the hands, all of the work I hAve been doing recently has been body work, so clean stuff really. Plus, I'm nearly finished my second 100 pair box of latex gloves.

Got the YRM front of tub and seat belt mount repair sections fitted today.
Pretty straightforward.

Bolted


and clamped it in place


drilled the holes through


carefully marked out the extra holes for the belt mounts


drilled them all out and then bolted everything together. I've used stainless fixings from YRM




I haven't put all of the bolts in yet. I'll do that when I have filled the the joins with dinitrol and lots of seam sealer during the final bolts down.

It seems to have made a very strong job.