Disco 2 rear step replacement

The metalwork inside the rear step on my D2 has completely rusted away, to the point that the plastic surround came loose last week. Thankfully it was spotted and recovered

The box-section arm is still in good nick - its just the inside of the actual step. Seems like classic landrover - use thin metal and design it so that it traps water and crud until it rusts away.

Thinking about how to replace it... I dont really want to lose the step completely - its useful for getting to the roof rack if nothing else (being a bit on the short side!) or for passengers to get into the rear seats. I'm conscious that at the moment there's a fairly sharp length of box section though, which isnt the nicest thing to scrape legs against when getting kit out the boot!

I dont have access to welding equipment, although I do have a friend who does - so one option would be to weld some plate onto the top of the box section, cut to fit the plastic step. Then pop-rivet the plastic step into place.

Another option might be to just rivet the plate into place rather than having to faff around welding.

A friend suggested making a chequerplate box rather than reusing the plastic step and rivetting that into place instead.

Would be interested to see what others have done (this can't be a unique problem)

I am sure you have thought this, but just in case.

Just make sure whatever you put in place can take the torque and force applied when someone of above average weight stands on it awkwardly. Otherwise the failure could be very nasty to say the least. If I was to replace I would over engineer , I would question rivets taking any kind of rotational / torque load. But then having written this , i have never striped the LR original part to see how robust it is.

I am thinking of removing mine if it gets to that stage. as i have never found a need for it tbh.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers

neilly said:

I am sure you have thought this, but just in case.

Just make sure whatever you put in place can take the torque and force applied when someone of above average weight stands on it awkwardly. Otherwise the failure could be very nasty to say the least. If I was to replace I would over engineer , I would question rivets taking any kind of rotational / torque load. But then having written this , i have never striped the LR original part to see how robust it is.

I am thinking of removing mine if it gets to that stage. as i have never found a need for it tbh.

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers

Click to expand...

Some fair points there... I hadn't thought about the rotational forces involved if someone stood off centre... certainly could be an issue for pop rivets which aren't really known for their tensile strength!!

If I was fabricating something I probably wouldnt make it as wide as the original step unless i was reusing the original plastic body, which would in turn decrease the chance of someone applying weight that wasn't over the main arm of the step.

Why not get a replacement off flea bay? its only 2 bolts. Done.

Mine was in a terrible state



I cut out the rust and using some 40mm box I had I sorted out the end by the damper. The other end I cut the welds removed the plate flattened it and cut a new piece out of sheet metal.

Not the best bit of fab work you will see but all painted up looked ok and has lasted a few months!

D100 said:

Mine was in a terrible state

I cut out the rust and using some 40mm box I had I sorted out the end by the damper. The other end I cut the welds removed the plate flattened it and cut a new piece out of sheet metal.

Not the best bit of fab work you will see but all painted up looked ok and has lasted a few months!

Click to expand...

Mine is a similar state and I'm currently trying to figure out what I can do to sort it out. Did you reuse the plastic step? If so how did you remove it without breaking it? I was hoping to reuse the plastic but the cylinders that go through the upper sheet of metal seem to be stuck.

My other options seem to be

* making a step and welding it onto the box section, I'd try to make it so that it didn't trap muck and water like the standard step
* buy a step that attaches to the tow bar. On ebay I've seen a variety from £20.
* carry a small plastic step in the car and make short people use that instead of bothering to do anything complicated.

My plastic step fell off... took a little bit of work with an old screwdriver to scrape the old rusty metal out from inside but came out fairly easily.

@CambridgeSteve. Trying to remember mate I thing I just went for it. I did reuse the plastic part. I think as the metal was so rotten it just gave up anyway. I'm going to be getting rid of it soon as when we go off-road it's bound to get caught. Same as the tow bar, I'm gonna change that to a less pertruding type.