James Mac's Defender 90 Rebuild

Great looking project James, good call on getting the axles shot blasted, I spent ages stripping mine and they weren't that clean, May look tatty in a couple of years. Nice colour on the bulkhead too.

Discokids said:

Great looking project James, good call on getting the axles shot blasted, I spent ages stripping mine and they weren't that clean, May look tatty in a couple of years. Nice colour on the bulkhead too.

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Thanks mate.
Shot blasting is the way to do it, I spent hours with the grinder and didn't even do 1/4 of the casing!! I wish I'd got the axle cases galved now aswel but that seemed a bit over the top at the time
I can't wait to paint the rest but it's going to be a while.

James_mac said:

I bet you are, you always seem to have a project on the go!

Iv almost done as much as I can now before I need to start to striping my 90 down. And I can't start that as I'm moving with work and not going to have a workshop for a while. So I'm going to have to mothball it until I find somewhere to continue with the rebuild.

Or I could bring it around to you and you could finish it for me :-D it'll only take you a weekend lol

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:lol: maybe so
It's what keeps me sane, gotta be better than being sat on my arse all weekend.
I've been looking on and off for another for a while now, can I find anything? Can I chuff :frown:
Everything is either miles away or they want a bloody fortune for a rusty old shed, prices seem to have gone silly.
So I'm just doing a few bits I have laying about to keep me busy more than anything else.

Oh and the paint is looking good
It's always a shock to me when I first put a colour on and I think, what have I done!
But they usually die down a little anyhow.

I hope my signal red dies down, I'm still not sure about it.

Quick question, I fitted the clutch and everything the other day and the rod that goes into the slave cylinder has about an inch of movement in it, is this normal, I don't have a slave cylinder to attach yet so just thought I'd check as If it is wrong now would be the time to fix it.

Hmmmm. That doesn't sound right. It sounds as though the clip on the clutch release arm isn't holding it properly. That being said mine is a V8 so maybe different?

MayorQuimby said:

Hmmmm. That doesn't sound right. It sounds as though the clip on the clutch release arm isn't holding it properly. That being said mine is a V8 so maybe different?

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Iv just watched this video and at 3.16 he's playing with the push rod and it seems to have about the same amount of play that mine does so It should be fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-XjNLm7358

That's fine as it is, the slave cylinder is concave inside so it will sit in the middle once it's together, and there's no other part that goes there. As far as I'm told, the clip securing the rod to the arm is only to stop you losing the rod inside the bell housing.

Wow that's a lot of play. Mine certainly doesn't have that. Oh well.

Just to confirm, you mean play side to side or in and out?

Discokids said:

Just to confirm, you mean play side to side or in and out?

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In and out

Discokids said:

Just to confirm, you mean play side to side or in and out?

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Good point. Mine has about an inch of play side-to-side and about 10mm in and out.

I got the bulkhead fitted today, sort of, I need some longer bolts to connect it to the chassis and need to attach the brackets but the paint is still drying on them, I should get it fitted properly mid week









I'm so glad Iv got a engine lift to use, Iv relied on it throughout the build as I'm doing it on my own.
I'm quite liking the colour now too, these pics should show it better.

I like your colour, and ignore what I said about the rod, I assumed you meant side to side! I've no play in and out (ooh-err) so you should look into that.

Discokids said:

I like your colour, and ignore what I said about the rod, I assumed you meant side to side! I've no play in and out (ooh-err) so you should look into that.

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On this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-XjNLm7358 he has about the same amount of play that I have so I guessed that it's normal

I can't bear 6 minutes and 54 seconds of his voice, pity he doesn't go into more detail about the rod. I guess as long as it's secured there shouldn't be a problem.

I fitted the bulkhead brackets.


Then I fitted the recon steering box and connected everything up. Need to get myself some bigger sockets as I didn't have one to fit drop arm nut.

Looking like a thing of beauty.

Wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome build, how long has it taken you to get to this stage and how many hours a week do you get to work on it? Having just started taking mine apart to rebuild I can't wait to get to this stage.