My 109" Series 3 :)

Not a lot to report unfortunately at the moment.

Only reconnecting wires/pipes etc that were disconnected when taking it apart to rust treat and paint the chassis. Although now I've got some electrical gremlins at work

Only other thing I've been up to is continuing to cut everything off the front axle. Almost there now just got a lot of grinding back to do. Then i can start measuring up to weld on the leaf spring mounts.



Oh and i've been setting myself on fire whilst grinding





TOASTIE

About your radiator, you can fix it by snipping the damaged tube, then get a nail and enlarge either end of the tube, then get some knead it (an epoxy putty) and put some in each tube, then pinch the tube closed. This will stop the leak, and the efficiency of the rad will still be ok.

Just bought myself a leather apron for welding and grinding after twenty years without one because I recently did a quick welding job in short sleeves and seriously burnt my left arm with sunburn and right arm by leaning over lastweld before it cooled. Worth the £15 spent.

mo_sizlac said:

About your radiator, you can fix it by snipping the damaged tube, then get a nail and enlarge either end of the tube, then get some knead it (an epoxy putty) and put some in each tube, then pinch the tube closed. This will stop the leak, and the efficiency of the rad will still be ok.

Click to expand...

I would say I'd try that but managed to make a bigger hole when taking it out i dropped it onto the viscous fan :doh: so a new one is on the cards

Blackburn said:

Just bought myself a leather apron for welding and grinding after twenty years without one because I recently did a quick welding job in short sleeves and seriously burnt my left arm with sunburn and right arm by leaning over lastweld before it cooled. Worth the £15 spent.

Click to expand...

I think i may have to invest in one of these too. My overalls are full of holes from welding and grinding
And yes welding can be a painful experience in a t-shirt! Had a bit of spatter land in my armpit whilst welding up sills on a transit hurt for bloody days!

All the mounts on the front axle are now cut off and ground back. Just need to grind back the original diff pan back now ready to weld on the new HD one. Which i have yet to fabricate.





Also started fabbing up the new leaf spring mounts last night as well but haven't got pics yet.


Will be taking these swivel housing into work tonight to see if i can machine a piece to bolt on to raise the track rod and clear the leaf springs rather her than mess about packing out the mounts and fitting 1 ton shackle to get enough clearance.

may i ask what your doing about the castor angle on the front axel as I'm curious to you efforts !
if you want some vented disks and callipers to stop her i could help you out

damsmithy said:

may i ask what your doing about the castor angle on the front axel as I'm curious to you efforts !
if you want some vented disks and callipers to stop her i could help you out

Click to expand...

To sort the castor angle i will be clamping all the new mounts to the axle, then roll the axle underneath bolt it up and put the weight of the vehicle back on the axle. So it sits correctly.

Whilst in position i can then fit a digital inclometer on it to get the correct 3* castor angle for this axle then i can tack weld the mounts in the correct position then remove the axle and weld up fully.

Will involve a lot faffing about to get it right but it will be worth it

And i've also come across an ingenious solution to the track rod problem but that's a secret for now

As for the brakes, solid discs and calipers should be fine as I'm going to fit the discos brake servo and master cylinder. That will also require a fair bit of faffing to get it to fit the brake pedal box

Evening all.

Have some news regarding my brake issues

And this is what i think is the problem



And contaminated shoes where hydraulic fluid has been ****ing everywhere





So got onto to paddocks and made a rather large order.

All brake cylinders are being replaced, all shoes, all springs and I'm even going to renew the adjusters.

And tonight i made a start on the o/s rear. Didn't realise i had to take the hub off though :doh:







Question though do the drive flange bolts need loctite? And what torque do they need tightening to? Haven't got a s3 manual

Mine went like that, so were my back shocks! Got new brake cylinders on now though

Buuut...if you're going to the trouble of the disco axle route, how come you arent putting discs on?

samc88 said:

Mine went like that, so were my back shocks! Got new brake cylinders on now though

Buuut...if you're going to the trouble of the disco axle route, how come you arent putting discs on?

Click to expand...

Mainly as a need to get it on the road asap as I've almost killed my daily i hate my polo

The disco axles are still going to happen but just not quite yet unfortunately shame as i really wanted to get them on before i got it on the road.

Hello again.

Another smallish update on my progress.

With mot day looming (this coming Friday), my attention today turned to getting the cab into a state of normality again.

Which meant bolting in the seat box properly as well as floor panels and gearbox tunnel. And also bolting the seat belts back in and getting my new defender seats in.



Still a fair bit of tidying up to do and bits to finish but I'm almost there.

Then my attention turnt to finishing off renewing the brakes. And what a ballache that was

First managed to snap one of the bolts that hold on the drive flange onto the hub :doh: then made an even dumber mistake on the front and stripped the threads inside one of my brand new brake cylinders :doh::doh: so now need another new cylinder and fitting

Other than that other news is i should have a new radiator on the way tomorrow then the engine will be good to go again, all the electrics are hooked back up and working correctly but no doubt will develop a fault on test day

Roll on Friday

Great thread and pics. You've got a huge amount of work done in a month. I've got a SIII SSW sitting on the drive that I haven't got round to starting on yet. One thing or another and now our Freelander's in bits around the garage! More motivation to get me started though. Good luck for Friday !

GrumpyGel said:

Great thread and pics. You've got a huge amount of work done in a month. I've got a SIII SSW sitting on the drive that I haven't got round to starting on yet. One thing or another and now our Freelander's in bits around the garage! More motivation to get me started though. Good luck for Friday !

Click to expand...

Thanks And there is still going to be plenty more to come yet

And your S3 looks good. What are your plans for it? And if you start a thread make sure you take plenty of pictures

robbh said:

And your S3 looks good. What are your plans for it? And if you start a thread make sure you take plenty of pictures

Click to expand...

The bodywork/chassis is in good nick - that's why I couldn't say no The worst bit looks to be the bonnet that's had some sound proofing stuck on and must have collected moisture because the bonnet framework is comlpetely rusted away. The interior looks to have been restored at some point and looks good to. Mechanically it has issues, I haven't had it running yet. Its a 2 1/4 diesel and the glowplug wiring is completely burnt out - it was originally a 2.6 petrol and when it was converted to diesel I recon they used the wrong guage wiring. The wiring is the reason I haven't started it. I've been told it blows a lot of white smoke - but came with a "good" replacement engine and things like the exhaust manifold is snapped etc etc. So there's work to do and I'll put a thread and pics up as I go. Need to fix the Freelander first !

And again hello.

Thursday was a mad rush to get everything sorted but i has managed it, she has passed her MOT

Brakes are slightly lacking but i guess that's because the new shoes need bedding in properly.
And the only other thing that was a bit off was the handbrake. Only just passable. So I'm gonna order up some new shoes etc to strip that down.

Here's a pic of her just before she went to the station for testing






So now it's going to be sorting out bits as and when.

Still got the disco axles to fit once of bought a set of parabolics.
Get rid of the orrrble sills and make tree/rock sliders to fit there.
Finish fitting all me gadgets in the cab.
New door tops.
Build a new front winch bumper.
Paint the bed of tub.
Fit more lights.
And anything that i can think of that may be useful for off roading/work purposes

Also want to paint the whole landy but im unsure what colour will get a poll up to see what you guys think

black

Dr_evil said:

black

Click to expand...

Im definitely keen on black i likes the stealth look

do it you know you wants to then we can have two ninja series on the laning trip

Dr_evil said:

do it you know you wants to then we can have two ninja series on the laning trip

Click to expand...

Ninja serieses black is winning then i likes that idea

robbh said:

Ninja serieses black is winning then i likes that idea

Click to expand...

You'll be able to just see a little orange pop of flame out the bottom of mine every so often

Yours will be a bit more invisible I reckons