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....now now you dirty bunch......
Her 1991 Defender 110 is due its MOT in mid June and knowing it would need a bit of work and a spot of welding, I arranged with my dad (who has a useful driveway) to spend a few days on his drive pulling out the old fuel tank, do some welding and a bit of tlc in readiness for the MOT....
Well, started Wednesday morning, swear and cursed at the fuel tank until it relented and came out...the spill return and pick up pipes snapped at the bends there were that brittle....
Any who, looked at the crossmember in front of the tank and found this -
OK, a bit of a bugger but OK....depends on how far I'd have to cut out the rust back to good metal again, but OK....I can deal with that (just)
Then cleaning up one area I knew needed welding, so began cleaning the chassis back to bare metal and the holes just kept getting bigger....
RIght, fine....that area has been patched before, OK...I can just about deal with that bit.
Now, lets begin cleaning up the other side of that rear dumb iron, this has been patched before, and now that patch has rotted through, and I still haven't found any good metal that is thick enough to weld to...
Now this beginning to get a bit deep now. OK, so I'd need to cut out the whole side section of the chassis, make up a new section and weld that in....hmmm, this is beginning to get more than my limited welding skills can handle...but OK...lets take a look at that other hole on the other side....
This is where the tow bar bracing goes, and I tore it out trying to pull a tree from across a road....looks simple enough to cut out, plate in and weld together - wonder how much I'd have to cut back before I find good metal to weld too though??!?
Hmmm.....lets leave that one for now and take a closer look at the two holes by the trailing arm bracket and rear outrigger....
How annoying, it is under the bracket, I may be able to get a patch on that, but be easier to remove the bracket.....do I realy want to do that?, this is becoming a mine field and this chassis already has a number of patches on the rear of it...not very well done mind you, but patched all the same.....
Wait a minute.....what the hell is that going up along the outrigger gusset plate to the left of the holes in front of the trailing arm bracket?
Lets take a closer look.....
Now that is it, that is for me and my skills, time, equipment and ability the end of the road....the chassis is split in half.
Many a fellow could save this chassis, but I don't have the time, space, skill or equipment to lift the body, cut out the rust and then weld two halves of a chassis back together then rebuild the car...it is too much for me.
And Lord knows how far back you'd have to go to find good metal, the chassis is quite heavily rusted and pitted, and when tapped with a hammer or a screwdriver, it is sounding thin and flaky.
Massive shame as the 300Tdi engine in this one pulls like a train, makes my 300Tdi seem like it is from the dark ages!
It also has the R380 gearbox and Disco transfer box, so went like stink too.
Big shame, the rest of the car is in good fettle, not great or brilliant, but certainly not bad or tatty.
Now it is 1900kg of rusting hulk on the drive with no fuel tank and a chassis like swiss cheese....massive massive shame - girlfriend is truly gutted....
Her 1991 Defender 110 is due its MOT in mid June and knowing it would need a bit of work and a spot of welding, I arranged with my dad (who has a useful driveway) to spend a few days on his drive pulling out the old fuel tank, do some welding and a bit of tlc in readiness for the MOT....
Well, started Wednesday morning, swear and cursed at the fuel tank until it relented and came out...the spill return and pick up pipes snapped at the bends there were that brittle....
Any who, looked at the crossmember in front of the tank and found this -
OK, a bit of a bugger but OK....depends on how far I'd have to cut out the rust back to good metal again, but OK....I can deal with that (just)
Then cleaning up one area I knew needed welding, so began cleaning the chassis back to bare metal and the holes just kept getting bigger....
RIght, fine....that area has been patched before, OK...I can just about deal with that bit.
Now, lets begin cleaning up the other side of that rear dumb iron, this has been patched before, and now that patch has rotted through, and I still haven't found any good metal that is thick enough to weld to...
Now this beginning to get a bit deep now. OK, so I'd need to cut out the whole side section of the chassis, make up a new section and weld that in....hmmm, this is beginning to get more than my limited welding skills can handle...but OK...lets take a look at that other hole on the other side....
This is where the tow bar bracing goes, and I tore it out trying to pull a tree from across a road....looks simple enough to cut out, plate in and weld together - wonder how much I'd have to cut back before I find good metal to weld too though??!?
Hmmm.....lets leave that one for now and take a closer look at the two holes by the trailing arm bracket and rear outrigger....
How annoying, it is under the bracket, I may be able to get a patch on that, but be easier to remove the bracket.....do I realy want to do that?, this is becoming a mine field and this chassis already has a number of patches on the rear of it...not very well done mind you, but patched all the same.....
Wait a minute.....what the hell is that going up along the outrigger gusset plate to the left of the holes in front of the trailing arm bracket?
Lets take a closer look.....
Now that is it, that is for me and my skills, time, equipment and ability the end of the road....the chassis is split in half.
Many a fellow could save this chassis, but I don't have the time, space, skill or equipment to lift the body, cut out the rust and then weld two halves of a chassis back together then rebuild the car...it is too much for me.
And Lord knows how far back you'd have to go to find good metal, the chassis is quite heavily rusted and pitted, and when tapped with a hammer or a screwdriver, it is sounding thin and flaky.
Massive shame as the 300Tdi engine in this one pulls like a train, makes my 300Tdi seem like it is from the dark ages!
It also has the R380 gearbox and Disco transfer box, so went like stink too.
Big shame, the rest of the car is in good fettle, not great or brilliant, but certainly not bad or tatty.
Now it is 1900kg of rusting hulk on the drive with no fuel tank and a chassis like swiss cheese....massive massive shame - girlfriend is truly gutted....
