S3 109 Safari project......

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I just used black 2k over red oxide bonda primer basically because I had a 5 litre tin of black I bought years ago and been using it over the past couple of projects .. It actually brushed on really well but you have to use really good brush and work pretty fast .. I usually mixed 200mils at a time by the time it was activated and thinned that's under 1/2 litre and it goes quite far .. Probably used a litre for the entire chassis and running gear .. Mind you I'm real tight and if there was any on the brush or could be scraped out the mixing cup, it went on the axle .. talk about squeezing things out .. :)

Ive never seen the fibreglass reinforced paints , they sound interesting
 
Well, that’s the first coat of black topcoat on today. Thought I would roller it and touch in the rest with a brush. I think it looks good despite it only being the first coat. It goes on really well, but it is quite thin, so it can run quite easily. The manufacturers state it can be rollered on,brushed or sprayed, but I’m quite happy with the finish so far...:)
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Flipped the chassis over today and touched up some of the bits I couldn’t get to. I thought it best to paint the metal parts of the new bump stops as the paint as supplied doesn’t look to be very good quality. Some good quality gloss black paint looks a bit more durable now. Don’t want they to corrode a fall to bits!...
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The UJ on the half shaft is completely worn out. The bearings needed chiselled out in bits, the swivel is a lump of rust, the swivel bearings are seized and the oil is a rusty emulsion. Apart from that, everything is looking good :)
:)
 
Yeah, the casing looks okay at first inspection, but once I’ve attacked it with the wire cup on the grinder I’ll know better. I will take the diff out and see if it’s okay. If it’s as bad as the rest, then maybe a better front axle would be the way forward. To be fair, the diff end of the halfshaft looks like new, so here’s hoping! I was intending to replace anything that needed replaced, so I guess I will have a shopping list soon:D
 
To cheer me up, I thought that I would fit the new bumpstops to the front and rear. Those Britpart bumpstops really are awful! The holes don’t line up and it sits proud of the chassis pad by about a millimetre giving a fantastic area for rust to start:mad:
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The front ones are okay as I made the new pads and holes to fit the bumpstops. The rears are original and that’s where the issue is. Gotta love pattern parts...
 
I have found over the years with classic cars and bikes that most pattern parts are pretty poor, they are either made from poor quality materials or fit poorly or both.
It is usually better, where possible, to try and find an original and refurbish it than use a replacement.
I spect last night hiding a modern brake switch on an old bike in parallel to the new pattern switch because the contact strip inside the new switch was 1/3 of the length of the original. The switch is very visible and distinctive so it is in and wired in place but has another hidden switch actually providing 2/3 of the brake light switching.
How difficult would it be to make these things work properly, it took hours playing with it before finally giving up and just using it as a prop.
Anyway, still to work out what is good and bad in Britpart, got that to look forwards to in my own restoration
 
I had heard some reports of poor quality parts from Britpart, however I have had no issues with their parts until now.
It does take more time to make poor quality parts fit, where they should just fit and that’s it! I will contact Paddock and feed that back to them.
If an original part been available I would have chosen that instead, but these seem to be the only option that companies are selling as far as I can tell. I will get them to fit properly, however I really shouldn’t have to.
 
Ive ordered from loads of different sources but the resulting parts usually come in britpart labelled bags. So now instead of suplier loyalty I pick the cheapest supplier even if its just one item thats 40p cheaper and buy from them might as well save where you can :)
 
I tend to do the same. In a lot of cases I’ve been able to buy new old stock parts which are very good quality, and they are around the same price as new, possibly lesser quality parts. I like to pay an independent seller, like autojumblers who normally sell these parts rather than big companies as long as they have good feedback and the prices are keen enough. Can’t wait to get back to Landrover events and autojumbles again!! :)
 
While I am waiting on the bits for my front axle to arrive, I thought I would start the process of fitting up the fuel tank.
This is what £60 pounds worth of tank fittings looks like!
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