Right, so lets have a look at the tailgate - its a common problem for a wee rust hole to appear under the handle.

Ah FFS....


Now I should have cut the hole back to bare metal and cut a patch to the exact size and butt-welded it in place. I couldnt be harrised though, and 96% of this is hidden by the handle and the numberplate anyway so I just cut the rot off and lashed a couple of plates over the top....


Buffed down and painted, the repair is completely* invisible....Nice masking job, Dave.


I got a couple of cans of black stone-chip shield and gave both sills a 1987 Cortina style tidemark...more great masking on the right hand side, Dave.



And thats about it. The fuel tank cradle needs a little attention but I have had my fill of welding for now...also due to my typical luck and sound economic reasoning, I filled the tank right up about 40 minutes before the clutch finally gave up. Its way too heavy to be messing with just now.

Longer term, the paint will need done, I dont like the black sills. Each door has a dent in it and the bonnet has been badly sprayed in the past, so I really need to do them all...plus the sills....may as well do the whole fecking car as since the roof comes off there is only a wee bit of rear quarter left really, which will save messing about with colour matching and I am bored of red anyway.

I have ordered the hydraulics for the clutch. I havent ordered the clutch kit yet, I will wait till its in bits and I can assess the flywheel. Its a DMF and I need to decide whether to keep it or go for a solid conversion. Given the cars mileage, I reckon solid will be the way forward, but we will see....

I can chip in some on the paint if you want to sell those LRSV badges you got. I got one and need two more

Some skilled repairs there.... you obviously like a welding challenge - have you thought about getting a Disco?

JRNORWAY said:

I can chip in some on the paint if you want to sell those LRSV badges you got. I got one and need two more

Click to expand...

Negative, sorry. I didnt realise they were sought-after....Ages back I went to a wee indy Landrover garage to get fault codes read and the dude creamed his pants and asked me to sell him the badges!

Tannaton said:

Some skilled repairs there.... you obviously like a welding challenge - have you thought about getting a Disco?

Click to expand...

Thanks.
Had an early Disco, had a 200tdi Defender too....surprisingly never had to weld either of them.
I am the exception to the Land Rover rule!

Took the trims off the back of the sills on mine today, definate serious problem area if not cleaned out.
Would advise any FL owner to check theirs.

It was 2.2mm i think, which was a bit too thick in hindsight, but I had it in the garage so used it rather than buy any more. 1.8 or so would be fine.