P38A Duchess is in the garage!

splendid job
your ocd serves you well

Before and after just to refresh y'all.

Flossie said:

Before and after just to refresh y'all.View attachment 249095 View attachment 249096

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Stop showing off

Started the rear bumper restoration.2 10mm head bolts and a pozi screw each side hold the sides of the plastic bumper to the frame extensions.the bolts just spun in what I know now are knurled bushes moulded into the plastic. I spent ages carefully cutting the heads of one side to find that the heat made the bushes fall out anyway so on the other side I just warmed up the bolt heads and pulled the extensions away complete with the bushes still attached. Easy enough to cut off now. I've removed the body coloured side pieces, just a few clips hold them on, and I should be able to drill through the plastic opposite the bush recess and fix the side extension back to the bumper using a nut and bolt, the body coloured panels will cover the bolt head.
Two M8 bolts each side hold the extensions to the main steel bumper, these were well rusted in so I removed the plastic shell from the steel bumper first so I could get some heat on the captive nuts without melting anything.
The steel bumper is glued into the plastic on all 3 sides but most of it was on the top and bottom viewed as it's fitted to Duchess. The Doris kept tension between the steel and plastic whilst I warmed the inside of the steel bumper which released the adhesive with the aid of a wide scraper blade.
The 4 bolts mentioned, 2 each side, could then have the captive nuts heated to help remove the bolts, I got them out clean but it took some work.
Moved on to removing the adhesive off the bumper which was a horrible job, a combination of heat, scraping and rubbing with gunwash thinners got it off eventually.
Quick inspection and it looks like the rust hasn't killed it and it's savable, I've got to fabricate a new bracket on the driver's side as I had to butcher it off with an air chisel to remove the bumper from Duchess.
There is a area around 8" long on the top face which is dented in, an earlier pic ^^^^ back a bit, shows filler applied by a past owner in an attempt to make it look better, so that will need work , so lots of derusting/painting to do. I'll replace all bolts with stainless steel on reassembly.

Also drained the sump oil today and put the damper washers the right way round on the rears.

Flossie said:

Before and after just to refresh y'all.View attachment 249095 View attachment 249096

Click to expand...

I see you have the recommended Range Rover repair kit, Big hammer, small hammer and pliers

The bumper, you can see the adhesive, don't look much but it's a bugger to get off.

I'm in the dog house.
The white stool in the pic above got some adhesive bits on it and I didn't notice when I sat on it. It stuck to my ass and consequently stuck to the cloth covered dining room chair.
My attempts to clean it off with acetone have made it worse..
I've promised to recover them when Duchess is finished which has eased the mood somewhat.
Stainless steel jubilee clips for the fuel tank filler pipe have arrived and the stainless steel bolts for the exhaust joins have too.

Long dent in the steel bumper on the RHS top.
First pic shows LHS nice and level.
Second shows the dip in the RHS.

Oops!

Bushes cut off the steel extension's, excess thread from the bolt holding the nylon blocks on cut flush with the captive nut to avoid trying to work the heavily corroded thread through the nut.

Cutting off the two tabs that the tow socket back plates attach to as they were rotten, will weld new ones on once it's derusted.

Lots of corrosion around the bumper mounting brackets especially around the driver's side one which I had to destroy to remove the bumper off Duchess. So I've decided to remove them both to make derusting the bumper much easier and will make a new one to replace the destroyed one.
Lots of cack trapped behind the brackets so I'm not regretting the extra work.

I know builders that think thats level too



J

Datatek said:

I see you have the recommended Range Rover repair kit, Big hammer, small hammer and pliers

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Ey up @Datatek , nice to see you, how's it all going?

frog hopper said:

Ey up @Datatek , nice to see you, how's it all going?

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All good here thanks, how's it with you? Got your residents card yet??

Datatek said:

All good here thanks, how's it with you? Got your residents card yet??

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Yes thanks, I got the EU one last year after a lot of faffing about, then of course had to change it for the "after brexit" one. That at least was easy.
Now just about to start jumping through hoops to exchange my driving licence.

frog hopper said:

Yes thanks, I got the EU one last year after a lot of faffing about, then of course had to change it for the "after brexit" one. That at least was easy.
Now just about to start jumping through hoops to exchange my driving licence.

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Good luck with the driving licence, I did mine years ago when my UK licence was going to expire long before it was all computerised. Apart from queuing at the prefecture, it was easy. Be aware, if you have any classes apart from B such as C or D you need to make them aware you wish to keep those categories or they will not append them to the French licence.

Datatek said:

Good luck with the driving licence, I did mine years ago when my UK licence was going to expire long before it was all computerised. Apart from queuing at the prefecture, it was easy. Be aware, if you have any classes apart from B such as C or D you need to make them aware you wish to keep those categories or they will not append them to the French licence.

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Thanks for that, yes I am aware of that, and that is one reason it may not be quite so straight forward.
The ironic thing was that I was all tooled up ready for a licence swap years ago, only to be told by the powers that be to not bother as the UK licence was valid. With brexit on the horizon I made a paper application, that had to be diverted to Nantes, and it was then rejected as my UK licence should be used until 6 months before running out. Now have to do everything online. Typical French paperchase..

Derusted and straightened rear bumper with new mount welded in and all painted. The bumper took some straightening, had to use oxy-acet and get it red hot before it would move. It must have been a considerable impact on the top surface to dent it like that, no damage to the vertical face or underneath.trial fitted it to Duchess before fully welding the new and cut off mounts (removed to enable proper derusting) and it's Bob on.