Rusty Chassis - Broken Shock Mount - In trouble in Spain!!

Hello.
So I have just joined the forum, I have introduced myself and my Disco in the introduction section but again, hello everyone!

I have a 2004 discovery 2 td5 and I am currently on an adventure in Spain. I'm not currently doing and don't plan on doing any heavy off-roading, just driving about on tarmac, gravel roads and some sand tracks.

Yesterday I was on one such gravel road, taking it pretty easy, the truck of course is heavy, it's loaded up with everything needed for a couple of months camping and exploring trip including a fridge and leisure battery. Anyway, whilst driving along yesterday, I heard a pop, or a bang coming from the back nearside. I immediately stopped and investigated, I was expecting a puncture but the tyre was fine, next I considered a coil but that was also fine, it was way worse than either of those, the top shock mount had snapped off the chassis!

So I know about the discos and the problem they have with rusty chassis, and I'm aware that my car has patches on the chassis that were carried out by previous owners but I wasn't expecting the sort of rot that I was met with. The shock was pushing up against the floor so I jacked the body a bit and removed the bottom bolt and took away the shock. I then limped a few km's to a campsite and that is where I am now.

My plan in the future is to re-chassis but that's a future plan, definitely not this year, probably not next year and certainly not right now while I'm
1000 miles away from home, in Spain!

I'm aware of the panels that are available to strengthen up the chassis rails and the weld on shock mounts that are available from example Britpart, problem is getting those sort of things and getting repairs carried out in a foreign country.

I'm wondering if and hoping that some of you might have something useful to tell me! Anything at all.
I'm currently in the North of Spain, about 40km South of Pamplona, about 80Km East of Logrono.

The weather is hot, the company is good, but my lovely Landrover, named Scratch is a little under the weather!

Looking forward to hearing from you guys with ideas to help me out of this sticky situation that I find myself in!

All the best.
John and Elizabeth (Elizabeth is my other half, my better half!)

Last year the bolt fell out of my top shock mount, exactly the same one as yours funnily enough. Disco 2 TD5 2000. I made it all the way from the southwest of France to the channel and then home to our place in East Dorset. Without doing a thing about it. It rattled a bit but wasn't really a problem. Didn't even suss what it was till I got home.
So if I was you I would just go carefully until you can find someone willing to try and cut away all the rust and replace with new. If you are fully loaded a shocker will be less necessary and you already have ACE I assume.
We were coming back from holiday too, loaded down with wine and stuff.
Best of luck!
Stan

yes not the best photyos as it difficult to see the extent of the damage, maybe stand back a bit more for a better photo, there are lots of decent workshops in spain , i had a villa there for 18 years,but it best to have an idea as to what you want doing, by the look of it it all need cleaning up to fine the full extent of the rust, only then will you be able to decide on the best course of action to get a repair done, for me i would makle a 'U' shape that slides up from the the bottom, the 'U section would be as wide as you can get in with ease, with the shock mount already welded on the side, the weld on a top piece to box it all up, followed by welding the ends and bottom inside and out to the chassis,

I'm glad @frostythor mentioned about Spanish garages, as I was afeared they'd be like French ones which won't touch chassis work with a barge pole.
Something to do with French insurance rules or something. I had to work hard to persuade a garage to do just the tiniest bit of welding and I really do mean tiny, welding a penny washer onto a bit of chassis, to make a repair after my Disco 2's rear axle was bent in an accident. They kind of decided to do it because it was to a foreign car and there was unlikely to be any comeback.
I also applaud the idea of what to make up to take the shock mount.
Whatever you do will really depend ion how shot your chassis is but again, best of luck with it all!
Stan.

If ther are any expats near you, I would ask them for help as most expat will have some where an expat mechanic who can advise or help you to get the help you need, so your lookung for an expat bar or shop they are normaly the best ones as they know the area and who in can help

if not them the question is can you weld as most large building shopes sell grinders cutting discs, and then fine a hire shop to get a welder, or a welding shop for a few bits of steel cut to size

Stanleysteamer said:

Last year the bolt fell out of my top shock mount, exactly the same one as yours funnily enough. Disco 2 TD5 2000. I made it all the way from the southwest of France to the channel and then home to our place in East Dorset. Without doing a thing about it. It rattled a bit but wasn't really a problem. Didn't even suss what it was till I got home.
So if I was you I would just go carefully until you can find someone willing to try and cut away all the rust and replace with new. If you are fully loaded a shocker will be less necessary and you already have ACE I assume.
We were coming back from holiday too, loaded down with wine and stuff.
Best of luck!
Stan

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Hi Stan. Thanks for the swift reply.
It's encouraging to hear that you managed to drive all the way through France and you got home with the shock broken like mine!
Problem is that we have only really arrived here last week and we are planning on spending the next few months, probably until Christmas, exploring Spain, Portugal and Maybe France.
The car is heavy so its not really that bouncy, and I actually don't have ACE.
Do you think it is OK to drive temporarily in its current condition? The thing that worries me is the big hole left in the chassis rail where the shock mount used to live!
Thanks again Stan,
John.

frostythor said:

yes not the best photyos as it difficult to see the extent of the damage, maybe stand back a bit more for a better photo, there are lots of decent workshops in spain , i had a villa there for 18 years,but it best to have an idea as to what you want doing, by the look of it it all need cleaning up to fine the full extent of the rust, only then will you be able to decide on the best course of action to get a repair done, for me i would makle a 'U' shape that slides up from the the bottom, the 'U section would be as wide as you can get in with ease, with the shock mount already welded on the side, the weld on a top piece to box it all up, followed by welding the ends and bottom inside and out to the chassis,

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Hi Frostythor.
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes I agree the photos are not great, I will take some better photos tomorrow and post them.

I really like your idea of how you would go about the repair, the U shape that you describe with the mount already welded to the side sounds like a great bit of engineering, I'm impressed.
I happen to have a 4.5 inch grinder with me and a selection of discs as well as a full tool box, the only thing I'm missing is a welder. I have a little bit of experience of welding but it was self thought and ive only done stick welding. I wouldn't be the tastiest of welders but I can stick two pieces of steel together, it might not look too pretty but it will hold.
I never thought about hiring out a welder from a tool hire, that's another great idea.
Do you think an arc welder will work for this job or am I better getting a mig welder and watching a few YouTube videos?
I might also go down the route of getting someone to do the welding for me, perhaps I could clean up and cut out the rot and cut the new pieces to size and then just get someone to do the welding.

Anyway, you've given me some great ideas and I'm now looking at things from a different perspective.

I'll keep you informed as to what route I'm going and how things are working out and I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Thanks again.
John.

Stanleysteamer said:

I'm glad @frostythor mentioned about Spanish garages, as I was afeared they'd be like French ones which won't touch chassis work with a barge pole.
Something to do with French insurance rules or something. I had to work hard to persuade a garage to do just the tiniest bit of welding and I really do mean tiny, welding a penny washer onto a bit of chassis, to make a repair after my Disco 2's rear axle was bent in an accident. They kind of decided to do it because it was to a foreign car and there was unlikely to be any comeback.
I also applaud the idea of what to make up to take the shock mount.
Whatever you do will really depend ion how shot your chassis is but again, best of luck with it all!
Stan.

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Hi again Stan.
I will have a root around tomorrow and see exactly the extent of the damage and take some more photos.

I also really like the suggestion made Frostythor, the U shape design and how he would weld the mount on to the side before fitting sounds great.

I really appreciate the both of you replying to me, with some great advice and suggestions, it's great to have a couple of well seasoned landy owners in my corner sharing their experience and knowledge.

I will keep you updated and post photos tomorrow.

Thanks again.
John.

Hi John, you will need a minimum of 2 mm, best would be 3mm thick, steel plate, easy to cut with a grinder with a cutting disc in, if you have a drill make a tempory repair as shown in the drawing attached it goes over and bolt's on, its more of a :C ' shape you could do the came with the 'U' shape repair

Hi, sorry to hear about the chassis failure. I can't offer any suggestions because I know very little about welding other than making sure you disconnect the battery at the very least if you intend to arc/mig weld as you don't want to add electrical issues to your list (others more knowledgeable than me can advise if anything else needs disconnecting). All the best & I hope you can continue your trip without further issues.

Glad to be of help.
You'll only need an arc welder as the steel is thick enough to cope with it, although it takes a bit of practice before you stop including slag in the weld!
If it burns through you'll know you haven't cut back far enough to thicker steel!
And welding up above you is not easy either TBH. You'll need at least some sort of protective clothing or bits of molten metal will find their way into your skin!
As others have said, find an English bar or "pub" and ask there. They'll know someone who'll be able to help.
Such a shame this has happened right at the beginning of your long hol.
Still Landy owning is a learning experience!!

Discoscratch said:

Hi Stan. Thanks for the swift reply.
It's encouraging to hear that you managed to drive all the way through France and you got home with the shock broken like mine!
Problem is that we have only really arrived here last week and we are planning on spending the next few months, probably until Christmas, exploring Spain, Portugal and Maybe France.
The car is heavy so its not really that bouncy, and I actually don't have ACE.
Do you think it is OK to drive temporarily in its current condition? The thing that worries me is the big hole left in the chassis rail where the shock mount used to live!
Thanks again Stan,
John.

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It'll be OK to drive around in for a while provided you take it easy. The hole in the chassis rail does look, humph, "impressive". Getting that welded up to me is more important than getting the shock back on but obvs you'll do both at the same time.
Best of luck mate!

frostythor said:

just looking at your location in Spain, there is a LEROY MERLIN STORE, iParque Comercial Galaria, Barrio La Morea, s/n, 31191 Pamplona, Navarra, Spain, they sell welders ranging from 139 Er for the cheapest stick welder or, PROMIG 130 CEVIK multifunction inverter welder stick or mig at 190 euro, as most of the welding rod in spain are rutile rod they run hot but are good on rust but will burn through if you not very careful, you may be better off getting the cheap mig welder with extre wire and gas if it not a gasless wire

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So Spanish rods aren't much cop then?
Weird!

No they are OK used the correct way they tend to be 6013, if your no use to them you get a lot of holes
Google says
The 6013 electrode is best used for light to medium penetration on thin or sheet metal pieces. 6013 electrodes are commonly used in manufacturing truck frame bodies, metal furniture, storage tanks, farm implementations, or where aesthetics are of grave importance.

If it was me id put it back in place and put 2 big ratchet straps on it around the chassis rail to hold it in place. Then replace ratchet straps as required!

ronsealdeath said:

If it was me id put it back in place and put 2 big ratchet straps on it around the chassis rail to hold it in place. Then replace ratchet straps as required!

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I think that would be my prefered bodge too.

Col

Have a look for a local garage and show them if it's the same as it is here in Algarve they will know where to go also keep an eye out for 4x4's with club stickers on them and speak with owner if like here a lot if younger speak English...pity you werent down here when it went as we have all the gear and our local metal supplier has a cnc machineas well...going there today to pick up a rear chassis to tub rail for an 88 they bent up for me in 3mm galv steel for 50€...hope you get it sorted...