Trumar

Trumar

Active Member
I thought it to be better to start a new post about the ongoing work on the chassis on my series 2a swb 1971. My first post was on Oct 2nd 2023. Today has been the first time since my last post that I have been able to get on with the chassis. My time has been taken up with me helping my mother at her place. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer just over 21/2yrs ago, but things have been getting hard for her as she now needs a zimmerframe to get around her apartment (I call her place a flat but she always corrects me by saying “this is a apartment as it has 2 bathrooms” lol). Also a wheelchair when we take her out pain permitting.
A friend told me to hit around the chassis and see if there is more rust damage than I thought it looked. Well as you can see by the pictures there is more holes!! I’m looking for advice as to what I need to do next please?
 

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Had another look at the pictures. Even the centre crossmember is rotten and been patched up previously.
 
Anaconda said:
If the front end is good then maybe half a chassis if available.
Can you weld?
Click to expand...
I haven’t tried welding yet! I know that the front has had some welding done in the past. There is no damage to front chassis though.
 
you can get most parts as replacements if you have a look on inter web, I would print out a plan of a chassis and mark up where you got holes, previous repairs, what bits good.
Then price up parts to repair and estimate welding labour charges
Decide whether to get mobile welder or buy welder yourself and learn how to, guarantee after fixing that you’ll be top notch 😀, maybe keep eye open for local welding classes at college on evening

If diy then buy some decent steel plate , plasma cutters good for cutting it.
Rear tub comes off easy and gives tip you access to all sides
 
How much is a chassis nowadays, when I looked a few years back it was about £1500. Make sure you look carefully at the front, last year I towed a Series 3 whose front chassis looked good, turned out it wasn't!
If you are capable of swapping a chassis then that would be the best option.
Paying someone to weld it up most likely won't be cost effective.
£500 or so will get you a welder, then gas and equipment on top of that.
 
Oops! Hope you got him to sign the disclaimer first!
I got stuck in deep mud on an off road quarry pit just after I got my series, was pulled out with gusto by a discovery 1 and moved me by several big jerks taking a run at it, thought my front end was going to come off then !
 
steve2286w said:
Oops! Hope you got him to sign the disclaimer first!
I got stuck in deep mud on an off road quarry pit just after I got my series, was pulled out with gusto by a discovery 1 and moved me by several big jerks taking a run at it, thought my front end was going to come off then !
Click to expand...
It was someone who is regular on our greenlane trips.
Wasn't even on a lane when the mishap happened, too much slack on the rope when we pulled out onto a road.
It's all welded up now.
 
Trumar said:
I do understand what you are saying to me it will take me most of this year to save the money. If that is my only hope then I will have to try.
Click to expand...
Atleast it will be done once and won't need doing again.
In the meantime you can restore, tidy up other parts ready to swap things over.
 
Trumar said:
I do understand what you are saying to me it will take me most of this year to save the money. If that is my only hope then I will have to try.
Click to expand...

Anaconda said:
Atleast it will be done once and won't need doing again.
In the meantime you can restore, tidy up other parts ready to swap things over.
Click to expand...

Hey @steve2286w, tell him how long you've spent on everything except the chassis!

From starting stripping mine down to driving it on the new chassis was about six months without a day job. From starting to put the bits back on the chassis to that drive was about a week of short days. You have a lot to do before even needing to order a chassis.

The good thing about spending your evenings and weekends on it - no money spent in the pub.
 
Think I’ve had mine about 18 years this year and I’ve had just about every part off to replace / refurb
Rear floor, front floors , a posts, front panel, windows, rear door, both axles and diffs , all springs , seat box repair, engine refurb (2) , gearbox refurb , all brakes, fuel tanks.

Surprisingly I stopped saving all the receipts and doing spreadsheet of costs years ago it think it’s worth more than what I’ve spent on it in those years!

Bear in mind it won’t be just cost of chassis it will look so good you’ll want to change other bits , but if you refurb those bits first it helps also to get all the rusty bolts off so when you come to remove items for possible chassis change they’ll come off easy and won’t need to replaced

Other think to consider is the space available to strip/ store stuff in dry if poss.
 
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