Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

Now here's a rarity. Something that went better than I expected it would and was easier to do than I thought it would be.
The sills came off donkey's ages ago and got shoved in the shed. When I went to get them the other week I could hardly remember them. They are the one bit that I didn't really photograph as I took them to pieces. Maybe I thought they were straight forward enough and didn't need it.
Any way I think they must have originally been galvanised but it's gone off the ends and also where feet must have scratched it a million times as people got in and out. It's good to have the opposite side to use as a template and to measure from as you go as long as you remember to make a mirror image version and not make it exactly the same as the other one. I nearly came unstuck there but caught myself just in time. Also nice to work with the thicker steel. You can get away with murder compared to the thin stuff on the bulkhead. I won't go any further with the painting until I've mocked it all up in case it needs a bit of fettling and I've still got the other one to do. I wonder if it will go as well. I hope so as it would be a shame if it was just a fluke.
The steel was a freeby again. It's the remains of some fittings from a shop I worked in just after leaving college. I've only had to wait 26 years to find a use for it. It's moved house with me twice! It's not just steel, it's an old friend.

Beautiful welds.

Envy your fabrication skills

This will be a right peach when finished

Henry_b said:

Beautiful welds.

Envy your fabrication skills

This will be a right peach when finished

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Thank you. Learnt by trial and error. Lots and lots of error!

Your work is looking so clean Steve

LincolnSteve said:

Thank you. Learnt by trial and error. Lots and lots of error!

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Also I only show you the photos of the stuff that went well.

Nice one Steve - series 3 stuff is just that little bit different so I keep on making a double take

Just read the thread from start to finish and WOW!!!!! What a thread this is, your s3 is looking good! I hope your continuing with the jobs! Your welding is incredible

Hope to see some more of this thread soon

A1yxll80 said:

Just read the thread from start to finish and WOW!!!!! What a thread this is, your s3 is looking good! I hope your continuing with the jobs! Your welding is incredible

Hope to see some more of this thread soon

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Hi.
Thank you very much for that. Very kind.
I am still working on the bulkhead. Even less time than usual with the family and Christmas activities.
I hope to post something again soon.
Cheers.
Steve.

Hi. I'm after a bit of knowledge please.

Not sure how I've managed this but I have 2 different EP90 oils on the go at the moment. A while back I filled both diffs with EP80-90 GL5 and then for some reason when it came to fill the gearbox and transfer box I bought 5 litres of EP 80-90 GL4.

Now i'm pretty sure i'm right with the GL4 in the gearbox because I know that GL5 attacks certain metals (bronze?) in the gear box and transfer box.

However can I leave the GL5 in the diffs?

Let me know what you all think. The GL5 has already been in the diffs for many months so would the damage already be done?

yes its fine in the diffs

jamesmartin said:

yes its fine in the diffs

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That's good news. Thanks for the help.

Here's a little job I've done when I can't get enough time to crack on with the bulkhead. I've got a big 5 litre can of bronze green paint for when the time comes but I can't stir it well enough to get all the solids mixed in. I tried to paint a little part the other day and it wouldn't cover properly. I could have bought a stirrer to put in the drill but as usual I took the daft route and made one. Even just spinning it by hand you can feel it creates a draught from the blade upwards so hopefully when it's in the paint it will drag the thick stuff up that has settled to the bottom of the can and distribute it nicely throughout. We'll see.

Another small bit of progress. It cleaned up pretty well but I still put the blades in deox c. I didn't have enough to do it all in one go so had to resort to one blade at a time. Each blade got an hour at a time as it was pretty clean to begin with. It did get into all the nooks and crannies. The paint is the same stuff I did the dipstick with earlier is about as yellow as you can get. Very non original colour but I like it.

Hi there Steve,

Just wanted to drop a comment to say how much of an inspiration your thread is. Your work is incredible and even though Im only half way through reading the thread you can see the progression in your skill and the massive satisfaction you clearly get from a job well done. I've just bought my first Landy, also a series three, I was raised on them but its taken me until this year (I'm now 36) to buy one and now adays without the Farther who indoctrinated me into LR it was a less educated purchase than I would have liked. I'm hoping shes not quite as bad as you discovered yours is, but know full well I let my heart rule my head when I went to buy her. Ill be keeping a close eye on how your getting on with yours, as I say super inspiring stuff. Think Ill get a year or two out of mine before major rebuild but know I've got some bulkhead work to do at some point. Gearbox rebuild for me first though.

Keep on keeping on Steve and keep the updates coming. I'm sure there's loads of us keen to see the ongoings.

Juansamwell said:

Hi there Steve,

Just wanted to drop a comment to say how much of an inspiration your thread is. Your work is incredible and even though Im only half way through reading the thread you can see the progression in your skill and the massive satisfaction you clearly get from a job well done. I've just bought my first Landy, also a series three, I was raised on them but its taken me until this year (I'm now 36) to buy one and now adays without the Farther who indoctrinated me into LR it was a less educated purchase than I would have liked. I'm hoping shes not quite as bad as you discovered yours is, but know full well I let my heart rule my head when I went to buy her. Ill be keeping a close eye on how your getting on with yours, as I say super inspiring stuff. Think Ill get a year or two out of mine before major rebuild but know I've got some bulkhead work to do at some point. Gearbox rebuild for me first though.

Keep on keeping on Steve and keep the updates coming. I'm sure there's loads of us keen to see the ongoings.

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Hi. Thank you very much for the message! I never imagined that my ramblings might inspire anyone. i'm very happy it has though.
I do think that yours looks in nice order. They sometimes hide nasty little surprises but let's hope fortune is smiling on you. Good luck with it. Steve .

More bulkhead progress. Very slow progress.
Following the failure of my all in one repair section it is taking a long time to make repairs using angle sections.
The piece I cut out again looks quite good from the outside. The inside is pretty bad though.
The bit of the bulkhead left behind looks rough but it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The steel actually cleaned up quite well and with a bit of the Bilt Hamber stuff on I think it will be good enough to last a bit longer.
I'm worried that by putting in these small sections I might get some warping as I work my way across but so far it seems ok. Or at least no worse than when I started. I put a long spirit level right across the bulkhead and it wasn't true. It has had repairs done in the past so I just hope they were done ok and I'm not going to run into some disaster at this late stage.
It fitted together when I first got it and looked ok so I'm going to just hope it goes back the same way.

One last bit to close the gap.
The red primer was just a quick blow over with some old stuff I had left over to avoid any rusting until I could get time to get back on with the job.
The bottom of this last repair piece actually overlaps rather than buts up to the edge. It goes inside where it won't be seen but let me get a bit more weld in there because it was double the thickness of steel. Maybe I put a bit too much weld on this edge as it looks a bit high and lumpy in that third picture but the last picture shows that it ground down quite easily with no chance of grinding back too far and weakening the joint. Here again there's a balance between wanting to get a good, well penetrating weld in but not wanting to distort the metal. I always had a piece of brass or copper behind the weld as a heat sink to try to stop this. I have also now finished that last gap. I've still got to finish the job by closing the section up with a piece in the top.

NIce work there ( should actually say .... more nice work ) - it's coming on....

Thank heavens for grinders

A great thread that I’ve only just finished reading start to finish! The workmanship is fantastic and the results should make you deservedly proud!
That engine leaves me lost for words. I think I’d want that in my lounge!!
Rich