Disco 2 Considering a galvanised replacement chassis

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marjon said:
How much more is the Galvanized option?
You really think it 3-4 times the work, I dont see it sorry as being that much more.
But if budget is tight then I understand:(. Whatever you decide its your car and you know how much you can afford.

J
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The galvanising option adds £168 to the price of that linked chassis above, the price quoted is the chassis without galvanising.
I have to believe my friend who's been doing up landies mainly but discos too for many years, was a landy mechanic at one time. He isn't a God, but he's the best I know and more importantly, I trust him. I think he said it's MUCH more work, i.e. not 'just a quarter more for the extra quarter of chassis'! But he wasn't only referring to the work, he was also warning me of the added costs as he knows once we have the entire chassis and bits off, I will want to replace anything that looks bad once removed, and he knows that will be WAY out of my budget! The full chassis itself though is way outside my budget anyway so it's not really an option I can consider anyway sadly, would love a full chassis. My front end chassis is damn good though, and once it's cut I can get in there and fill it with some good rust protection for the future too.

Stanleysteamer said:
I totally am not the right bloke to ask about welding.
I do it but if I tell you I actually prefer stick welding to MIG you'll know, as will anyone else, that I must be at the veryu least a bit weird.
It comes from fabbing bits for kit cars which are made of feck off thick metal.
I have welded in metal in rusty footwells but any proper welder would fall about laughing at the bits of mig wire that went through gaps etc and had to be ground back.!!!!!
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ha ha, sounds like my mate. He came round once to use my welder. I had never welded at that point (had just got the welder). I asked if he was good at welding, he said "I can't weld for ****, but I can grind to MOT standard". Laughing ensued :D :D

Come to think of it, I am lacking a good chuckleworthy signature quote, so maybe that should be mine :D
 
lynall said:
You could do all the work, fit the 1/2 chasssi, then get a mobile welder in?
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That's exactly the plan. The problem is that last bit! The only GOOD mobile welder round these parrrrts is no longer available.

Stanleysteamer said:
Not forgetting that he'd possibly have to do something about the galvanisation so as not to poison said weldery bloke!;)
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I didn't know it was poisonous! I did a lot of welding to get my old trailer fixed up recently, ground off the galv and welded. Maybe that's why I was seeing dragons in my shed afterwards!

Pawl said:
Welders don't like galvanising - as Stanleysteamer says, it gives off lots of very toxic fumes while welding & I think needs more skill to weld through.

For info I think the 2200mm section is probably a lot more work than eg a 1400mm section & requires a lot more care as you're removing the rear axle / radius arm mountings - so alignment is a lot more critical to ensure the rear axle is aligned properly.
I was surprised how easy it was to fit a 1400mm rear section & the only alignment issues relate to body mounts - which are nowhere as critical as axle mountings - but are relatively easy to align as the body mount is the datum & is still in place when the chassis section is being welded up.
Making sure the new axle mounts are in the right position I could imagine being a challenge !

I was surprised that despite the old rear (higher) section being really rotten, the area round the longitudinal arm mountings was in really good condition - even though it was full of sand & grit from various wading while off-roading repeatedly. On our TD5 it definitely didn't need more than 1400mm replacing.
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Thanks, useful info there, will keep a nose out for the toxic fumes!

frostythor said:
Hi I have had a look at the video and stills thats very similar to mine which I did last year,I cut an shut it with a 1/4 chassis section no rear suspention to take off it tooke me a few days, hardest bit getting the fuel out
it does help when your a excoded welder like me but its realy not that difficult the body is normaly solid so before you weld it bolt it back up to the body to line it all up, with a 1/4 section there is enought access to weld the top , I suspect with a 1/2 section you will need to either cut an access hole to weld the top or remove the complet body to weld the top, still once its welded back in place the carpets will hide it, the main problem I find is the vast amount of underseal on the inside that takes a lot of effert to remove before cutting and welding
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Ex-coded, damn you don't live in Cornwall by any chance?!
I didn't see it being too hard to weld the top but hadn't thought about it that much yet so maybe you're right. Not sure where you mean re the underseal? Inside the chassis?
The beauty of this Disco is it has never been waxoyled or sprayed with **** etc, so not too much cleaning to do, just a steam /spray to get mud/dust off really.

frostythor said:
yes welding galv is not nice , but you can just prep the ends by grinding off the galv then weld then piant with zinc base paint the weld area
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Yep that's what I was hoping, grind off the galv before welding. I spoke to fabricators today and they are a welder down so ETA for a 1/2 chassis is now 80+ days, depressing especially as my MOT has expired now, gonna need some trickery to hide the hole and keep it on the road until it arrives, so I can travel a mile down road to drop son at work a few times a week!

EeEk said:
£2k get you a new galvanized D2 chassis.....no welding required :)
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Really? Where from?
 
Hi john, sorry I live in the New Forest, it a bit of a hike to Cornwal, about the underseal it on the floor inside the D2 mine can be very thick in places and it does take effert to remove it for repairs to be done
 
That chassis is worse than mine pre welding

Nice to see the ARB pipe, most part chassis stop before that.

I ripped an ARB bracket off mine.
 
Google metal fume fever.
So long as last inch or or so galv is removed then that is good enough

As for a good welder, an average one will do just fine, measure total length of weld 2xside top +bottom, and I bet you are getting on for two feet of weld each chassis rail, so even poor welding will hold that just fine.

Tbh I think the welding will be the easy part of that job.
 
MJI said:
That chassis is worse than mine pre welding

Nice to see the ARB pipe, most part chassis stop before that.

I ripped an ARB bracket off mine.
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My chassis is worse than yours was? Yes it's deterioriated fast here, scary fast.

Not sure what an ARB pipe is, but yes I want this longer one to get past that cross-member and well past any scaliness/rust
 
john snoo said:
My chassis is worse than yours was? Yes it's deterioriated fast here, scary fast.

Not sure what an ARB pipe is, but yes I want this longer one to get past that cross-member and well past any scaliness/rust
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The round cross member
 
Gotcha, yes we specifically looked for one that could get past that as wasn't much point spending so much time/money without going past there. Also hoped it would be easier to weld on the straight further forward, although still not sure how easy the welding will be!
 
lynall said:
Google metal fume fever.
So long as last inch or or so galv is removed then that is good enough

As for a good welder, an average one will do just fine, measure total length of weld 2xside top +bottom, and I bet you are getting on for two feet of weld each chassis rail, so even poor welding will hold that just fine.
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but that may not be true, first you need to know the type of joint, with a 1/3 section it slips over, so it 2 x side, top +bottom , plus the 4 corners, and 3-4 plug welds on the sides for addes strength now if its butt joint, I would plug weld in side plates on the inside of the chassis to add strength or the other way is to weld on external fish plate to add strength
 
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frostythor said:
but that may not be true, first you need to know the type of joint, with a 1/3 section it slips over, so it 2 x side, top +bottom , plus the 4 corners, and 3-4 plug welds on the sides for addes strength now if its butt joint, I would plug weld in side plates on the inside of the chassis to add strength or the other was is to weld on external fish plate to add strength
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Pic looks like they are slip joints, so easy to weld, no need for super accuracy to control gaps etc.
 
lynall said:
Google metal fume fever.
So long as last inch or or so galv is removed then that is good enough

As for a good welder, an average one will do just fine, measure total length of weld 2xside top +bottom, and I bet you are getting on for two feet of weld each chassis rail, so even poor welding will hold that just fine.

Tbh I think the welding will be the easy part of that job.
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Thanks Lynall. Well I have spent a week welding up a very old trailer, replacing some crap metal with slightly better spare bits I had lying around. It's not complete pigeon ****. I have a new Lincoln Bester inverter welder (mig, tig or arc, i'd use mig for this) and it works bloody well, makes welding easy even for me! I get a reasonably nice seam and I welded on some strap eyes on my trailer and they went on nicely (they were 12 mm solid mild steel, welded to 4-5mm galv trailer chassis after removing galv as you say). Maybe I am up to it and need to stop being a pussy :D
Just a bit scary as I know welding is seen by some as a bit of an art, but I learn quite fast and think I have my welding pretty good for someone who's never been on a course etc. The trouble is, I only find out if I am wrong by crashing my family into a bus. :D
Maybe I should take some pics of my welds and see what you guys think, asking for trouble maybe :D :D
 
frostythor said:
but that may not be true, first you need to know the type of joint, with a 1/3 section it slips over, so it 2 x side, top +bottom , plus the 4 corners, and 3-4 plug welds on the sides for addes strength now if its butt joint, I would plug weld in side plates on the inside of the chassis to add strength or the other was is to weld on external fish plate to add strength
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Ha, that's pretty much what we discussed. When I thought it would be two butted ends, an internal plate both sides or a box section to slot inside was the plan. But now i know the chassis comes with flared ends (its bigger box than original) so it slots over and overlaps around 5-6 inches which adds a lot of comfort! I would probably seam weld right around (if i can get to it all), and then add a fish plate (only learned that term yesterday!) on both sides as you say.
 
As to the art of welding its no all down hand at some point it either vertical up or stove weld down, up is stronger unless you roll the car over and keep it all down hand

as for slotting over this was how mine came, you can clearly see the ends have not been welded and it slips very easily over the original chassis at the cut point


s-l500.jpg
 
frostythor said:
As to the art of welding its no all down hand at some point it either vertical up or stove weld down, up is stronger unless you roll the car over and keep it all down hand

as for slotting over this was how mine came, you can clearly see the ends have not been welded and it slips very easily over the original chassis at the cut point


View attachment 241701
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I didn't understand the first line at all. Are you saying welding downhill is not as strong as uphill?

The pic was handy, I didn't know what you meant about the "corners" but I do now! Not sure if my one comes like that or full box section without slits along corners.
 
yes down hand is not as strong as welding up, if your corners are not split then it would help you if you plug welded an short internal piece of metal on all the 4 sides this will prevent you trying to butt weld the joint and just blowing holes in it, once its done grind off the weld cap and weld on the fish plates

if you need I can send you a drawing on how to do it, this the post I wrote after doing my chassis
Cut and Shut chassis
 
@EeEk

How much was the carriage for your Defender Chassis ? I live not far from you, (Inverinate), was thinking of going full Galv on my newly acquired D2 in a couple of years time
 
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