Defender TD5 Rear end rebuild

A little history. I first cut my teeth in the world of LandRovers when I brought a Defender 90 300TDi way back in 2002. This served me very well for a little over 10 years before the maintance on a budget came to haunt me.
Oh and I got married. The new missus didn't mind the Defender but she did want kids and 2 seats wasn't enough.
Fast forward to 2018 and I get a hankering for a project. A new Defender. The missus is happy and so I get clicking, looking for a suitable steed.
At the time of purchase I lived in sunny Cyprus so wasn't exactly in a position to go viewing. I did exactly what I knew I wasn't supposed to do. I brought a 2004 Defender TD5 station wagon with about 95k on the clock without looking at it
In my defence, I paid for a 'Gold Standard' pre purchase inspection.

So this is the beast. Not a bad looker, he says...

In the interests of thoroughness I had the fender sent to a local specialist for a decent mechanical once over. I gagged when the bill came in at £3K, not that I had much choice, I was still 4000 miles away and wanted a motor that didn't die on the first drive up the country. I was expecting a bill, just not that kind of bill.

Many months later I get a report of transmission knock (My parents are looking after it until I return to the UK). Back to the indie it goes, handed back with another eye watering bill. Oh well, in for a penny and all that. Oh and I've still not seen the thing, I'm just praying the mechanicals are now all sound.

By now, there has been a change of plan. I'm staying in Cyprus a little longer than expected. A plan is hatched to ship the fender out here where I can at least use it and tinker with it to get it properly sorted. Another £2k down the pan, but at least I have the fender in my grubby mits.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that you just shouldn't start to poke as the holes will just keep on coming. Well they kept on coming as did the rot n rust.

I wanted a little project, I was rewarded with a big one.

By now the Corona Virus had started to hit hard, we were only allowed out of our house once a day and there was a 9PM curfew. Perfect time to start stripping the fender down to see exactly what I was up against.

Yep, just a few holes.
Thankfully they seemed limited to the behind 2nd row foot well.
I am soooo glad I found out about YRM. They were about to become my new favourite web site.

Oh dear, lots of rust

About now I adopted the mentality of screw the bolts, if it comes off, it gets replaced with new. Preferably genuine but at least OE. New bushes front to back. The rust didn't fill me with confidence so while I had the access it all got done.

So far, I had been struggling with a wire brush, scraper and cordless angle grinder, this really wasn't enough but my local garage told me about wet blasting. Looked good so I took the plunge. What could go wrong for £25.

The wet blasting was messy as hell but really worked a treat. Also being in a Cypriot summer I was able to dry out the blasting medium really quickly and re-use it several times over.

Oh and there was the fuel tank cradle... How that hadn't fallen out already, I will never know.

Not looking good

The wet blaster worked quite well. I was really happy to find the rest of the chassis was in a simular condition. No holes anywhere, at least no unwanted ones.
I treated the whole lot to a good dose of rust converter, red oxide, black chassis paint, and an awful lot of waxoyl (brushed on, not sprayed)

All nice new bits from YRM. Everything fitted perfectly. All the bits were etched primed, sprayed with stone chip and painted with waxoyl before assembly.
It was a messy job but at least I could be sure nothing got missed.

That bit was made by a local firm for a whole 25 Euros. Winner

These bits were knocked up by the same firm for a whole 15 Euros. I took him the old rotten ones and he made the replacements while I waited, double winner

The new flooring was made from some recycled 3mm chequer plate. No photos but needless to say, the underside was treated the same as every thing else.
The Drivers side C piller was a little rotten on the outside at the bottom. A local welder made short work of that. The drivers footwell was sorted at the same time.

Now, if we back track a little bit. This is the Near Side rear quarter. The paint was bubbling a little so, again, I had a little poke.

That's a lot of filler, 3.11mm to be exact. The whole of the rear quarter was covered in it and it all had to come off to see what was lurking behind.

By now I've gone through 2 big boxes of silent coat and rebuilt the fender using way more new parts than old. It's currently sat in a local garage being prepped for a respray this weekend. Exciting stuff.

So, what's next...
LED lights and a new bulkhead.
The bulkhead has been repaired at least once before I brought it and twice since. I'm calling time on that one. As soon as I get back to the UK I'm getting a nice shiny galvanised bulkhead. While the front end is appart I'll be looking at blasting and re-coating the front end of the chassis.
Oh and I've fitted new suspension all round. I was amazed how few places sold OE spec springs and dampers. The choices seemed to be limited to up rated, genuine or after market. £17 for a spring speaks volumes for its quality and £00.00's for genuine, not much in the middle. I got there in the end

Good write-up! And sound advice about not poking rust holes...

These are the bits that I took off. As you can see, there is a fair amount of rot in there. It's amazing what some filler and carpet will cover up.

Well this is awkward... I asked for a re-spray in LAL, 659. Last I heard that was the paint code for Bonatti Grey.
Being impatient as I am, I asked for a few photos as I'm sat in isolation and can't collect it until next week. These are the photos that came back...

Looks like a decent job but kinda the wrong colour.
The garage forgot to give the paint shop the new colour code. Thankfully the owner took full responsibility and it's going back to the paint shop tomorrow.

Oh and another thing. My biggest cock up of the build. I didn't think to replace the fuel pump while the tank was out. Bummer, we all know that's going to bite me on the arse in the not to distant future. Guess we all learn the hard way on some things.