LincolnSteve · Sep 21, 2022

Doors. Had a final fit and then prep and prime.

I made a gadget to hold them while I primed them. A couple of big bolts though a bit of wood that go into the holes where the door tops fix on. Let me get round them and move them until they dried.

LincolnSteve · Sep 21, 2022

Steering. Could have been more thorough with this and replaced more parts. Had to go sensible in the end. It's all serviceable if not perfect.

That's Steamwally on the laptop. Really helps.

Spong · Sep 22, 2022

Lovely work, as always.

LincolnSteve · Sep 22, 2022

Spong said:
Lovely work, as always.

Thank you. Much appreciated.

LincolnSteve · Sep 22, 2022

Next with the help of my roof removal technical consultant, off comes the roof again. Here's something new, a short time lapse video. It's on my son's youtube channel so don't forget to like/comment/subscribe. Also I can't be responsible for any of the other content of the channel (even though as his dad I probably should be).

LincolnSteve · Sep 22, 2022

LincolnSteve · Sep 22, 2022

Just to illustrate how long i've been at this project compare if you will the picture above of my son last week with this one of him the day after I got the land rover.

I have been working on it for half his life! I've got to get this finished.

steve2286w · Sep 22, 2022

LincolnSteve said:
Petrol tank. Had a right to and fro over this as to whether to try to save it. At the beginning I was very cocky about it and just decided i'd get a new one when the time came so didn't take too much care over storing it. Fast forward years and the reassembly is starting to cost the earth so I had a think about saving it.
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Didn't look terrible. Had a bit of a scratch and scrape at it and could see some shiny metal showing through in a couple of places. What about inside though?
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Maybe not the end of the world? The cost of the new ones and hearing the stories of how they never fit anyway made me decide to throw a drop of Bilt Hamber deox c in. I thought if that would get rid of the rust on the inside I could face tackling the outside. And it worked a treat. I only used a couple of pints and tilted the tank to have an experiment in one corner but it was good. So I mixed up enough deox to fill the tank about an inch deep thinking I would let it sit for 24 hrs then tip it to one side and repeat going round the whole thing doing each internal surface. Brilliant plan until I came back next morning to adjust and found there must be a leak somewhere between the botton of the tank and that cradle thing that it's partly welded to. So the tank is a goner and I now have a very, very clean stripe of garage floor and drive just outside where it tried to drain away. Managed to salvage most of the deox though and the new tank is here. And it doesn't fit.

had a leak on mine and got it sorted with some epoxy putty and fibre glass after separating the cradle it’s kind of soldered on , I coated the inside with some POR tank sealer after hand cleaning

LincolnSteve · Sep 23, 2022

That looks good. Also keeping the original means it should fit. The cradle is a sure fire water and rust trap. I'm thinking of sealing all round it on my new one but then there's a chance of still getting water in and leaving nowhere for it to get out.

Knappster · Sep 24, 2022

Looking good!

Leigh1508 · Oct 1, 2022

Started reading all your progress and then had to join in when I read the Manfred ex prisoner of war. Our village had Heinz, also a u-boat engineer who never went back to his motherland. Sadly passed away now but he was a genius mechanic and could make anything!

LincolnSteve · Oct 24, 2022

The drivers side quarter panel has been loosely in place for ages. Time to make it permanent. This is the side that had some crash damage so things weren't that easy.

I did manage to get a good fit though. The repair panel is a britpart one but despite that it was a good fit. A bit of hammering was needed for that tight corner but that's all. There's very little you can do about where it fits really as it slots into the tub and that's that. All you can do is keep the gap constant top to bottom. At the bottom where there is no adjustment the gap is 92cm so that's what I made it at the top.

LincolnSteve · Oct 24, 2022

I cleaned up the bits that I wasn't going to be able to get to later.

I looked at loads of pictures to decide where all the rivets and things should go. None of them seemed the same so in the end I put things where they came off the old one or where I liked them best.

Have a look at the galvanised cappings. I had already made up my mind that I was just going to scotchbrite them and spray them with clear lacquer. I like the look of the rusty bits but want to slow down the deterioration. That was the plan until I started making such an effort to get the paint looking good. Now I don't know if they will look naff on decent paint. I'm thinking of getting them galvanised again but the nearest place I know is in Hull.

LincolnSteve · Oct 24, 2022

The other side was original. All as it was when it left the factory and a lot straighter.

You can see where it has had a coat of red/bergundy paint. That is where there was a number plate light fitted but the number plate itself was fitted the other side with another light so again I don't know what is actually correct. I didn't want to drill out the spot welds and leave loads of holes on this side so sliced the panel off to leave the welded strip in place.

This meant I could peel it back bit at a time, see where all the spot welds were and deal with them one at a time.

Got the panel fitting well again and got putting some rivets in.

LincolnSteve · Oct 24, 2022

I had been watching CSM retro restorations on youtube and he bonds and seals these panels with Puraflex 40 so I thought i'd have a go with it. He puts it on the edges that will meet and then slides the panel in. Trouble is that scrapes a load of it off so I put it on the panel rather than the lip of the bulkhead. That way you can hold it off until the last second then squash the sealer keeping it in place. Then you rivet it in place and it really grips. The secret down the outside edge is chopsticks. I bought them years ago thinking I would be cool and only eat my takeaways with them. That got to be far too time consuming and left my sweet and sour going cold so they got relegated to the garage. Their tapered ends are perfect for spacing the panel apart while you squidge the sealer in.

Then starting from the top to get the best fit on the tricky corner bit you just take out the chopsticks and rivet.

LincolnSteve · Oct 24, 2022

The bolts that go through the tabs on the rear crossmember should go into a plate with captive nuts on but of course these were long gone on mine. I had decided that regular nylocs would do but as I got fitting these quarter panels it was obvious that the captive nuts would be better. If you can get them at all they seem to be about £6 each and you need five of them. I'm far too mean to pay that so I made some.