The Little Discovery That Could (financially ruin me)

steve24v said:

Looks like you had a fun day

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““Fun””

steve24v said:

it seems you are wasting your time as its too slow and wouldn't last very long

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the Discovery or the compressor?

Tango91 said:

the Discovery or the compressor?

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Haha, when you put it like that, both of them

Excellent photo's - will be really helpful to the next lunatic enthusiast....

Got the old girl ready to saw in half today.



Pulled the back axle out, cut off the rusted to f#ck fuel tank cradle and threw the brake lines in the bin. Didn't throw the ball enough to avoid sad looks, apparently.

I had to sacrifice the rear brake line brackets, there's no way those fittings are coming apart. I've ordered new flexis all round, braided and extended ones just in case I suddenly get the itch to lift it a few inches.



I'll make up new solid lines when the time comes.

Laid bare in all it's glory



Next step is to make up some jigs that locate between the outriggers, and other replicatable datums, so that there's minimal guesswork in lining up the new chassis section.

If anyone has any bright ideas about how I can make sure that the new bit sits flat and doesn't arch or sag then I'm all ears.
I might go borrow a laser level, take the front springs out and level the chassis that way.

Cheers!

Just an idea as I've never done it,
I would probably get 2 lengths of metal to run parellel with the chassis rails, flip the chassis upside down and tack tube spacers to the lengths where the body mounts are located so it can be bolted down.
Just make sure the mounting locations on your new chassis part are in the same positions, have heard they can be out by 10/20mm
I might attempt to do a sketch for you so you can see what i'm on about.

Here you go, I got my 4 year old kid to do a sketch (cough cough) for what I had in mind.
The spacers will need cutting to the correct length as the body mounts won't be level.
Once they are welded on using the old chassis as a template, bolt/clamp it down so it can't move then cut the section off you are replacing.
I assume the new section overlaps the old chassis? If so I would recommend to cut it at an angle rather than a straight vertical cut to get more weld onto it.

(don't take the **** lol)

There is merit to cutting a 'V' however i've not seen that in practice.
The last bit or welding I did (not on a LR chassis) I cut some 25mm 'O's in the outer section (top, bottom and sides) and rosette welded around those,

I then drilled a small hole just forward and below so I could get in there with some Dinitrol and coat the penetration weld.

What about some holes in whichever piece ends up as the outer so you can plug weld as well?

Went some way to figuring out where this chassis's at.

Pulled the front wheels off to get it off the suspension, put a stand under the front underride bar then adjusted the two other stands to get the chassis level across the outriggers in both directions.

Certainly nothing seems to actually be square about the chassis past halfway, the rear legs are buckled out with rust and one is perhaps half an inch lower than the other.



Yeahhhh.

Anyway, the middle of the chassis is level enough for the girls I go out with.

I made up some bobbins on the lathe that fit into the outriggers and some aluminium angle to go between them. Both turned out to be within a mm so happy enough with that.



Shot the laser across the top of the aluminium and traced it along the length of the chassis.



I'll make up a cradle to pick up on the threaded holes in the rear crossmember/bumper bar mounts. The floor is nice and level in the workshop here so I'll make both sides the same instead of the current collapsed-under-it's-own-weight unevenness.


Old vs new.

Hoping to get to cutting this weekend if I can find the time. I was hoping to be all done by this weekend as the missus is back from her holiday and she'll be wanting her car back

Oh well.

Narrator: He did not find the time.

Turns out I had to work today and tomorrow as well.

Found a spare hour to knock together a quick jig to support the rear crossmember. The holes seem to be the same on both chassis so hopefully this holds the back level.

A story in 4,000 words:

You're over the original chassis by quite a way then ?

miktdish said:

You're over the original chassis by quite a way then ?

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Yes, as far as I could go without fouling the stiffening tubes welded inside the new section, about 200mm? I cut the old section with a step to go further in and underneath, and I'm also going to mag broach some large holes in the new section to rosette weld around as you suggested previously, and probably drill some smaller holes to plug weld on the top and bottom faces. I have some ~5mm steel plate to brace across the joints on the insides of the chassis too for a foot or so in either direction.

The new section has still got to slide on another 50mm or so and needs some trimming where it is fouling the welds on the radius arm mounts, but I ran out of time last night.

Got no overtime going on this weekend though and the SWMBO is at work so

Thanks everyone for the help and advice

Plenty of backwards and forwards and trimming and fettling today to get the two halves to mate up nicely, but got there in the end.


The alignment was a bit of a faff but I got it to where I'm happy with it (and probably more accurate than land rover bothered with). I had to raise the rear crossmember up 20mm or so, I guess the original must have been buckled.



One of those nylon preparation discs for the angle grinder made short work of the paint and rust around where the welds will be.


I'm happy with all of this so got on with drilling some holes for plug and rosette welding.



The drill at work made it through 6/8 40mm holes then shat the brushes out of the cooling vents and died so I guess I'm finishing those tomorrow and tacking everything in place with a bit of luck.

That'll go nowhere ...

miktdish said:

That'll go nowhere ...

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Might make it as far as the scrapyard

Tango91 said:

Might make it as far as the scrapyard

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too late for that now....

In that case it can go with the rest of the rusty bits in the work scrap pile

Got those pesky holes drilled and the chassis halves tacked together today.

The inner plates of the new chassis section lined up nicely and i tacked them right in but the outer plates were spread away from the old chassis sides by 5mm or so, so i cut the tack welds, took a wedge out of the top plate and clamped the outer plates tight to the old chassis before tacking.



I managed not to blow any holes in anything with the monster welder at work, but I'm going to leave the actual welding to a colleague who is (hopefully) a lot more skilled with the MIG than I am, he's going to use thinner wire than the 1mm stuff I was stuck with.

I think that where the old frame steps down inside the factory welds on the top face (you can see where I've written in sharpie) It might be an idea to heat the new metal up with the gas axe and hammer it down so it's touching instead of there being a big gap before welding.

I can't go any further with this part of things until he's got some time of an evening, so I primered up the new fuel tank cradle I had to buy (the old one was a bit rotten ) .

Also cleaned off the rust and old paint from the radius arm mount ...things... and primered them, and did the same for the fuel tank strap and top clamp which were in fairly good nick.




The front of the chassis is in great nick considering what the back ended up like, but it had a good coating of surface rust where the paint had gone AWOL (most of it) so I got to scrubbing the loose stuff off with the wire brush, blew rust powder over everything else in the shed with the airline, and proceeded to KURUST ALL THE THINGS



I'll do the same for the other side probably tomorrow evening and maybe even get some rust inhibiting primer on there if I'm feeling fancy.

Here's how it sits, dog for scale

In the absence of a man wielding a MIG welder, we paint.

New fuel tank cradle



Rust inhibiting primer to the left



Kurust to the right


Pause for happy dog



If it wasn't immediately obvious, and I HATE painting, but more paint = betterer.

Sheila's wheels rang me yesterday to discuss my renewal. The poor lass couldn't understand quite why i burst out laughing

I'm (still) waiting for my esteemed colleague to come up with this fancy MIG he keeps going on about, so in the absence of being able to get in the workshop this weekend, set about emptying the old bank account.

I -think- (hope) I've ordered everything I need to get it back on the road confused

Previously ordered:
braided brake flexi hoses all round
a new fuel filter (rusty)
bump stops (it had one lonely one previously),
shock absorber fixing bolts (seized)
clips for the brake hoses
a new exhaust flexi section (currently bluetooth)
new body mounting bolts all round
Oil for the gearbox, MTF94

Now ordered
fuel line clips
brake pipe clips
a front shock lower bush as one has collapsed
cupronickel brake line
brake line fittings to suit

Still to fit (Historic):
Reverse light switch
coolant temperature sensor

For those of you playing along at home, this brings the rolling total to £4109.31
Don't tell my mrs please