owas · Jan 27, 2018

Ive taken on a bit of a project disco,
It was stripped apart last year and all the welding done, but then rear ended.

The left chassis leg has been bent up(only the last ft or so) along with the middle box section, ahead of that is all straight and fine.

The way i was thinking of takling this was to cut off the middle box section, get the left chassis leg as straight as possible and weld a large steel box section as a bumper with gussets (like a defender crossmember)

Just after ideas how people would go about this?
The bootfloor and tank will be removed for access.

dieseldog69 · Jan 27, 2018

Nothing really bad happened.

You could of course do better than make it as it was, but if you just want it to be normal then drop the tank, cut the rear crossmember out and so long as the rear body mounts are fine then just weld in a decent bit of box section.

I beg you, please don't ruin the arse end of a Discovery by slapping a sh!77y old Defender rear crossmember on it, it would just look sh!t.

If you want to do something to improve the rear end aesthetics then get some plate and a heap of card and build a nice custom one from scratch, it really isn't that hard and it will look much better.

I have been toying with the idea of cutting that rear crossmember out and plating my chassis railsback a foot both sides and welding in a 5mm "L" plate to use as a rear winch tray with gussets and simple alloy fairlead for a synthetic rope on a custom fabricated rear bumper that would also have decent recovery points and extra mounting points and strengthening plates and brackets welded on to cope with any recovery, now that is a worthwhile something to do.

dieseldog69 · Jan 27, 2018

Nearly forgot, you only need to undo the body mount bolts at the back, the rear seat belt mounts on the boot floor (these are a torx headed flanged bolt) and the rear sill body mount bolts, you can then wedge the body up on the rails to get clearance enough to weld it up, it really isn't that deep, not enough to cut the boot floor out as it doesn't go beyond the rear body crossmember.

owas · Jan 28, 2018

dieseldog69 said:
Nothing really bad happened.

You could of course do better than make it as it was, but if you just want it to be normal then drop the tank, cut the rear crossmember out and so long as the rear body mounts are fine then just weld in a decent bit of box section.

I beg you, please don't ruin the arse end of a Discovery by slapping a sh!77y old Defender rear crossmember on it, it would just look sh!t.

If you want to do something to improve the rear end aesthetics then get some plate and a heap of card and build a nice custom one from scratch, it really isn't that hard and it will look much better.

I have been toying with the idea of cutting that rear crossmember out and plating my chassis railsback a foot both sides and welding in a 5mm "L" plate to use as a rear winch tray with gussets and simple alloy fairlead for a synthetic rope on a custom fabricated rear bumper that would also have decent recovery points and extra mounting points and strengthening plates and brackets welded on to cope with any recovery, now that is a worthwhile something to do.

I think a series 2 crossmsmber looks pretty good tbh

But no not buying anything, i can get the steel free from work lol.

So chop out crossmember, straighen out chassis leg somehow (BFH and a large scaffolding bar?

), weld in a peice of box section between the chassis legs and then weld a 'heavy duty' bumper right to that.

Only thing im worried about is ,where the leg has bent up there is a crease, i doubt ill be able to remove that completely, would it be an MOT issue?

dieseldog69 · Jan 28, 2018

Have you got a better picture of the chassis rail that is bent as all I have to work with is the bent rear chassis crossmember.

if the longitudinal leg is creased then look at maybe chopping that out, straightening the leg to meet the rear body mounts and plating it up and then go from there.

A 2A crossmember does look good, on a series 2A

owas · Jan 28, 2018

dieseldog69 said:
Nearly forgot, you only need to undo the body mount bolts at the back, the rear seat belt mounts on the boot floor (these are a torx headed flanged bolt) and the rear sill body mount bolts, you can then wedge the body up on the rails to get clearance enough to weld it up, it really isn't that deep, not enough to cut the boot floor out as it doesn't go beyond the rear body crossmember.

The bootfloor is removable and its the only way i can get to the top of the tank to remove it ,and i want to treat the chassis.

dieseldog69 · Jan 28, 2018

owas said:
The bootfloor is removable and its the only way i can get to the top of the tank to remove it ,and i want to treat the chassis.

If you want to remove the floor no problem, but it is a lot of work and you've still gotta lift the rear body crossmember clear of the rails to weld the new crossmember in.

owas · Jan 28, 2018

dieseldog69 said:
Have you got a better picture of the chassis rail that is bent as all I have to work with is the bent rear chassis crossmember.

if the longitudinal leg is creased then look at maybe chopping that out, straightening the leg to meet the rear body mounts and plating it up and then go from there.

A 2A crossmember does look good, on a series 2A

Ok so ive had a closer look again, it looks asif the crossmember took most the hit, but the left chassis leg was hit too and has creased, but the body mount is still intact and it doesnt seem to be bent up like i first though, seems prettty much inline with the right leg.
Sorry about the poor quality, my phone camera is abit broken, making it look more rusty than it is too lol.

dieseldog69 · Jan 28, 2018

I'd plumb and line that.

Have you pulled the carpet and sound deadening mat up off the boot floor to check if the boot floor has creased/warped?

Is the back door opening and closing smoothly?

Is it still square in the door opening?

So long as it hasn't gone and bent upwards too far that looks like an easy enough fix with that crease cut out and a scaff pole in the rail to bend it true, you might get lucky(although I doubt it) and be able to get a vertical bend out with leverage, if it's gone up too much you might need a relief cut, bend it back and weld her up to get it true(ish), that you can check by clamping a length of timber to the bottom of the rail and measuring the distance of both rails to get a measurement to work from.

Boot floor out will give you easiest access for that.

owas · Jan 28, 2018

Back door isnt opening at all, because the latch is stuck

another thing i need to sort out.
But the only part of the body thats taken a knock is where the crossmember has bent up and touched the body crossmember,other than that it looks undamaged.

Ill get a few mesurments done tomorow to see how out it is, it doesn't look as bad as i initially thought though, should be easy enough to save

dieseldog69 · Jan 28, 2018

A days work start to finish should see it done.

Make sure you take loads of pictures.

owas · Jan 28, 2018

According to the jig mesurments between the 2 rear bodymounts should be 991mm, i have 993mm, i think that within spec lol.

I need to check a few more mesurements but it can wait till next week now, gotta sort the garden out today

owas · Jan 28, 2018

Looks like ive been screwed over a little here

What i thought was solid, turns out hes stripped it and just tack welded steel on

why would anyone do that if you've already gone to all that trouble?

Looks like the defender will have a lot of new spares now, leason learnt.

Magicgrotto · Jan 28, 2018

@owas Sorry can't make your last pic out !!
IF it were mine I would take the floor out ! get the tank out ! & CUT the cross member thru the MIDDLE & watch it OPEN UP & & SPRING back to were it should be WIDTH wize Then take it from there !!

owas · Jan 28, 2018

Magicgrotto said:
@owas Sorry can't make your last pic out !!
IF it were mine I would take the floor out ! get the tank out ! & CUT the cross member thru the MIDDLE & watch it OPEN UP & & SPRING back to were it should be WIDTH wize Then take it from there !!

I didnt mind fixing the chassis, but im not going through the thing rewelding the plates fully, way too much effort.

The last pic is where the rear arch has a plate, which is only tacked on every inch or so.

It went through the last MOT like this somehow at a kwickfit.

Magicgrotto · Jan 28, 2018

Looks sollide enough to me ! & they look like SPOT welds in pic ! + if you wont to stop it rotting any more FLASH BAND is your friend !

owas · Jan 28, 2018

Magicgrotto said:
Looks sollide enough to me ! & tey look like SPOT welds in pic ! + if you wont to stop it rotting any more FLASH BAND is your friend !

Might be strong enough (and i wouldnt have back seats so seat belt mounts not an issue)
But must be a continuous seam to pass MOT, footwells ect is the same.

Magicgrotto · Jan 28, 2018

owas said:
Might be strong enough (and i wouldnt have back seats so seat belt mounts not an issue)
But must be a continuous seam to pass MOT, footwells ect is the same.

All my welds are FULL welds

owas · Jan 28, 2018

Magicgrotto said:
View attachment 140403 View attachment 140404 View attachment 140405
All my welds are FULL welds

Thats what i was expecting to see lol.

Magicgrotto · Jan 28, 2018

All 2mm plate ! 10mm over size !

LOL

If you put your approx location maybe someone could have a look & give you some pointers !

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