Thread: Successful rear door fix

Andrew,I see in the last pic that you were keeping your fluid levels up whilst doing the job!

Sorry Brian
Thats not a functional keg,scabbed it from the scrap metal heap at the tip.
Its mate I scabbed will be my Auspig clone
Andrew

Interestingly, yesterday I carried out a similar operation on the County. It had no rust, but of the frame carrying the spare wheel carrier, the LH (viewed from inside) upright was broken away from the rail at the base of the window (cracked weld), and both of these uprights were cracked below the crosspiece at the lower side of the spare wheel mount.

I decided against welding, as I did not want to introduce stress concentrations. Instead, I made up two plates of 18 gauge galvanised steel. One the full width of the wheel carrier and extending from the bottom rail of the door to the centre of the wheel carrier, but with a cutaway to allow access to the bolts on the carrier. The second is a triangle extending over the broken weld as close as possible to the wiper motor and along to past the LH bolt for the door grab handle, and down about six inches.

Both plates are rivetted on using 4mm steel rivets with a rivet spacing of about 3cm in a zig-zag pattern, and in addition, both plates have at least one bolt (which was used to hold it while drilling). The holes were marked, then predrilled on the plates, clamped and bolted into place and progressively drilled and rivetted.

A similar triangular plate had been put in place about eight years ago where the other top weld had broken. This had two loose rivets and these were drilled out and replaced.

Sorry, no pictures at present - I decided that before pictures were pointless, as you cannot see the cracks easily even in real life - and then I ran out of time to get the job finished as I had to use the car today. If I get a chance in the next couple of days I'll pull the lining off and take some after pictures.

John

Hi JD
I cant understand why landrover still produce a flimsy back door that cannot support the spare wheel.It isnt like they havent had time to do so,this is no stronger than a Ser2 door!!!!!
Mine will have a 5mm ali checkerplate bolted to it strengthening it further,no need to worry about weld stress.
Why is there no drain holes in the door frame??? No wonder they rust.
I ran out of time and patience,when the ali plate is ready I will be adding drain holes!!!!
Andrew

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Hi JD
I cant understand why landrover still produce a flimsy back door that cannot support the spare wheel.It isnt like they havent had time to do so,this is no stronger than a Ser2 door!!!!!
Mine will have a 5mm ali checkerplate bolted to it strengthening it further,no need to worry about weld stress.
Why is there no drain holes in the door frame??? No wonder they rust.
I ran out of time and patience,when the ali plate is ready I will be adding drain holes!!!!
Andrew

The door is actually quite a bit stronger than the S2 one - for a start it has an extra hinge. But the spare is mounted a lot higher, which puts a lot more strain on it. And the tendency to move to larger tyres has exacerbated the problem.

However, I think that a big part of the failure to adequately strengthen the door is because the Defender more so than the Series Landrover has sold primarily in the uK, where corrugated roads are uncommon, and travelling long distances at high speed on these surfaces is unheard of. Note however that from about 2002? Defender doors are all steel and much stronger (although I do not know if this means the problem is solved!).

I do not think that criticism for not having drain holes is justified - unlike the side doors, the rear door does not have an opening window, so there is, at least in theory, no way that water can get into the frame.

John

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Hi JD
I cant understand why landrover still produce a flimsy back door that cannot support the spare wheel.

I was surprised when I saw the door. That type was discarded years ago when LR went to a pressed steel frame door (effectively single piece) with a rear window that has a glass with rounded corners.

Some good and ingenious repairs and like most of you my TD5 door cracked badly, I feel that given the tracks that we like to go on and the state of some corrugated roads the final solution is to get the spare wheel off the door, there is no way the door, hinges nor the supporting frame would ever stand up to it. And though the Puma door seems to be a heavier and different construction I'll eventually get round to building/buying a wheel carrier for it.

Picture of my fix.
Also visible are details of the central locking actuator.
John