Girlfriends Disco 2 Project/Crash Repair

Scotch543 · Sep 20, 2021

This thread is about my Girlfriend's newly purchased Disco 2.

It's her first Land Rover, she's always loved them but recently has become obsessed with Discovery's so much so she bought one.

This project is mostly her work, with a helping hand from me where needed. Plenty for her to cut her teeth into!!

So some background on Truck.

It's a Disco 2 TD5 which was called "Hetty" by her previous owner. And the name is staying.

She's had a full respray a few years back... She had a few off road mods like tyres, steering guard etc. For aesthetic purposes. And was planned to be used to drive log from one end of a property in France to another.

The diff went before she ever made it... And that's when we purchased her.....

Should be regular updates alot more regular then any of my projects will get I can assure you haha.

Hope you enjoy.

doriz · Sep 20, 2021

Looks great in black. All the usual areas been checked for tin worm?

Knappster · Sep 20, 2021

Looks tidy.

Scotch543 · Sep 20, 2021

doriz said:
Looks great in black. All the usual areas been checked for tin worm?

There's a bit of rot in the usual spots on the chassis but nothing I can't handle... Gives me an excuse to finally fit my new (sat in a box for 3 years) welding torch to the welder!!

haza88 · Sep 20, 2021

Looks really nice that

Scotch543 · Sep 21, 2021

The diff is in need of a full rebuild.. the okay in it is ridiculous..... that'll be a job that's a first for Me and the Mrs, For now we fitted a recently rebuilt diff I picked up for £90. Happy days.

The ACE system was took out by a previous owner... So removed the old double fluid bottle and fitted a single she picked up from Peterborough show for £5

Next job is power steering pump and new belt.... So she's driveable and then have a listen and feel for any other issues.

Some other bargains where had at Peterborough, only time I've been been more then happy to carry her bags while shopping

Lots of bits to revamp and then fit

Scotch543 · Dec 5, 2021

Not done much to her so a small update but they all count haha.

Spoke to a friend who repairs JCB hydraulics recommended these heavy duty steel compression fittings. He swears by them...

Fitted tested with no issues as of yet.

Now since the diff swap traction control kicks in if I go over 7mph. So that's our next job. Then it's sort a leaking sunroof or 2

Traction control

Scipio Africanus · Dec 7, 2021

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Scotch543 · Jan 9, 2022

After a spout of covid and usual Xmas busyness and having to catch up after covid finally got chance to work on "Hetty".

The job was unfortunately cut short as had plans this afternoon. But progress is still progress no matter how small haha.

So started to take the wings off to investigate the wheel arch rust.

Doesn't look great but it's so much better then I thought.

The Mrs started to make some templates.

And that's as far as we got. Not as far as we wanted but totally forgot about this afternoons commitments so had to shoot off. Plan is to now do something on it every weekend so watch this space

steve24v · Jan 9, 2022

Nice work, inner wings are my next job on the list, need to get some gas for the welder first though. Haven't took the wing off yet but looks about the same as yours. Not looking forward to it. Keep the pics coming
Cheers

Scotch543 · Jan 23, 2022

A little bit of work this afternoon... Havnt had chance to convert my mig to a Eurotorch and run with argon yet... But couldn't wait any longer... Got a drum of flux core out and we got abit done.
Templates where made.

Made a few grooves and cutes to allow me to shape it to suit.

She cut out all the templates etc ready for me to weld em on

Then it was bend and put on...

Forgot to flap disc before I sprayed so I may got back and smooth off and respray. But flux core never looks amazing but it's on its penetrated well on inside and it's solid. I have metal paint to go over the red oxide followed by underseal on top of that so will be well protected.

Will probably do the same template for the other inside wing. Next is the under side using. The curved template in the earlier picture. Also noticed some damage to wiring so that will need to be fixed etc. But felt good to get abit done

Scotch543 · Jun 8, 2022

Been a busy busy few months. Finaly got some work done on the disco today.

One of the back chassis legs had been replaced by the previous owner. Plan is to get a Galvanised Rear 1/4 Chassis. But until then I thought I'd get a chassis repair kit...cut the rot out, reinforce inside the chassis and weld new panels on . Unfortunately I didn't take as many pics as I'd have liked.. Got so involed in the Job I kept forgetting. So here's what I did take.

As you can see from the pics the left side should have clearly been done the same time as the right... Looks like it was covered in underseal to trick MOT man. So scraped it off and with a pry bar manged to rip through bottom of the chassis like butter.

Literally u did the back Fuel tank cradle bolts pulled it with the minimalist of force and it snapped in half... Decent knock on a speed bump driving and that tank wouldn't have been there for long.

Tank out and rot inspected... I cut out the rot out whole bottom side was gone.. In some spots an inch and more up the side walls. So it was cut out... I then made some plates about an inch wide that went from each side and weld them alone the open channel to give it strength. Then plated each side of the chassis and made a new bottom section. And welded it all up. I only have a picture of the inside of the leg. Here I had welded the top and sides just has to weld the braces and existing chios etc to the inside of the new plate. And then repeat on the outside and weld on the bottom length.

I also made a series of wholes in the new plate not going all the way through the chassis under it. And plug welded it.

Heres the inside welded and painted... Don't have any pics of the other side... Some of it ain't undersealed yet so will get more this weekend and upload then

Screenshot_20220608_180345_com.whatsapp.jpg

Need to sort the mud guard brackets and some there's a few rubber boots that need replacing on some track rod ends etc... And the front wheel hub sensors need looking at and then it's MOT time.

DaveM-sport · Jun 9, 2022

Fair play to getting stuck in

Scotch543 · Jun 15, 2022

Welding done, and undersealed...

Fuel tank back in. All Connected and working.

Found some rust in the back. The tie downs where completely seized so lifted carpet cut them out... Grinded the rust away etc and slapped some red oxide and metal paint in top

MOT result tomorrow so will see how big the list is. Having an issue with the traction control at the moment aswell..

Kicks in very easily and can't get about 26mph without it it coming on. And cornering it comes on. So not expecting it to pass, but It need to know what needs doing.

FlatbedPilot · Jun 16, 2022

Are you getting ABS, hill descent and TC lights on the dash? You really need to do a code read to determine which sensors are at fault. This won't be diagnosed in the MOT, they'll just fail it for having the lights on.

Scotch543 · Jun 16, 2022

Yea I have a few things I think it may fail on it was booked anyway so figured I'd get the list of fails and work through them.

Been doing non stop research into what could be causing it, there's a few things so guna just go through them one by one.

someone on here recommended stripping hubs back down etc. And cleaning everying etc. Which I was planning on doing anyway before buying new sensors... So I will start there.

DefenderPilot said:
Are you getting ABS, hill descent and TC lights on the dash? You really need to do a code read to determine which sensors are at fault. This won't be diagnosed in the MOT, they'll just fail it for having the lights on.

liliana fox · Jun 16, 2022

looking nice ! keep up the good work

snaptube vidmate

Scotch543 · Jun 19, 2022

So we had an mot end of the week. Decent sized list as you can see..

So everything on that list bar the oil leaks and chassis corrosion has been done over the Weekend lucked out with the upper ball joints on the hub. As it was rocki g but purely because they weren't tightened up. So got them tightened and it's rock solid.

just waiting on wiper blades to turn up tomorrow. Unfortunately we where so involved in getting everything done over the weekend that I didnt take any pics of the work. So here's a list,

Side steps cut off x2
Rear mud guards cut off x 2
Brake pedal switch replaced with new
Track rod ends tightened and new nut on one.
Upper hub ball joints tightened x2
Washer bottle hose cable tied on
Washers unblocked
Fuel tank breather reattached
Rear passenger tyre swapped out for spare
Exhaust mount welded
Headlight housing swapped with one form my 300tdi as was damaged where indicator bulb fitted.
New full wiper set ordered
Hand brake light kept flashing on and off. Brake fluid topped up problem solved.

And that's it. So it's been a fairly busy weekend but I'm more then happy with the majority of the fails as all small jobs. And luckily the potential big jobs didn't need doing so all good.

Other issue it's been having which I may have mentioned is traction Control kept kicking in I have done another thread regarding just this issue in the discovery section so apologies to any of you seeing this pics twice.. So I stripped the hubs down and found the sensors looking like this.

So cleaned off the rust flakes and put bakc together and good news... It's no longer kicking in... Bad news I now have this lovely ABS light on..

It's off to the garage tomorrow to go on the code reader to see exactly what the issue is and if its just left over codes from the sensors playing up originally.

FlatbedPilot · Jun 19, 2022

ABS light usually stays on after clearing the codes until you drive it. Should turn off after seeing good readings from the sensors.

Scotch543 · Jun 20, 2022

Ha dit on a machine New sensor ordered from amazon.. Bargain price aswell was getting daft quotes from lost places local to me.

So while that's coming I wasn't overly happy with an exhaust mount I clocked the mm other day so cut it off cleaned up and re welded back on.

Job done..
Upgrading my Clarke 151EN welder to a euro torch was one of the best things I've done. Little jobs like that with the old torch where always so fiddly especially using flux core (drive way gets insanely windy at times)... But now it's a doddle. And has given this 15year old welder a new lease of life. I also kept the wires long enough on the front plugs to allow it to swap polarity still and be able to still use both flux core and non flux wires.

Girlfriends Disco 2 Project/Crash Repair

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