Defender Build Thread "A Long Road Ahead"

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deadeyedik said:
Thread Update

My new seals arrived during the week.



Nice build thread, some excellent welding and good attention to detail while she is apart :)

So why oh why did you fit anything from Britpart that involved sealing??????????

Search as much as you want on any landy forum... you will be leaking within 6 months if not 6 weeks, for the sake of an extra couple of quid you could have done a far safer job.... i only fitted britpart once as i was in the middle of nowhere... their s\**te fuel filter disintergrated and cost me a FIP...

never would i ever use one of their seals, filters or anything that involved keeping liquid in...

Shame to have to strip again so soon :(

Cheers Steve
Click to expand...
 
thanks, the build has caught me off guard with the amount of work that needs to be done to it and its easier to change things while its apart. Labour of love some say.

haha, although i didn't do any research on the seals and i shouldn't of gone britpart it was a lapse in judgement on my behalf. I am hoping that by me giving them a fair crack at the job (all be it that every other job they do they fail) they will come good for me, if not then ill have to put my new found knowledge of cambelt removal/fitting into action :).

Thanks for the heads up tho steve :)
 
Britpart _can_ do good seals, but you need to order the 'G' suffix, which effectively means OEM standard .. :) ie your part ERR4575 would become ERR4575G .... It makes ahuge difference to the quality!
 
haha fingers crossed for mine, ill be keeping an eye on the drain hole at the bottom of the casing.

Thanks for the info on the standard part numbers :)
 
Thread Update

Saturday

This weekends plans were to get the old rear suspension off, asses if anything was needed and if not start putting it back together with the new springs and shocks.

The day started off well with bolts snapping and retaining plate bending to allow me to just pull the suspension off lol




The same was done for the other side. After looking at the state of the shocks upper mount cup washers and lower spring seats i decided to order new ones and tackle the rebuild next weekend.

I decided to have a poke around and clean up ready for painting and thats when i found this.


I was kind of gutted when finding it but all i had to do was remind myself that it a land rover :). That was all the fun i could manage on saturday.

Sunday

Today i decided to change my plans and start to look at rebuilding the front.

Over the past few weeks i have been doing a bit of shot blasting and painting.




The inner arch was put on with new nuts and bolts then coated in copper grease.

The wing went on easier then it came off all those months ago, same again new nuts and bolts.


Trying to remember which order parts went back was a fun task of undoing and removing things to get the order correct.

Now the wing was on i decided to rivet my cheq plate to it and screw my new snow cowl on. As well as that i put the light surround on and connected the lights back up.


This is how it ended up on a nice sunday evening before the weather once again played a part in stopping progression lol.


Thanks for reading
 
Impressive work, mate. Good luck with that chassis, I think it's going to test even your welding skills. Nothing you won't be able to sort though, judging by your work so far :)

Might be worth looking around/behind the gearbox cross member plates.
 
erk , i thought my chassis was just on the cusp of being worth saving. thats nasty that spring mount.

whats the plan ? cut off spring mount , plate the chassis and mount no spring mount - or you going pikey and just patching that hole up ?
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

Al203 - haha it is not only testing a few skills it's also testing the remaining patience i have. Funnily enough the gearbox cross member is good, its the middle cross member that is rotten but that will be getting sorted next year before mot time when the tub will be coming off.

Top Drive - It doesn't look pretty, i bought it thinking it needed minimum welding lol. There is no point plating it as it will just spread past the plate in a few years.
The plan is to remove the spring seat, bump stop and upper shock mount then cut out one long piece and replace that and also replace the rotten underside of the chassis in that area as well.
 
deadeyedik said:
Thanks for the comments guys.

Al203 - haha it is not only testing a few skills it's also testing the remaining patience i have. Funnily enough the gearbox cross member is good, its the middle cross member that is rotten but that will be getting sorted next year before mot time when the tub will be coming off.
Click to expand...

I meant behind the cross member plates. My cross member looked great. In fact it still had the paint on! It's plates that bolted it to the chassis rails didn't look so good.
IMG_5084_zps1fd3a35b.jpg


When I took it off, the chassis rail was gone underneath. It obviously holds water and mud behind the plate. Which reminds me, I need to pump Dinitrol in behind mine before I put the body back on.
IMG_5085_zps742ad265.jpg
 
I Have a 110 in similar shape. I think I will treat it to a new chassis then hopefully repair the old one and flog it for a few £ to help with the cost. It will be a lot of work though and this is my first project so I will be keeping an eye on other peoples projects to see how it is done!
 
Kellswater said:
I Have a 110 in similar shape. I think I will treat it to a new chassis then hopefully repair the old one and flog it for a few £ to help with the cost. It will be a lot of work though and this is my first project so I will be keeping an eye on other peoples projects to see how it is done!
Click to expand...

Don't count on it. I only got £50 for my chassis and it was in ok condition
 
Kellswater- Personally i would say have fun and repair it yourself, although i am a welder i knew chuff all about ripping apart cars and the amount i have learnt so far is surprising.
 
james6546 said:
Greyhair sold his for £400ish, I think I was just unlucky...or I am doing something fundamentally wrong with ebay!
Click to expand...

Maybe it was in good nick. For most people if you are going to go to all that trouble it is worth getting new.

My friend, who is a fabricator, repaired his own series chassis and sent it off for galv. I always thought that cost him more than buying a new galv :confused:
 
I sandblast and paint so will be able to refurb it at little cost. I just like the idea of taking of one then placing on another after a blast and paint.

What is the next stage of the restoration?
 
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