Defender nut and bolt rebuild

Wings primed and the insides painted, nice to see some color going down.

Rear door bottom rail replaced, centre rail removed straightened and welded back in. Will spend a bit of time tomorrow evening cleaning up the welds and give it a good coat of 2k zinc primer before re skinnining with new ali.

Rear door painted this evening with 2k zinc primer, next job is to bond the new ali skin.

Rear door skin bonded and edges folded, took a good few hours to do carefully not to dent or crease the ali skin but well worth the extra time and patience. Went over it with 230 grit orbital before two coats of 2k etch primer. Applied extra seam sealer around all the frame on the inside to fill any voids hopefully stopping the skin from buckling when the spare wheel carrier to re bolted.
Top tip, dont drill any of the hinge holes or fix the pop rivets around the lock until the panel adhesive is fully cured otherwise they can pull the ali inwards and dent the surface. Apologies the photos aren’t upside down its just that it was easier to spray around all the edges when hung up.

Doing a fine job on this pal nice one.

Last but not least the roof, sun roof and side glass out, good steam clean and hung out to dry. Before flattening with 240 grit them some fresh seam sealer around the gutter rails / roof seam then some etch primer me thinks/

Three and a half house later …. The cracked sticks like **** seam sealer is all out of the roof gutter.
I recon this deserves a beer !
Todays tip, use a narrow screwdriver, heat gun and wire brush, oh and a glove on the right hand ! Cos that bloody heat gun doesn’t half get hot , suppose the clue is in its name really

Roof cleaned up with DA 240grit, etch primed all the bare aluminium and a little filler on a few dents.

There's a big hole in it ..... it's just begging for a fancy bit of TIGing .... it'll end in tears or drips or both.

Exactly 2 tubes of tiger seal, some masking tape, latex gloves and my thumb thats all it took to fill all the joints and gutter rails. Oh and a gallon of white spirits and half a roll of blue paper to clean up!

DIY heated paint booth built its now time to starting to get some colour down, roof in Charlton white completed with a few runs that I can flatten and polish out, rear tub done and then done again as I found a 3” straight dent in one side. Floor plates, front grill and bulkhead done. Inside door jams done.
This evening plan is to do outside of doors and windscreen surround.

Dedication and attention to detail ... love it

Doors next in the smurf booth, that’s what I looked like last night when I forgot to put my hood up on the white suit

Kicked arse out if the painting today ! Outside temp 22deg booth a cool 23!
Wings done, van panels done, bonnet done, sills done, rear corner cover panels done, I’m also done ! Ya dont half seat in a white cat suit !

Rear tub re painted one side as there was a small dent in the lower arch that I’d missed. Arches also painted.
Only bits left to do are the door hinges when iI get some and the windscreen frame brackets

Wow, I am envious of your work! Some fantastic effort going in there and great attention to detail.

I take it a galvanised chassis will be going on?

A well deserved pat on the back

yup new galv chassis will be next in the booth for international marine grade 2k zinc primer and 2k black satin top coat.

a few hours spent this evening flattening and polishing, well worth the extra work

T-Wash Mordant Solution first ?

Then a primer and i'd probably go with a brushed on tractor enamel top coat as it's a bit more flexible than 2K.
Whatever to choose it will look amazing i'm sure.

Yup I’ll use crown T wash, let it dry then apply intershield epoxy primer, then intershield epoxy top coat which is the paint used on offahore structures and commercial boat decks, which is very hard wearing and abrasive resistant, used it on my series 3 chassis two years on and its exactly as it was the day it was applied.