It looks as though it'll make a great overlander truck. A lot to like (it really does look like a defender from the side profile), so it is a shame the front grille has been struck by the ugly stick. Several times.

Keep up the good work on your Landie!

Maybe you could mod it for a Defender front grill lol.
I'm happy to stick with this auld girl though, and I doubt I could afford one anyway lol

got to love an old Series!

Time to remove the Bulkhead
Now the fun begins

Ordered one of these to pull the drop arm of the steering box, as I couldn't find a good puller to fit from my own tools.It will be useful for a few things I'm Shure and was not too much at £28 on the bay

I've been very lucky there. A mate of mine in the village fancied a challenge so he made one of those pullers. He let me borrow it and it worked a treat.

I have three different puller's that don't fit lol.
Did think about making one. I guess it is useful for separating various links, so figured it an investment and I would have taken too long making it

Going to DingBro Paint shop today. U-Pol Raptor epoxy primer seems to be the way to go for the bulkhead.
It will take bog/filler and is anti corrosive on bare metal restoration projects. Also I have been painting with their urethane products for a few years and get lovely results which are as tough as clearcoat which all new water based painted cars need on top to reduce the water based paint falling off. If you have a newish car, you may notice how easily the paint chips to bare metal. I know water based paint is less evil, but it's just not as tough and doesn't stick as well as urethane 2K does.

This was the skirt on my old Scooby.
It had had an argument with a wall and lost, so I fixed it filled and primed with a special automotive primer
with base coats down

With clear coat on, finish from the gun (Delvilbiss).

And final result back on the car.

Now the bulkhead's off I can get in to the middle bit and repair a bit which is full of holesthe inside looks worse
And I've cut a piece of galvanised steel for it, but will have to put the curve in
Also I've got the Raptor and it's good to go
So when I've repaired the last section I can protect fill flat and finally start to get something resembling a really good completely original Bulkhead

Hoping this will give a nice curveWith a bit of trimming looks ok

The idea is to weld the top, then cut the bottom through both at an angle to get a more snug fit.
Thank you for demonstrating this technique on your YouTube channel Cory Anderson.

Couldn't get all the rust cleaned off here so used a rust converter
It will be embalmed with the Raptor later lol

I think so long as I take my time and avoid too much heat, this should come together nicely

You've had a very productive day! Very jealous as i'm sat working and bored to death.

I was back to work three and a half weeks ago, but am on annual leave now. Shure we're all just glad to have a job right now.
I can't wait to be flatting and finishing lol

I'm on annual leave now, but had been back to work for three weeks.
Hope you get yours soon

Come on admit it. You just got a set of cobalt bits and couldn't resist

Looks great. A lora lora work.

It is a bit daunting, but one step at a time, and loads to learn.
Phoned the company which fitted a stage one head in 1999 today and they still had records lol.
The lady thought it may have been fitted with their 2.8 four pot engine. I had no idea such things existed.
So you could have what looked like a standard 2.25 petrol motor, but it may be 2.8 litres. How mad is that

It's a hmm it day today, and it's great to be able to access all the Bulkhead to clean to metal and sort any final bits of welding before flatting and Raptor paint anti corrosion protection. Oh and another cold Bud.
Even the dog's taken refuge from the heat

And the curved repair panel is solid
I can see it would be easier to do this job off the car if you had a mounting jig.
Also it would be way faster, however I have enjoyed taking more time and having the support of what little was left from components such as the steering column. Just getting a bit impatient to shoot the Raptor all over and preserve this old Preloved and reloved bulkhead, so it could easily survive another fourth years or more.

Finally all the welding is done, and I've even got paint too
Enough for the entire project so I'm feeling pretty poor. But it is all one batch so one colour and 2k Standox too so really lovely paint.

Well I gave a good try to some Landover styled rust converter and protector.
It did convert surface rust and is in an acrylic water based medium.
However, all treated parts turned chocolate brown after a few days, and it was a pain removing the acrylic film back down to rusty metal again. That's going in the bin at a total loss of nearly fourth quid which hurts. But there is no way it will find its way onto my chassis, just not happening .

So after doing research for something to protect, with powerful anti corrosive properties to match galvanized metal, and most importantly bing extremely well with bog-body filler. I came to the Raptor.
I needed to protect the bare metal immediately and before filling. Normally I use system 20 2k high build primer, and it has never let me down.
But this bulkhead really seems to want to rust, so something better was needed.

All the welding and grinding is done. Lots of filling and flatting is needed to work towards a quality finish. I caused some distortions butt welding, but it's all really strong and solid. But I should have not permitted as much hear build up in some parts, my bad.

Meet 5liyres of Raptor Epoxy anti corrosive Primer.
You can spray this stuff on a panel with surface rust, let it set, or is that evolve lol.
Then spray salty water at the panel for 2000hours, and nothing happens to it.
That's what I call Military grade protection
Also because it's an epoxy based primer, it will bond awesomely well with filler, which is perfect.
This stuff is my first choice to protect my Chassis with a black 2K pain over it.

It does seem expensive at £130 for 5 Litres, but that will do all my steel bits and go a very long way. It also keeps well.
I know some parts look awful where I've cut sections of rusty metal out and welded new metal in, but these will improve dramatically with some panel beating and flatting out.
The important thing is no more bare metal to oxidize Infront of me, and as I work more Raptor will be applied.
When it's good the voids will be treated with Waxol several times by insertion of a special long tube applicator. Well it's just some nylon tube with a nail in the end. The nail let's the warm wax past and causes it to spray out sideways, so it's perfect for impossible to reach internal spaces. I have found the key to using Waxol is a big bucket of very hot water, to get the oil very warm and melted to liquid form.