James Mac's Defender 90 Rebuild

I went to the Landy show at the weekend and pick up a few bits and bobs, nothing that I need atm but they will eventually get fitted, I got a a tank guard, diff guards, steering guards, rock sliders and a winch bumper.

I also paid a trip to Landy refurb and picked up my bulkhead, it looks alright so once Iv got my chassis rolling I'll give it a spray and then fit it

James_mac said:

I went to the Landy show at the weekend and pick up a few bits and bobs, nothing that I need atm but they will eventually get fitted, I got a a tank guard, diff guards, steering guards, rock sliders and a winch bumper.

I also paid a trip to Landy refurb and picked up my bulkhead, it looks alright so once Iv got my chassis rolling I'll give it a spray and then fit it

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Bulkhead looks great. What is Landy refurb do to it as I'm debating at the moment wether to change mine or refurb it.

My bulkhead it still fitted to my 90 as I'm trying to keep it in the road for as long as possible so I just bought a remanufactured galvanised one from them, it's also been etch primed, seam sealed and had all the threads retapped. It looks really good.
When I do strip mine down I'll repair it, galv it and sell it on so i shouldn't lose out on anything.

James_mac said:

Iv changed he donut now and it got a normal one one it

What's up with the disco now? Is it still sat in your garage with the head off?
Iv took the veg oil kit off mine now too, well Iv disconnected it all anyway, so you can have it back at some point.

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Well the head is back on but its got a crack in it so needs to come off again, I have a spare!

Don't worry about the vegoil kit, see if you can sell it on as I'm trying to get a biodiesel processor so I can go the whole hog.

crazymac said:

Well the head is back on but its got a crack in it so needs to come off again, I have a spare!

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You need to crack on and fix it then.

Iv got a few little jobs done today, I repaired one of the flexi brackets, made and fitted the brake pipes for the front axle, assembled some new stands iv got to put my chassis on, removed the bell housing from the gearbox and then separated the transfer box and gearbox so I can take them to get refurbished when I get some time. Didn't take any pics apart from this,

I also managed to fit the poly bushes to the radius Arms, trailing arms, and A frame.

I then started to prep a bonnet I had laying about, the plan is to prep it and paint it to see if I like the paint I have bought and as a bit of a test as Iv never sprayed before.
When prepping a panel for spraying how far back do you have to strip the original Paint? Iv scrubbed this corner back a bit to see what under the paint, so how much should I sand off?


I rubbed through a few layers, the lacquer,base coat, dark grey I'm guessing this is the normal primer and then the light grey is etch primer, and then the ali under that. Does that sound about right, so again how far should I rub it back?

Iv got my chassis down to work now so I can crack on. Hopefully doing my trailer test in the next few months so I won't have to rely on somebody else.

So... I got some mates to help me lift it off the trailer and onto the stands. Then we made a little spray booth around it with some plastic dust sheets to stop the overspray going everywhere as a few other lads use the same building as me.




After that I T-washed the chassis and gearbox crossmember. Leaving it over night to dry and then I'll wash it off tomorrow.
Once that's dry I can start painting


What else have I done... Erm... Not a lot really, iv found a guy that willing to swap the disco transfer and gearbox for a defender one so I need to arrange that, and hopefully I'm dropping my engine off to be compleatly refurbished next week. I would like to do it myself but I dont quite have the skills to go as in depth as I want to and I don't want to ruin the engine, once this ones back on he road ill probable have a go myself with the other engine I have but I want this one to be perfect.

I also put my trailer in the car park and covered it up as I won't need it for a while

Looking good, mate. Loads of space to work in too - tremendous!

Al2O3 said:

Looking good, mate. Loads of space to work in too - tremendous!

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I'm lucky that iv got plenty of work space, only got it for a few more months as I'm moving with work so it's looking like I'll won't have anywhere to continue the rebuild for a while.

That's the first coat of primer on now. Got to leave 24h between coats so going to do one tomorrow evening and on Monday aswel. Then I can start the top coat

James_mac said:

I'm lucky that iv got plenty of work space, only got it for a few more months as I'm moving with work so it's looking like I'll won't have anywhere to continue the rebuild for a while.

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Bugger. You need to make the most of those few months then mate. The weekend weather up North has been shocking this year so far. A workshop like that is worth making the most of.

Al2O3 said:

Bugger. You need to make the most of those few months then mate. The weekend weather up North has been shocking this year so far. A workshop like that is worth making the most of.

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That's the plan. I should be able to get a complete rolling chassis with engine, transfer and gearbox all fitted before I have to move.

Question.

So iv got a couple of layers of primer on the chassis now and I was just thinking what to do about the earths as iv covered every inch of the chassis in paint now. What does everybody else normally do? Do you just scrape the paint off, attach the earths and then re-paint. I was thinking of attaching some earth extension points, just 3/4" long cable at various points on the chassis. Then I can attach stuff to them instead.

Got the first layer of the top coat on today so hopefully come the weekend I'll be able to put the axles under and make myself a rolling chassis.

Mr postman delivered lots of parcels this morning, most of them from Gwyn Lewis. Iv got myself a pair of props, a full sumo bat set, a steering damper, a disco steering arm conversion kit, a panhard rod and new rubber mounts for the gearbox and engine


I also cleaned up a few brackets and gave them a coat of rustoleum and hung them up to dry

So Iv been busy this week.
I put three layers of top coat on my chassis so that all done now and then I attached the turrets, rear shock mounts and spring relocators.



I also fitted some diff guards to both axles and the attached the sumobars that got delivered the other day. Iv just cable tied them on top for now to keep them out of the way.




So it's pretty much ready to become a rolling chassis now. If I get the time I'll do it tomorrow. Finally going to have something that resembles a landrove again!!

Looking good mate.

WOW O WOW SHE IS LOOINK FOOKIN ACE ,,,its great when they start comimin together,great work !!!!!!!!!!!

Hi mate. Great build. Must get on with mine😩. Did you make up your brake pipe work. If so was it hard.
Keep up the great work. 👍

What did you do regarding your earths in the end?