Chassis Welding Questions :)

So ive been putting some serious consideration into buying this Defender (see post below 'possible purchase') and have been looking at the logistics with welding it.
I will be stripping all of the body off bar the cab so i will have easy access to most of the problem areas and i have someone to show me how to weld.
The rear xmember will be taken off anyway so it wont be a problem, however the ammount of rust around it and under the outriggers scares me. is it likely to be totally rotten? Also, having looked through posts, ive come to the conclusion that 3mm steel is the right stuff to use to patch with?

So, is it savable or should i avoid it??

Ive repaired more lr chassis than I care to think about and that one is trouble.
Water has capillaried between the double skinned sections,so even if you cut that section out it will come back.
Unless the body and running gear are lovely and its cheap BE CAREFULL

You really need to beat the ****e out of it to find out how bad it is. Take a club hammer to it and dont be afraid to use it. If you can dent it by hitting it, its in a bad way in that area, so just keep hitting it until you're down to proper metal.

The thing is, that if you don't hit it hard (because you dont want to know the bad news underneath) you will convince yourself that the bad patch is smaller than it really is. Which means you spend a lot of time making a patch, only to find that the "good" metal you want to weld it to, is actually too thin to weld to (the welder will just blow holes in it).

There are two schools of though for patching chassis such as this. One it to cut out the **** part right back to good metal and butt weld a patch to fill the hole. This is consdered by some to be the 'right' way of doing it, as the butt welding doesn't create any extra water traps.

The other is to just knock out the really bad stuff, grind back to good metal, and patch over the top of whatever is left. The idea being that any structural metal you take out is strength that you're loosing, and that you might as well just patch over the top, keeping the old structual metal, and just adding new structural metal along with it. The downside of this is that you often create layers of metal which are water traps. Which then will be more prone to rotting.

For butt welding, I'm lead to believe that its best practice to match the gauge of the new metal with the old metal. Over lapping welds I guess this is not so important but still good to keep it roughtly the same (as it makes welding easier).

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that early landy chassis used 2mm steal, and later ones 2.5mm. In any case, I'd say your plan to use 3mm steal is good.

Pretty much all the outriggers and other parts can be bought as replacement parts and welded on.

Regarding your threads. It might be an idea to keep to one thread at a time. From time to time on here people get blasted for starting multiple threads asking the same questions.

Good luck with your project though. Make sure to post lots of pictures on here if you do go for it. And dont forget, there is always a galv chassis option if you have the time, resouces and money (something I'm considering myself right now).

@Pressbrake: The body is sound and i will be selling a good bit of it so i might get enough off of that to cover my welding costs. Where are the double skinned areas by the way?

@Mundungs: Thanks for the comprehensive advice on the welding side of things, much appreciated as i am new to the whole idea of chassis repair i think seeing as i would have it mostly stripped back i might as well go the butt welding route. Do you think i would be wasting my time trying to repair it?

Also it is going for the equivilant to £2000 aswell. is that steep money?

As mundungus said, you got to check the WHOLE chassis - i prefer a pointed hammer to the club, but we're both looking & listening for the same thing. Have a look at galv. chassis prices so you got an idea. a cross memeber aint a biggie. I have a 2000 110. cross memeber just done, bulkhead outrigger about to be done. It's now at that age of chasing round until the time comes for major work.
Good luck

If i'm reading it right, do you intend on buiding an off road vehicle as you say you will be removing the rear x member and most of the body? If thats the case, go for it and learn to weld. If you you want to use it for pleasure also, from very little welding experiance, you will be up against it. When I had to do mine, the amount of rot you can see is probably only half there is. That said there is a comp in Ireland ( google it ) that will shot blast, repair and galv your chassis.

hi mick it will be mainly off road i will be using it for so i want to be sure it has the strength, i will be removing the rear xmember from behind the serious crack seen above and welding in a winch mount. from what i have gathered from checking here and from what people have said here it should be fixable?? as long as i know that it is repairable and not a total lost cause i dont think ill have a problem patching it up.

-Defender110- said:

hi mick it will be mainly off road i will be using it for so i want to be sure it has the strength, i will be removing the rear xmember from behind the serious crack seen above and welding in a winch mount. from what i have gathered from checking here and from what people have said here it should be fixable?? as long as i know that it is repairable and not a total lost cause i dont think ill have a problem patching it up.

Click to expand...

Patch it and put in extra cross bracing.

-Defender110- said:

@Pressbrake: The body is sound and i will be selling a good bit of it so i might get enough off of that to cover my welding costs. Where are the double skinned areas by the way?

@Mundungs: Thanks for the comprehensive advice on the welding side of things, much appreciated as i am new to the whole idea of chassis repair i think seeing as i would have it mostly stripped back i might as well go the butt welding route. Do you think i would be wasting my time trying to repair it?

Also it is going for the equivilant to £2000 aswell. is that steep money?

Click to expand...

In the first picture just behind the spring hanger, this is double skinned and has blown you can butt weld a piece in though when the water has made it this far it WILL keep travelling.

thanks for the help kick, ill be talking to my welding buddy tomorrow, and will make a decision on it during the week... fingers crossed

what would you pay for it given the condition?

Defender 110 some of the mod places have chassis for around 600 quid you would be money ahead by doing a re chassis

Its really hard to say without seeing it and sizing up the owner. Tell him its fecked and offer silly money, you never know. I just gave away an 86 110 for a rebuilt gearbox and transfer box plus additional work on swivels etc. I paid 400e for it in the first place intending on doing it up. The chassis was worse than yours but the engine was sweet. There are plenty of them out there for what you want.