Discovery Boot Floor Rebuild

puppysandwich · Oct 27, 2012

I've been putting this off for about 12 months, but decided to eventually get it sorted, I knew it was going to be a bigger job than simply replacing the floor, so I got a bit of overtime in at work to cover the costs. The original floor was completely shot as was much of the surrounding metal including the top of the rear crossmember. So a few days ago I got to work with the angle grinder and removed the bilk of the rust!

I ordered the side skirt panels and the Crossmember repair section from YRM and spent a day cutting them to shape, I also bought the floor support sections, all of which I've just finished painting with Hammerite, including giving the chassis a good brush and lick of paint. I'm still waiting for the rest of the panels to arrive so I'll update when they're ready to go in.

puppysandwich · Oct 27, 2012

Its been about 10 years since I've done any welding so I dug out the old Sip Migmate 150 and ended up spending 70 odd quid in Machine mart on all the various bits I needed to get it up and running again, including wire and gas and a facemask etc, as well as a new Swan neck and liner, shroud and tips. I've spent a couple of hours getting back into the swing of welding but still need a bit more practice before I let myself loose on the new panels. I'll have to get it done soon because I'm having to use the V8 for running around in now and its costing me a fookin packet!

wiltshire landyman · Oct 27, 2012

nice work

The V8 man · Oct 27, 2012

And i thought mine was bad lol, but its a great feelin when its all shiney and new !

puppysandwich · Oct 27, 2012

wiltshire landyman said:
nice work

Cheers, the original plan involved a large sheet of chequer plate and a few pop rivets.

But I decided the old girl deserved to be treated right, so I'm about £400 out of pocket so far and still have a bit more to spend, and thats before I start on the sills! I've been driving around for the past year with a sheet of MDF over the floor to keep the rain out!

The V8 man · Oct 27, 2012

you cant pop rivet it as it will fail the mot has to be welded

puppysandwich · Oct 27, 2012

The V8 man said:
you cant pop rivet it as it will fail the mot has to be welded

I've spoken to my very friendly MOT tester who told me that as long as the surrounding panels are seam welded, the main floor section can be pop riveted as its not structural, and is only spot welded in originally. The plan is bed into a mastic sealer then plug weld the main section every few inches.

I've painted all the panels with Hamerite but I'm going to give them a good coat of underseal as well just to keep water out.

Also does anyone know what size Torx bit is needed to get the seatbelts out? You can see in the pic that I cut around them, but have to get them out to fit the new floor.

JoelC · Oct 27, 2012

****, I thought mine was bad. Mind you, all my inner quarter panels are rusted to crap as well.

J

bayleysdisco · Oct 27, 2012

your better off drilling the bolts out as they are very stubborn to undo

puppysandwich · Oct 28, 2012

bayleysdisco said:
your better off drilling the bolts out as they are very stubborn to undo

Thats an option, I only managed to get 3 of the rear seat bolts out, the other 5 sheared off and had to be drilled out so I've still got to tackle that little problem. I also snapped the rear flexible brake pipe at the mounting point on the floor panel, it must have been rotten because it just came away as I lifted the floor. You might be able to see the temporary copper brake pipe I've replaced it with until the new one arrives. I still had to use the car for a few days with no boot floor, was a bit loud!

puppysandwich · Oct 30, 2012

Well the rest of the panels arrived today, so I decided to get stuck in, I cut off the bolts that hold the seatbelts in so will have to deal with them later. I drilled out the spot welds of the door trim edge and cut the right hand skirt to the right shape, then welded in the new crossmember repair section and gave it a lick of Hammerite, The pics with the floor in place are just checking everything for size and fit.

puppysandwich · Nov 1, 2012

Progress today, but I've now been beaten by the rain.

Anyway, I've plug welded the lower door Chanel onto the rear Crossmember as can be seen in the pic. I've also welded in the nearside skirt panel, not the neatest welding ever but its in and it ain't going anywhere, the pic shows the progress. The final pic shows the panel painted up with Hamerite and the underside is also painted with Car Plan Tettraseal, I'll give the underside another coat before finishing. I've also coated the underside of the Boot Floor panel ready. When its all in I'll paint the entire inside area with it just to be sure to keep any future rot away.

nrgserv · Nov 1, 2012

well done!
may be worth checking the back door lines up ok before yer fully weld everything!
whats the rear body mounts like?

puppysandwich · Nov 2, 2012

nrgserv said:
well done!
may be worth checking the back door lines up ok before yer fully weld everything!
whats the rear body mounts like?

Cheers, I'm quite please with it so far. The rear body mounts are fine, but I need to do both sills and sill ends, but they'll have to wait until next month as I'm under strict instructions not to dip into the savings!

I'll do the sills and fit a set of Rock Sliders, then I'll decide what I'm going to do about this damn clutch.

JonnyP · Nov 2, 2012

Looking good there chap :0)
It would be a good idea to paint a bit higher up while you have the brush out as the rust will creep up.
I had to cut n patch the sides on mine. They were paper thin.

Also clean out the sedimenter while you have good access to it

nrgserv · Nov 2, 2012

wassup with the clutch?

puppysandwich · Nov 2, 2012

JonnyP said:
Looking good there chap :0)
It would be a good idea to paint a bit higher up while you have the brush out as the rust will creep up.
I had to cut n patch the sides on mine. They were paper thin.

Also clean out the sedimenter while you have good access to it

Nice job, I can see a lot of welding there! I ran out of paint yesterday hence why it stops where it does.

nrgserv said:
wassup with the clutch?

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f8/clutch-slippage-201218.html

Have a look here, the decision I have to make is do I pull it out myself or part with £240 for my local mechanic to do it, my drive isn't really suitable as its on a gradient. last time I dropped the gearbox on a mates drive but he's since moved.

puppysandwich · Nov 7, 2012

Quick update, I've welded in the off side skirt panel, but haven't taken any pics yet. I called into a local Engineering shop to see if they could bend a piece of sheet metal into a dog leg for me to use along the frount edge of the boot where the rear seats bolt in. Needless to say they were less than helpful and claimed they didn't have the ability to put a simple bend in a bit sheet, so a trip to B&Q turned up 2 lengths of Angle iron 20mm x 20mm & 20mm x 15mm. I'll weld them together to give me the lip I need to fit the floor panel on. Pics tomorrow.

puppysandwich · Nov 11, 2012

Finally finished the boot floor!

Pics show the angle iron welded in to form the lip for the floor panel along the line of the rear seats. You remember I had to drill out all the seat bolts, well I found a very simple method of solving this little problem, instead of either drilling and re-tapping or fiddling about with nuts I decided to use 7mm self drilling bolts, I drilled them straight through the existing nuts, with the top bots going through the 3mm angle iron and the existing welded in nut, the job took about 5 mins to drill in the 8 seat bolts, the factory fitted bolts were standard 6mm so these are effectively stronger.

You can also see that its not too difficult a job to drill out the seatbelt bolts, started off with a 3mm drill bit then worked up to a 10mm and then managed to pull out the existing metal with a pliers, I re-tapped them to 12 x 1.75 thread and used 2 10.8 tensile bolts that cost me about 50p each from a local supplier.

After giving it some thought I spoke to my local MOT garage about fitting the floor panel and he told me that the main panel is not a structural part of the vehicle so as long as it was fitted securely it doesn't have to be welded in. So I decided to use 5mm self drilling bolts spaced about every 6" much easier and stronger than pop rivets and less hassle than plug welds, it also gives me the ability to remove the panel should I ever need to gain access. I covered everything with loads of Underseal to protect all the new metal, so hopefully it should last another 18 years!

The only other problem I had was the flexible brake pipe that connects between the bracket on the floor support bar and the rear "splitter block" was the wrong fitting as can be seen in the pic, so for now I've left the copper brake line inplace, theres plenty of slack in it to allow for movement, so it might even stay there.

All in all I'm happy with the end result and look forward to starting on the Sills.

puppysandwich · Nov 11, 2012

Last of the pics.

Discovery Boot Floor Rebuild

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