My new (old) Defender .. ;)

So, todays bumper instalment .. see what I did there?

We left the bumper overnight looking a bit half-way there .. so today it had to be finished. Added the filler to the nearside ‘wing’ and welded the offside wings on ..




My welding’s still absolute ****e looking, but it’s strong and works. I’d love to have a go with a decent, properly set-up mig welder sometime, see how I go with that.





As you can see from the bits on the ground, some parts, the main wings, are ‘new’ 6mm x 100mm steel plate, but some, the infills and ‘extras’ are older stuff I’ve had for a while.

So after it was all finished welding, I flapdisked and ground it reasonably flat and rounded off the edges a bit, then sprayed it with red oxide and gave it a can of Matt Black. Test fitted again ...



I also took the opportunity to add on a winch hook tie-down/recovery point ..



So I again re-fitted the winch after stripping it again and re-sealing it. Last time out I couldn’t swap from freespool to engaged, I think because all the oil had gone!! The seals were nackered, so this time I blue Hermetited ‘em .. all looks OK so far, and it spools again as it should ..



Final job, to keep Juliet happy and to make it look legal .. add the number plate! I can’t see it staying there long though ..



Quite happy with that ...

awesome Paul. It looks fantastic

now that looks the muts nuts

Yeah, I'm really pleased with it ..

Rock and Tree sliders next .. then extend the round diff pan guards underneath so I have protection at the front of the diff, make them into something similar to QT diff guards. Then look at extra steering bar guards, fuel tank maybe, gearbox maybe.

I've <cough> 'acquired' some 100 x 6mm steel plate and some 3mm wall 50 x 50 square tube ..

Looks good Paul. Good work.

can i ask what welder you use paul..?

Dunno what it is Paul, I swapped a Kawasaki 250 for it! The kawa was in bits, as was the welder. When i get chance tomorrow I'll get a picture or two. I had to re-make the handle, the wiring and the wire feed tube and rollers!!

Probably best bit of kit I have right now ..

Paul D said:

Dunno what it is Paul, I swapped a Kawasaki 250 for it! The kawa was in bits, as was the welder. When i get chance tomorrow I'll get a picture or two. I had to re-make the handle, the wiring and the wire feed tube and rollers!!

Probably best bit of kit I have right now ..

Click to expand...

NO PROB'S MATE looks to be working well.....

The mig is a Cemont Maxima Mig 150 Blumaster.

I know nothing else about it. Must be said, I've replaced a lot of the external bits like the wire feed tube and gas piping, had to clean all the wire feed rollers up and all the wiring. I think it was stood in my mates garage for years against a wall, so everything had been bent and eventually broken. He hadn't used it for 5 years he reckoned ..

This is what I swapped it for .. the bike, not the Disco .. in that condition ..

Paul D said:

So after it was all finished welding, I flapdisked and ground it reasonably flat and rounded off the edges a bit, then sprayed it with red oxide and gave it a can of Matt Black. Test fitted again ...

Click to expand...

no piccies lol

looks nice tho

nrgserv said:

no piccies lol

looks nice tho

Click to expand...

Heheheh, forgot to take pics in between things ...

I have more red oxide though for the chequer plate bonnet caps .. they're shiny in the sun, and at night with the spots on, so they'll be sprayed red, then matt black. I'll get a pic of the red stage ..

Usually I am not bothered too much how stuff looks, sufficient that if a thing works properly and works well it'll usually look 'right' anyway, like the bumper I fettled. It works and so it also looks brilliant! (well, I think it does!) I'm usually much more of a believer in function over form than most people I know. So this leads me to the 'tarting up' of my bonnet.

I've painted the bonnet chequer plate aluminium with Matt Black, originally 'cos now that the sun's out, the glare on it is absolutely horrendous and I'm attempting to stop it.

However .. having painted it and put the bonnet back on, I have to say I think it looks drop dead gorgeous and it'll make me do the wing plates too .. which don't usually reflect too much when driving, I'll be doing them solely 'cos I think they'll look good too. Balanced, Ying and Yang, YinYan, Feng Shui, whatever .. Mind, it'll not be today, places to go, people to see and all that!

The first pic is for Neil .. red oxide ..



Then matt black ..



Second coat, left to dry a little ..and the masking removed ..



And back where it should be ..



In fact that pic inadvertantly shows the issue, look at the glare from the offside wing panel, and the lack of glare on the main panel .. I rest my case!!

It does, however, look the absolute bollocks to me ...

I might have to do all the chequer plate, even inside, just 'cos it looks so much better matt black than shiny!

don't think I've ever painted ally with red oxide
looks nice tho. might even prefer it to the matt black

My whole 90 is Matt Black and the paint is starting to peel off the checker plate, but then I didn't undercoat it or be very careful with spraying, maybe will clean it back and try etching primer soon. Anyhow yours is looking good, and somewhat similar to my 90 keep up the posts and photos, great reading

The roof rack is not on it all the time, but it's the only decent recent photo.

nrgserv said:

don't think I've ever painted ally with red oxide
looks nice tho. might even prefer it to the matt black

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Same here .. but it was what I had available and I don't like putting paint on without an undercoat or primer of some sort.

If it doesn't work then I've learnt something and will re-do it properly!

If it does, job's a good 'un ..

looking good paul...you cant go wrong with black...



i swear by it..

Had a day with Juliet today .. did nowt, and stayed home. She couldn't be arsed 'cos the weather forecast apparently said rain on the way!

She did say, if I wanted, she'd help with the Landrover ...

So set to on the 90 .. did the bonnet, then started on the handbrake .. jeez, what a mess. The inside was coated black with oil, so I was thinking oh dear! Transfer box oil seal .. but it was all old and bone dry! I reckon they fixed the leak ages ago but couldn't be arsed to clean it out properly. Any road up, I really need a new handbrake cable 'cos I've used the adjuster, which is just on the cam point, and tightened the cable as far as it will and the handbrake does bite now, but I don't think it'll be long before it goes again!

Then on to the exhaust. I fitted a new downpipe a few weeks ago, but it was the wrong sort and wouldn't bolt up to the engine, though I ran it for a while. Green laning the other week pulled it out of the manifold and something needed doing .. so I made a bracket, fitted it and all is now well in the exhaust world ..

Then loads of little jobs, door card screwed on, not properly, it's too rotted, but until I can get round to re-working the doors I bodged it with rawlplugs and self-tappers .. All I had to hand!

Cut out a couple of rusty floor plates that were just left when the floor was replaced, way before I got it, in fact I didn't cut them out, they just pulled out with loads of mud/clay that I was trying to clean out of the crevices!

Removed the rear prop while doing the handbrake and spent an hour trying to get it apart as the slider wouldn't .. so wire brushing, wet 'n drying and general cleaning and fettling with copious quantities of grease, and it now works .. the UJ's were dry, but with no play or noise, so again, greased till they bled .. job's a good 'un.

Got the caravan out to check it'll tow level, which it almost does .. it'll do! Did a few small jobs on that, Juliet cleaned it ..

Now in and watching TV. Knocked off early 'cos I'd been feeling crap all day and started to feel really quite unwell with a ringing head and dizziness, anmd no, I didn't crack me crust when under the 90!!

Exact same symptoms as my lad, who came home from work last week and had to have a week in bed, viral infection apparently.

Hopefully I'll be OK, lots to do ..

jeeze you have been busy, i may have a cable in the garage you can have

top-cat said:

jeeze you have been busy, i may have a cable in the garage you can have

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Most of it was done sat down, or when under the Landy, sat up .. been feeling crap. Dizzy, trouble focussing and generally unwell. Just had an hour or so asleep on the settee and feel a bit better but the heads starting to ring again! Not happy ..

Cheers mate ..

Not done a right lot today, still feeling bad, viral infection, feels like I’ve been hit with a hammer …

So, I decided to start making a basic set of rocksliders .. First job was to get the Alloy Chequer Plate off and the sills. This is how the sides looked as I got it …



It looks like they were siliconed on, as well as pop rivetted, but by gum it were stuck on very, very well! Was a right beeatch to remove and left a right mess ..






Sills finally removed and all the little brackets, ‘stuff’ and mud/rust moved so I could get measurements for the rockslider brackets .. I’d already measured and cut steel, so it’s just bracket placement I now need to sort out.

Part of that is sourcing some round tubing, suitable to slot into the 90 chassis tubes .. it looks like 44 ish mm .. or maybe 1 3/4” diameter .. if anyone has some spare I’d be indebted ..




So that’s where I am with it, the easy bits done, cutting the bars to length, but the time taken to remove the sills without damaging anything else means I’ve only done the drivers side so far, and it started getting dark so I came in for grub ..

More tomorrow ... if I fell well enough ....