Freelander off the road again, update time.....

[stuboy]

nice press

[Marina door handles]

I suppose I better finish this tail off. The bearings and back box arrived.

I had really mashed the back box good and proper......

So I replaced it with this very high quality............ okay it was cheap.....

Exhaust job done, I moved back to the bearing.

 

The passenger side front bearing went in pretty easily, I decided not to touch the drivers side (it hadn't been noticeably noisey) and I put the car back together for a test drive and within a few meters I realised I had made a mistake, the ABS, Traction and Hill descent warnings would not go out.... Initially I thought I must have put the bearing in the wrong way around but it occurred to me that I hadn't notice a magnetic ring..... Then I inspected the spare bearing and yep no magnetic ring, well bollocks!

I managed to get hold of the correct style of bearing and went through the whole process again....   

Finally success! The car is back up and slightly quieter...

Oh yes and I picked up another new tool, a very cheap bearing puller. Its main task was getting the remains of the bearing race off the wheel hub. Yes you need to get the bearing moving initially as you need space to get in behind it but it removes all that awkward drifting at funny angles to keep the race moving down and off the shaft....

Anyway, its now back on the road, so i can now focus on my other cars........

 

[Marina door handles]

A month or so back whilst investigating the wheel bearing noise issue I got to test all of the jacking points fairly thoroughly.... Unfortunately the one on the driver's side sill at the rear rather failed that test! It went crunch quite badly.  At the time I had more pressing concerns and decided the car was solid enough in most other areas so I would mentally park that but make some plans to deal with it...

Its the Easter weekend plus I have next week off so what better time to get back in the garage for some choppy choppy buzzy buzzy action?!

Firstly how bad is it? well the jacking point has split in half and has crunched upwards into the sill which has clearly split.....

I removed a foot or so of sill for a good look see... 

So not great, then I removed the sill plastic end cap and found that the back corner of the sill had basically disintegrated......

 

 

The arch is a bit scrappy too, this is going to take a bit of thought and some elbow grease.  

I then scrabbled underneath the car to find out exactly how much of the back of the sill needed replacing and the out rigger section has been collecting water and disintegrated when I tapped it with a hammer.  (excuse the upside downness ) . Not a pretty site but could be worse.

At this point I figured the best place to start was probably replacing the jacking point and work from there. I had some 2mm thick steel  in my stash which is as close to the 2.5mm original that I could find (I will reinforce it with some more plate).  Had sod of a job matching the shape, actually used my press and an old bolt to make the divot down the middle.

Close enough I think....

I have to admit when I bought the car I had noticed a bit of scabbyness in places but had decided because it had a long MOT, it was pretty cheap and I quite liked the car, I was okay to to ignore that little concerned voice in my head....... That's all for now!

 

 

[Marina door handles]

Monday was a bit of a write off so today I have been back in the garage.

The home made jacking point was shaped a bit more and then welded on, then I went about reinforcing it as I figured having it made of two halves was immediately introducing a bit of a weak point .

Its not pretty but most of it will be hidden and it should do the job. 

Next bit was more awkward, try and re make a good section of the inner sill. Folding the shape was easy in card, not so much in the metal were the two folds are too close to each other to do both in my cheapo metal folding  jog thing...

I had to improvise just a bit and no my 2nd work bench does not need tidying, its meant to look like that!

I actually didn't have much success with the breaker bar. I ended up using a long piece of wood and a lump hammer to get the bend I needed, just forgot to take a picture of that attempt.

The finished sill repair piece....

Trial fitting..

Now tacked in place,  that took most of the day. Slow progress....

 

[Marina door handles]

Slow progress continues...

Welded up the back of the first large repair section...

The image has flipped upside down again..... Spot the pin holes, don't worry they have all been filled with yet more weld!

Then cut out part of the end and started making that up, so the inner sill is now solid from end to end, just the inner sill, strengthener plate and outer to sort out!

 

Then created a new section from some 2mm sheet.

 

That was what all I managed up to Friday. The weekend has been  a bit busy but I have continued in fits and starts.

Saturday's massive addition - spot the difference.

Sunday's fabbing/welding has been a bit casual, I've been busy with other things but I did get an extra strengthener plate welded in.

haven't quite finished the inner skin yet or even started welding it in but you have to start some were......

You get the idea though?! Looks like I wont be taking the Freelander to work on Monday then! 

Guess what I will be doing most evenings this coming week then.......

 

 

[Andyrew]

Nice work saving this, there's not many who would but they are nice things to drive

Doing a great job Too

[Marina door handles]

Things have been slightly delayed by an annoying incident, normally if i have an issue with weld spatter its because its landed on my arm are gone into my shoe, resulting in some swearing! This time however a sneaky bit of weld spatter managed to get the gas tube to the welding torch resulting in a bit of a gas leak. 

Not wishing to waste loads of lovely inert gas I affected an expert repair....

It worked for a bit  but started leaking again, not wanting to waste any more gas. I ordered some tube.

Well the tube arrived but didn't fit, pretty certain I had picked the right part.... So that delayed things a bit more. So I decided to order a new torch and hose (the MIG would now be getting its 2nd replacement torch, its definitely triggers welder now!).

The torch arrived this afternoon so I rolled my sleeves up and took the welder apart.

I do like how modular these Clarke welders are and they are actually pretty easy to repair...

 Is this glove abuse? I used the old leather glove as a shield so I don't drop blobs of solder into the electrics of the welder... 

The welder is now tested, up and running, so I should get back on the Freelander tomorrow....

 

[Marina door handles]

Got a bit more done, started on the membrane/inner sill.

Hmm upside down again.... then made up the next section...

Then I re fitted the bottom of the B pillar panel which I had previously cut off for access.

Back to upside down again.....

Progress is actually happening, just slowly and sometimes the right way up.......

 

[Andyrew]

Assuming your taking photos on a smart phone.  My old phone depended on what way I had rotated it in my hands changed the way it appeared on here if that makes sense.  I had to make sure the bottom of the phone was in my right hand when taking a landscape photo to keep them the correct way up.

Excellent progress on the repair too!

 

[Marina door handles]

A bit more progress this weekend, lets see which way up the photos go this time!?

I cleaned up and replaced a small section of wheel arch.

Then decided to tackle the really visible and awkward part, the outer sill. I have bought an after market outer sill its not brilliant, its mostly the right shape! So I cut out what I needed and started the slow process of offering it up and trimming it to fit.

It took a while but I was reasonably happy with the fit (and clearly so was Henry) so I started welding it into place..

I feel like I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.......

 

[Marina door handles]

After all the fun of getting the Rover back on the road, I haven't forgotten about the Land Rover that still needs work! This weekend I have managed to get back on it and have actually made a small amount of progress. The main focus was the rear wheel arch which is extremely crumbly. 

Cutting out a piece of sheet steel with the right curve took some figuring out and a very delicate touch with the grinder but I think I got away with it...

Then weld it in and tidy up a bit.....

Its slow progress but its progress. I will try and get back on this in the evenings if I can take my focus back off the Rover....

 

 

 

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, Marina door handles said:

After all the fun of getting the Rover back on the road, I haven't forgotten about the Land Rover that still needs work! This weekend I have managed to get back on it and have actually made a small amount of progress. The main focus was the rear wheel arch which is extremely crumbly. 

Cutting out a piece of sheet steel with the right curve took some figuring out and a very delicate touch with the grinder but I think I got away with it...

Then weld it in and tidy up a bit.....

Its slow progress but its progress. I will try and get back on this in the evenings if I can take my focus back off the Rover....

 

 

 

good to see uve persevered.

[Marina door handles]

What's this tall car at the back of my garage that I forgot I had, oh its the Freelander! I probably better get back on it really?

Actually in truth I have been slowly fiddling with bits on this as and when I have time, the Rover and the Subaru have got most of the attention lately.  One of the  jobs I had planned for the Landrover was the off side wheel bearing. The passenger side was obviously knackered and I had already detailed changing that so I wasn't really going to post much about this but then the job went a bit wrong.....

Firstly getting the hub nut off was even more awkward than on the other side and even when free'ed was hard to turn. Firstly I had managed to slightly bend a couple of the wheel studs and then on trying to re fit a fresh nut I found that the drive shaft end was not in great shape the threads a bit distorted, actually too damaged to re use so I ended up buying a new drive shaft. 

You can't really see the damage but you can definitely see the shiney new wheel studs! 

New shaft....

It doesn't end there though, on removing the old drive shaft I found the best way to get access and free it off was to remove the lower engine mount - not really a problem until I discovered that the rubber section of the mount was as floppy as a shoe gazers hair cut. So that now needs replacing and the TD4 mount is the most expensive of the version of that mount by nearly double the price, so that's another £80 on top of the unexpected drive shaft, lovely!

The offending article..

At this point it was back to the internet to order yet more parts, who needs money anyway!

Next body work.....

 

[Marina door handles]

There are three main jobs to finish on the sill and wheel arch. 

The inner arch still needs sorting and the outer tidying up...

Yep definitely needs some work. 

Then there is a missing/rusted away box section between the sill and fake chassis rail.

And there is another hole in the back of the sill I missed the first time...

Firstly I decided to tackle the underneath and go for the big box section. So I replaced it with a bit of an Amazon box...

Which I then skilfully primer'ed to look like steel.....

Okay I did actually make it out of steel, I also cut back the metal around the rust hole in the sill in preparation of a repair. 

That's all for now, more updates to come this week as I am on my summer hols, which will mostly consist of hiding in the garage tinkering, cutting grinding and welding! 

 

[Marina door handles]

I have been a bit busier with the other cars but I have progressed this a bit further, then ran out of welding supplies......

The brace is now drilled out so it matches the other side and tacked into place.

The inner wheel arch is now under construction too. most of the frilly metal now removed.

Template made up...

And then a funny shape cut in actual steel.....

So its still progressing just as ever not as quickly as I would like. Now just waiting for the DPD/Evri/Amazon van to arrive.........