Freelander 1 welding question - Seat belt anchorages

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FirebladeGuy

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Hi all, Just joined the forum. I'm looking at a few Freelander 1's at the moment ... don't mind a cheap project, in fact that's exactly what i'm looking for but I have a question about welding and couldn't find anything on the forums about this specific issue, not sure if its common or not and hoping someone here has knowledge / experience in dealing with it.

So, found a car local to me that I really like. It needs a few things doing, none of which concern me except the old MOT history which suggests structural weakness in close proximity to seat belt mounting points. Judging by the MOT dates the guy just took it to a different MOT station the very next day and suddenly all the issues were fixed. Seemed a bit dodgy to me but anyway, I can weld so my question is ...

Has anyone had to weld a Freelander 1 to fix this issue? and if so do you by any chance have pictures and / or advice on the job.

Thanks very much for any replies, looking forward to joining the Land Rover community!

J
 
It could be that first MOT garage was overzealous about corrosion.
My last MOT test would have mine in a scrap yard this year. Mine has some light surface corrosion, which I've mostly addressed in preparation for the next MOT.

However if you are at all concerned about this vehicle's structural condition, it's generally best to look for another one. I'm guessing the seat belt mountings mentioned in the MOT are for the rear belts, as the front belt mountings are either hidden inside the B pillar, or are part of the seat frame.

The FL1 does suffer from corrosion, but they're generally better than other LRs, which rot away for a past time.

Post lots of pictures of anything rusty on here, for us to take a look at.
 
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I have just started working on welding up the sills on our new Freelander 1. It's triple layer which is a bit of a pain, because if the layer in the middle rusts out you have to cut off the outer sill, even if it's solid, to get to the middle layer.
I haven't been able to find new outer sill panels (except for Rimmerbros but they want £1400 per side) but there are generic channel sections on ebay so for now I bought one of those. The tricky thing is that the out sill kicks in where the plastic finisher clips over the rear end of the sill so I will have to try and make that shape myself.
 
pscan.eu said:
I have just started working on welding up the sills on our new Freelander 1. It's triple layer which is a bit of a pain, because if the layer in the middle rusts out you have to cut off the outer sill, even if it's solid, to get to the middle layer.
I haven't been able to find new outer sill panels (except for Rimmerbros but they want £1400 per side) but there are generic channel sections on ebay so for now I bought one of those. The tricky thing is that the out sill kicks in where the plastic finisher clips over the rear end of the sill so I will have to try and make that shape myself.
Click to expand...
I've just had to do a similar repair on my daughter's Toyota Aygo. The outer sill had some bubbles under the paint, which I knew would be holes after grinding back. However the inner structure was missing altogether, so I had to repair that before repairing the outer sill.
The sill end capping was also in a bad way, so that was replaced as well. I did struggle to weld up the outer sill, as the metal is like paper, I measured it at 0.6mm, so getting the wire feed and amperage right too some time.

Hopefully that's enough to get it through the MOT for another year.
 
Fools...
You should walk away from those petty pretend 4x4 things and look at a Series or Defender. At least the bits that rust are made out of thicker material. :cool:
Or if you want some comfort, go for a Discovery. The Disco 1s are all mostly rot free... They only rot on their inner and outer sills, footwells, wheelarches, boot floors and if really unlucky, bits of the chassis. I've had three and never had an issue with any chassis.
Disco 2s on the other hand have good bodywork but the chassis rots out.
 
Arctic2 said:
Lots on ebay.
Click to expand...
I bought one. It was just a generic profile of bent metal, which didn't even match the profile of the original sill very well. Additionally the shape of the sill is actually quite complex and those eBay ones simply don't have the right shape.
 
pscan.eu said:
Thank you for such a useful response. I also appreciate how quickly you replied. It can't have been easy to provide so much useful information as you came out of the pub at 23:18.
Click to expand...
No acolol involved. Just having a shufty online when i should have been going to bed. The alarm went off at ten to four this morning, a bit earlier than normal to give me some potential 'break down' time as i was taking the 101 into work today. Last time(first) it broke down four times on the way to work and then i gave up counting on the way home which at five miles to go, dummy was well spat out of the pram and i demanded to be taken home!
Turned out to be fuel starvation due to a REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY blocked fuel filter above the sedimenter bowl.
New filters fitted and it flew to work and then broke my record coming home by about 7.5 hours! :mexicanwave:

It must have been sucking so hard through that filter i'm surprised the doors weren't being pulled in!

Oh, and even better idea. Dump the Freelander and get a 101 instead!
 

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yfo866 said:
No acolol involved. Just having a shufty online when i should have been going to bed. The alarm went off at ten to four this morning, a bit earlier than normal to give me some potential 'break down' time as i was taking the 101 into work today. Last time(first) it broke down four times on the way to work and then i gave up counting on the way home which at five miles to go, dummy was well spat out of the pram and i demanded to be taken home!
Turned out to be fuel starvation due to a REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY blocked fuel filter above the sedimenter bowl.
New filters fitted and it flew to work and then broke my record coming home by about 7.5 hours! :mexicanwave:

It must have been sucking so hard through that filter i'm surprised the doors weren't being pulled in!

Oh, and even better idea. Dump the Freelander and get a 101 instead!
Click to expand...
I'm not sure many Freelander owners would sacrifice the comfortable, quiet, and warm interior of a Freelander, to replace it with a farm implement.
 
Also none of these easy to weld beasts are ULEZ compliant so no good to me.
I don't think that my wife wants to drive a late model 4.6 P38 around the suburbs of London.
There's nothing wrong with a small, economical 4x4 estate car that's pretty capable off road. It's probably why they sold so well.
I don't see why that should trigger yfo866 so much.
 
pscan.eu said:
that's why I drive this

DSC_2124s.jpg
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Nice, i nearly bought one of those, but ive only ever owned one Jag, a 1966 S-Type 3.8 but i think i'd prefer my Disco 1 ES with everything on it to your X-Type. It's the most comfortable long distance car i've ever driven. Plus you could go mad off road in it and i spent an hour opening up country lanes blocked with deep snow at times level with the bonnet by repeatedly ramming through it! Something you couldn't do in a Jag, not even if it the same mud tyres on my Disco had...
 
yfo866 said:
Nice, i nearly bought one of those, but ive only ever owned one Jag, a 1966 S-Type 3.8 but i think i'd prefer my Disco 1 ES with everything on it to your X-Type. It's the most comfortable long distance car i've ever driven. Plus you could go mad off road in it and i spent an hour opening up country lanes blocked with deep snow at times level with the bonnet by repeatedly ramming through it! Something you couldn't do in a Jag, not even if it the same mud tyres on my Disco had...
Click to expand...
It's not an X Type. What an insult !
 
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