A

alex and harry

Member
Hi everyone,

So I'm slowly refurbishing the bodywork on my 89 defender. The rear tub has been sanded down and I've noticed a few areas of wear that's resulted in some holes say half a dozen about 3-4mm nothing huge, I've sanded back to bear alloy, but I would really appreciate advice on how to fill these. I'm a real novice no welding skills or equipment. But I have seen aluminium brazing rods using a plumbers hand held torch? The underside has been waxoiled up, I was worried about a fire happening? I could leave it prime paint and then put a rubber Matt down but I want to do a proper job.

Any ideas greatly welcomed. Cheers.
 
I tore a hole in my tub, and I just riveted a panel over the top and painted it, depends on what sort of finish your after?
 
Where are the holes? Common place is the rear panels where they bolt to the rear crossmember, you can buy that panel new and it just rivits in.
 
You may struggle trying to braize aly into the holes. I tried it with aly rods from ebay to repair the ribs on the underside of the tub where the cross members are riveted. It just didnt want to work and the residual heat started to buckle the floor. Id clean off the back of the panel, stick on some fibreglass matting then fill the front face. Once you spray underseal over the matting, you wont even notice it. Before you do any of that, just tap the edges of the holes with a ball pein hammer onto a block just to depress the edges a bit.
Im not sure if you can lead fill holes in aly like they used to in steel panels. Im sure some one will come along and correct this.
 
mick the builder said:
You may struggle trying to braize aly into the holes. I tried it with aly rods from ebay to repair the ribs on the underside of the tub where the cross members are riveted. It just didnt want to work and the residual heat started to buckle the floor. Id clean off the back of the panel, stick on some fibreglass matting then fill the front face. Once you spray underseal over the matting, you wont even notice it. Before you do any of that, just tap the edges of the holes with a ball pein hammer onto a block just to depress the edges a bit.
Im not sure if you can lead fill holes in aly like they used to in steel panels. Im sure some one will come along and correct this.
Click to expand...
I'm with Mick. That's your best option option I reckon. The waxoyl will be a PITA to get off in order to get the fibre glass to stick, but any heat process is going to make it set fire anyway. The holes will almost certainly be where the floor touches the ribs, so that will cause another hassle trying to get the fibre glass behind. You could just spread filler over the holes.
Alternatively, you could replace the floor panel. EXAMPLE FLOOR PANEL You'll need the rivets and put seam sealer around the edges and rubber/similar between floor and the ribs.
 
I have glued a thin aluminium patch on from behind with chemical metal, then filled the front with chemical metal and sanded flush. Works great.
some people think this type of repair is a bodge, but gluing aluminium is how companies like lotus make their chassis
 
K14 said:
I have glued a thin aluminium patch on from behind with chemical metal, then filled the front with chemical metal and sanded flush. Works great.
some people think this type of repair is a bodge, but gluing aluminium is how companies like lotus make their chassis
Click to expand...
What kind of prep is required, would I need to remove the was oil? Also what glue have you used?

Cheers
 
alex and harry said:
What kind of prep is required, would I need to remove the was oil? Also what glue have you used?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yes the waxoil will need to be removed, otherwise the adhesive won’t bond to the ally. Personally I have used tigerseal, and stixall for gluing my aluminium panels back together for my rebuild.
 
I used araldite 2015 to bond the top hat to underside floor panel worked for years but then delaminated from one end just redid it last year and rivetted as well
 
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