S3 109 Safari project......

As they were corroded, found the best way to remove the supports was to chisel them off then drill out the spot welds

The next part was to countersink the inner wing to take aluminium countersunk rivets. I wanted a flush finish rather than a mushroom head as it can be hidden if required. After this, I applied a sealant between the two surfaces to give additional support, pinned and riveted. I think it looks okay and the rivets don’t look out of place on a landy! There aren’t too many options anyway as I don’t have an aluminium spot welder!

I invested in an air rivet gun as it is way too much effort to pull the hundreds of Rivets by hand that I will be fitting!

Thought I would try the second hand tub crossmembers in for size. The dry fit went well with all the holes lining up as they should.

Can’t wait to get the stringers and floor back in as it doesn’t seem to be progressing as quick as I would like. Once the tub is rebuilt I can sit it back on the chassis and start lining the sills up.

Got the rear tub supports drilled and dry fitted today. Starting to look like it should but still a long way to go!

Crossmembers look a bit better cold zinc coated

Time to get riveting!

Managed to get the top hats riveted in. Starting to come together now.

Trial fit of new floor and it doesn’t look too bad. A bit of tweaking and we should be ready to drill and fill.

Tweaking completed. Just about run out of screw pins though.
Fitted the seatbelt mountings after a bit of head scratching...
Next task is to drill out the side flanges, countersink all the holes, strip down, deburr, apply sealer and paint, then final riveting! It takes a bit of time to get right but I don’t want to be doing this again..

Nice bit of work going on there

Many thanks - just taking some time but it should be worth it

Final drilling of floor complete and countersinking is pretty much done now. Just got the angled floor, end caps and flitch plates to fit!

Tub floor all bonded and riveted into place. I etch primed inside the top hat stiffness before the floor went in to prevent corrosion. The step is riveted and bonded in too. The rivets are to replicate the original spot welds and the adhesive sealer should give additional strength. It really feels that the tub is getting some strength back now.

Ok, so the step at the front of the tub has the end caps on now and all the c pillar holes drilled. Thought I would try it on the chassis to see how it lined up.....

Need to buy the brackets to bolt on the sill which bolt to the outrigger. Got some fab work to do on the outrigger too to enable the bolts to be installed.

Thought I would try on the side frames to see if they fit..... so far so good!

Decided to change focus a bit from the rear body to the chassis again to hopefully get all the welding done that needs done....

First, better get the axle out so I can repair the chassis leg. Going to install power steering from the disco donor I scavenged the engine from, so this area will all be beefed up anyway. I checked the level of the original and all looked good other than being completely rotten!