Land (Rover) Reclamation or (Land R)over the Hill! Rover RIP!

[warch]

59 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

Great work!

What do you do about balancing?

I don’t, haven’t had a balancing issue for ages. I do have a friendly and accommodating tyre services place that would balance them for me if necessary but haven’t had the need thus far.

[jonathan_dyane]

That's interesting, even on the front? 

Do you leave the balance weight on the wheel going on the theory modern tyres are inherently well balanced and it's usually the wheel that is unbalanced or do you knock all the old weights off and do without?

[warch]

On 08/10/2024 at 22:40, jonathan_dyane said:

That's interesting, even on the front? 

Do you leave the balance weight on the wheel going on the theory modern tyres are inherently well balanced and it's usually the wheel that is unbalanced or do you knock all the old weights off and do without?

I think modern tyres are much better made than old ones (took some extremely old tyres this weekend including the spare which may have been the original). I think the manufacturing process is much more sophisticated than it used to be. 

[warch]

Hurrah got my Astra MoTed. Needed a hand brake adjustment but all good to go now. 
 

I’ve never felt so conspicuous at the wheel of a car, it looks so out of place amongst modern cars. Already been stopped by three people asking me about it, think there is genuine love for 80s bog standard motahs these days.

[warch]

Astra in Tesco car park. Parking space suddenly seems a lot bigger. 
 

Was so happy with how it was running that I popped up to Midway and bought some new oil, oil filter and plugs. Oil was black and smelt a bit petroly so that needed doing but the plugs made a immediate difference, getting rid of a slight miss at tickover and making it run smoover.

 

[warch]

Sadly, after 30 odd years in my possession, and another 20 owned by my dad the old Landy finally met its maker today.

61 years isn't a bad innings for any car, especially this one, which took a fair amount of hammer off road, and went all over the country in my ownership. Not absolutely sure I'm going to replace it, old Landrovers are so expensive these days, and I'm not sure I can really justify it.

[83C]

Just new chassis time surely?

[loserone]

That is definitely a worthy project 

[tooSavvy]

4 minutes ago, loserone said:

That is definitely a worthy project 

Old landies NEVER DIE... 

*Just pile up in the scrap box, to regroup 😉

Chassis +1 ✔️

🚙💨

[horriblemercedes]

100% that's worth repairing

[DeanH]

If you do flog it as a project, please post it on here. I'd be interested.

[Zelandeth]

Yep, as others have said - time for a new chassis, then it'll be good for another 61 years.  Given their values it's absolutely worth doing, or selling as is as a project.

[captain_70s]

That's a fair thickness of metal to snap. Looks more like it's cracked through metal fatigue more than rot...

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Looks a straightforward welding repair or invest in a new chassis, after 50 years getting rid of it would be like loosing a family member to me.

I'm currently watching this,

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/589436234092851/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks&locale=en_GB

which at the moment is more than I would want to pay, but definately a worth while project

[warch]

I've assessed the situation it may not be as dire as I first thought.

You can get a repair section which provided the chassis legs are ok behind the front crossmember would be a fair cheap fix. The tricky bit is extracting the steering relay from the old crossmember after six decades rusting itself into position (although replacement relays are available and not too dear). 

I suspect the front propshaft is buggered too but that's ok because It was looking a bit buggered before this happened and they're reasonably priced too. Be a good time to fit new front springs as well. 

1 hour ago, captain_70s said:

That's a fair thickness of metal to snap. Looks more like it's cracked through metal fatigue more than rot...

It was damaged during the accident a few years ago, wonder if straightening the chassis legs stressed the metal too much.

[goosey]

Who repaired it previously? There’s like zero penetration on those welds

 

looks a lot worse than it is 

probabily look at replacing the front half of the chassis from the shock absorber mounts forward with a pre made section 

[warch]

9 minutes ago, goosey said:

Who repaired it previously? There’s like zero penetration on those welds

 

looks a lot worse than it is 

probabily look at replacing the front half of the chassis from the shock absorber mounts forward with a pre made section 

That was repaired during the early 90s so it’s done alright really. But there does look to be good metal left to weld to. The repair piece start’s behind the front crossmember and has extensions so it would be enormously strong once repaired.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

1 hour ago, warch said:

 

The tricky bit is extracting the steering relay from the old crossmember after six decades rusting itself into position (although replacement relays are available and not too dear). 

 

Remove the the lower steering control lever, undo the   lower circular chassis flange to relay bracket's four fasteners but leave the bracket in place and remove the two upper relay fasteners. Then lots of penetrating oil or diesel into the top of the chassis where the relay is located. You may have to repeat this depending on how much penetrating oil/diesel leaks out ot the bottom of the assembly.

Leave overnight to soak, remove flange bracket, then place a bottle jack under the relay using a piece of wood inbetween the jack and relay, then jack the vehicle up. The relay will usually come out without doing any damage.

Worst case if it will not budge it will need a lump or sledge hammer to free it. This may cause damage to the chassis that will need repairing and will almost certainly damage the relay. In that case do not buy an after market relay, source an OE unit or an ex-mod used part.

And good luck.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, warch said:

That was repaired during the early 90s so it’s done alright really. But there does look to be good metal left to weld to. The repair piece start’s behind the front crossmember and has extensions so it would be enormously strong once repaired.

Go for the repair section - my 1968 88" broke one leg just in front of where yours has gone - both sides had previously had the spring extensions redone and one of those repairs had given up the ghost - we did a bit of tapping/scraping/drilling and found good metal right down both sides of the engine but everything to the front of the crossmember was spit thin.
Rather than just go for another dumb iron, I went for the front repair section, new steering relay and had to spring for a new radiator (as just moving the old one broke it - badly - just chucked in a Ser 3 rad). This was about 1996 so the steering relays may have been relatively cheap back then.
Once you get the front wings out of the way there's loads of room to cut and weld. It was mooted that removing the engine was needed but you can get around that by judicious use of a trolley jack, blocks and wedges (after undoing the mounts) if you need to move it over a bit. That can still  leave the inner weld a bit hard to get at - I guess if you pulled the engine then you could justify a new clutch and an engine crane (if you don't have one).
We 'jigged' up with various bits of wood, rod etc etc and the end result looked square and drove square.
 

[warch]

1 hour ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Remove the the lower steering control lever, undo the   lower circular chassis flange to relay bracket's four fasteners but leave the bracket in place and remove the two upper relay fasteners. Then lots of penetrating oil or diesel into the top of the chassis where the relay is located. You may have to repeat this depending on how much penetrating oil/diesel leaks out ot the bottom of the assembly.

Leave overnight to soak, remove flange bracket, then place a bottle jack under the relay using a piece of wood inbetween the jack and relay, then jack the vehicle up. The relay will usually come out without doing any damage.

Worst case if it will not budge it will need a lump or sledge hammer to free it. This may cause damage to the chassis that will need repairing and will almost certainly damage the relay. In that case do not buy an after market relay, source an OE unit or an ex-mod used part.

And good luck.

Cheers, Bear in mind that I will be completely removing the front crossmember so chassis damage and access won't be an issue should it need cutting out. But I'll try removing in situ first.

[warch]

10 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Go for the repair section - my 1968 88" broke one leg just in front of where yours has gone - both sides had previously had the spring extensions redone and one of those repairs had given up the ghost - we did a bit of tapping/scraping/drilling and found good metal right down both sides of the engine but everything to the front of the crossmember was spit thin.
Rather than just go for another dumb iron, I went for the front repair section, new steering relay and had to spring for a new radiator (as just moving the old one broke it - badly - just chucked in a Ser 3 rad). This was about 1996 so the steering relays may have been relatively cheap back then.
Once you get the front wings out of the way there's loads of room to cut and weld. It was mooted that removing the engine was needed but you can get around that by judicious use of a trolley jack, blocks and wedges (after undoing the mounts) if you need to move it over a bit. That can still  leave the inner weld a bit hard to get at - I guess if you pulled the engine then you could justify a new clutch and an engine crane (if you don't have one).
We 'jigged' up with various bits of wood, rod etc etc and the end result looked square and drove square.
 

I don't mind removing the engine, I have access to an engine crane but will probably use my mini digger. All the front end came off a few years ago so should be easy to remove. I wouldn't mind sending the engine for a rebore actually, it breathes a fair amount and is a bit down on power, there's a bloke in the village who does this sort of thing, even if he could do the cylinder work I could reassemble with oversize pistons and rings. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 minute ago, warch said:

I don't mind removing the engine, I have access to an engine crane but will probably use my mini digger. All the front end came off a few years ago so should be easy to remove. I wouldn't mind sending the engine for a rebore actually, it breathes a fair amount and is a bit down on power, there's a bloke in the village who does this sort of thing, even if he could do the cylinder work I could reassemble with oversize pistons and rings. 

Oh, you flash b'stad
I'd go for that then. Do the @The Old Bloke Next Door's relay trick (where was he 29 years ago  - not writing for LRO magazine that's for sure - that, and a Haynes, was 'it') then pull the engine. Bolt the two chassis rails in place to each other with some steel stuff then cut/weld/vicarious pictures for AS? 

 

 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

1 hour ago, warch said:

Cheers, Bear in mind that I will be completely removing the front crossmember so chassis damage and access won't be an issue should it need cutting out. But I'll try removing in situ first.

I would advise against removing the front crossmember unless it is absolutely neccessary to complete the repair/restoration.

In my opinnion its the most safety critical part of the chassis, great care and expertise is required to reinstate it to a suitable standard.

[Noel Tidybeard]

paging richard the stag

 

richard the stag to the beige phone

[sutty2006]

Aye that’ll live again! 

[New POD]

15 hours ago, captain_70s said:

That's a fair thickness of metal to snap. Looks more like it's cracked through metal fatigue more than rot...

 

Looking at that crack there's alot of sharp edges. You'd think they'd have done some gussets. 

[warch]

10 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

I would advise against removing the front crossmember unless it is absolutely neccessary to complete the repair/restoration.

In my opinnion its the most safety critical part of the chassis, great care and expertise is required to reinstate it to a suitable standard.

The front of the front crossmember has failed though, its cracked and is peeling away. I am looking to replace the front chassis with one of those replacement sections with extensions that weld back to the chassis legs. 

  

There are two versions available, with differing lengths of chassis extension but both have those flaps to attach to the chassis rails so the welded area is massively increased. If the chassis legs look a bit ropey at this point I may have to consider a new chassis. 

 

[sutty2006]

It might be worth plating it in position with some 4mm steel and saving up for a galv chassis. That would be my choice direction 

[warch]

Here’s the damage 

The crack on the left hand side (bottom photo) has torn the front off the crossmember adjacent to it. The radiator panel (250 quid) was pretty rusty but has broken at the bottom. 

[comfortablynumb]

MK1 son invested in a Richard's galvanized chassis for his '64 S2A, cost him approximately £2.5k, but it's worth it for the lack of hassle.

Obviously there was more work needed doing, he rebuilt a bulkhead, not sure if it's the original, but that doesn't matter since it runs a V8. Think it stands him in at about £5k now.

His reasoning was that he'd had the car since he was 14, bought as a wreck and rebuilt, sold once, he missed it so much he bought it back.

He's not prepared to part with it again, but find a roadworthy series for £5k.

The chassis was great, everything well built, holes cleared out properly, it really was just a bolt together job. I'd recommend it if it's within your budget. Are you intending to keep it?

 

Edit - he's mid 30's now

Edited March 8 by comfortablynumb
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