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5 Attachment(s)
Hello All,
At the panel beating stage on the front or headlight panel - here are some before an after photos. Plus, a testimony that it is indeed hot. Where was the dog while I was panel beating? The dog was inside laying on the floor and positioned under a ceiling fan. I thought it was only mad dogs and English men who went out in the midday sun!
Next step is to clean the surfaces off and to get some aluminium friendly etch primer to paint on the panels. Let them dry, sand down, some more primer, let dry , sand down. Get some topcoat mixed up... apply... let dry.
P.S: Hang on - I just looked at one of the "after" photos. There are two low spots I missed. Plus the top edge could be dressed up a bit to make it sharper. Off I go again...
Some time later ... then one reaches the point where you have to know when to say "stop" with the tapping of hammers and dollies.
Kind regards
Lionel
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Alpine White
Hello All,
Do you think that I have the details for Snowy's paint colour correct?
I have been to quite a number of different Land Rover and automotive paint supplier's webpages. The most thorough source seems to be from the mob below. Most sources routinely show a full range of Land Rover Defender paint colours for 1993. Then when it comes to "white" section, they only show one, known as "Alpine White". See below...
I will be taking the front grille frame in with me when I attempt to get a colour match; as Snowy has been out in the elements now for 28 years. I wonder if "baked-on bull-dust" is a tint that can be added to "Alpine White" to better reflect changes in paint hues from when Snowy first left the dealer's yard for the farm back in 1993?
Kind regards
Lionel
Accessed Wednesday, 3 March 2021 from, Color Codes - Dupont G9588 Cross-Reference
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Hello All,
Today I got around to working on removing Snowy's passenger side mudguard and the rest of the front grille. I ran into some access issues with the top three mudguard to bulkhead bolts. A duct to the heater air box prevented getting a socket on an extension bar in contact with the bolt head.
I watched a couple of YouTube how to take Defender "wings" off tutorials. None seemed to mention the fact that the side duct that is under the side grid vent does not move, even after all its screws are undone. I had to undo the four non-captive nuts and bolts to loosen the heater air box off and shift it sideways. Once the box was moved across I could shift the duct and gain access to the last of the mudguard bolts. I suppose I am just lucky with having to undo the box!
One thing about having the mudguards off - there is now plenty of space to gain access with a degreaser spray to the bull-dust and power-steering covered engine.
I also removed the faulty power steering pump. I have a replacement power steering pump stored somewhere in a safe place.... I just need to reconnect to the brain-cell that holds the memory of where that "safe place" just might be
Kind regards
Lionel
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2 Attachment(s)
I Was Not Going To
Hello All,
While working on Snowy I have been leaning over and around the bull-bar and the side bars. I was just going to preserve with the restrictions of being able reach past the respective bars. Then today, while I was cleaning up around the chassis under the passenger side mudguard my thoughts changed. I noticed how chocked up with bull-dust the space between the bull-bar mounting bracket and the dumbirons was. I used a scribe to scrape a lot of bull-dust out and hosed it as well. A lot of debris still remained behind. By this stage I had also got a bit tired of not being able to reach across to access things.
So, this morning I proceeded to remove the side bars and the bull-bar. I am really glad that I did because the dumbirons were chock-a-block with mud and the metal was starting to rust.
The other interesting thing was how, don't you just love it when people drill a big round hole so a coach bolt can fit into a bracket. No not a square hole that will lock the head of a coach bolt in place, a round hole so the bolt spins when you try to undo a tight nut. Luckily, I had enough access to be able to clamp on a set of vice grips to hold the rear side-bar bolts as the crossed over the chassis rail. I suppose the coach bolts were the longest they had available to them.
With more ready access to the engine bay I will now be able to reach around with copious amounts of degreaser, a scraper and some wire brushes; to find where the motor should be under the pile of baked on crap that has accumulated all over it.
Kind regards
Lionel
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Should Have Stopped
Hello All,
Well I had my first attempt at using aluminium brazing type rod to fill in the torn-out hole in Snowy's mudguard. My first attempt to fill the hole and level off the surrounding area was very successful. I then turned the mudguard over and noticed a plug of filler which did not make contact with the outside of the hole's full circumference. So I heated the area up....
... and I blew a hole in the whole repair ... which then promptly expanded. One panel now on the spares heap.
Speaking of which ... a Series 3 side panel on the mudguard is actually deeper than a Defender mudguard. I have some spare Series 3 side mudguard panels. The only adjustment is cutting in a new inside arch depth, bending in a new flange and drilling holes for the skirt. A job for tomorrow.
I have to learn to know when to stop a repair. Can I write "bugger" here in this message. Oh well!
Kind regards
Lionel
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3 Attachment(s)
Today's Panel Beating
Hello All,
Using a somewhat unorthodox approach I set about cutting down the Series 3 driver's side mudguard and converting it to a Defender sized version. The unorthodoxy involved clamping a dolly - of the panel beating variety - down to my steel table and sandwiching the mudguard in-between.
I initially used an LPG blowtorch to anneal a 20 centimetre ban along the new edge of the mudguard. Once I clamped the dolly down on the section to be hammered over I heated both sides of the mudguard to just before the old paint started to smoke. Then I hammered the area up a couple of degrees all along the circumference of the new mudguard edge.
The hardest part was to get the front edge of the mudguard the correct width. The front edge of the mudguard joins to the front headlight panel . The Series 3 mudguard is much wider at this section. It took at least three attempts to get the width right.
Well this is the status at the close of today. Tomorrow I have to measure the width of the Defender flange and transfer this measurement to the new Series 3 now Defender driver's side mudguard and trim the flange down to the correct measurement. The flange "grew" with being stretched while I hammered the new flange. Definitely a job for tomorrow - I will have a clearer head and be fresher tomorrow.
If I were to do this task again - I hope I do not have to - I would make a cardboard or ply template and traced it on the inside face of the mudguard. The way things are, I could only trace the top-face of the Defender mudguard on to the top-face Series 3 mudguard. However to bend up the flange for the Series 3 I had to have the traced face down and could only estimate where to put the dolly to fold the aluminium over it. A template would make it easy to know where the dolly should be positioned and I might have got the job done after only one attempt.
Kind regards
Lionel
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Hello All,
Well back in February this year I started to disassemble Snowy's front clip for panel beating. While I was at it I decided to replace the timing belt on the 200tdi. I had contacted the previous owner and they could not remember the last time the timing belt had been changed.
The power steering pump also leaked copious amounts of oil all over the engine, steering pump and alternator. Since Snowy was a farm vehicle from new it had years of collected bull dust and mud to stick to the oil. The whole side of the engine was covered in a thick layer of crud that blocked out details of parts.
Numerous household building tasks, some study, and other stuff happening meant I am restarting work on Snowy in November. One of the tasks included sorting out a parts, tools and materials storage problem that really reached a tipping point just after work commenced on Snowy. I had to draw a line and stop all progress on working on Snowy and other vehicles until the storage situation was worked out.
With proper pallet racking and modular steel shelving most of the chaos has now been sorted.
One drawback of this big sort is that some of Snowy's parts have been moved multiple times. Somewhere there is a box with the radiator expansion tank, a top right-hand radiator mounting bracket and the air cleaner unit. Also, the fuel injector pump's front access cover. You know - I put it in either a "safe" place; or somewhere that seemed entirely logical at the time. The brain cells that that hold a record of where this place exactly is located have gone on holiday. I will have to track them down tomorrow - fingers crossed. They must be the only parts that did not make it to the special shelf marked "Defender" I have been going to that shelf for the past couple of days and it has progressed to a now mostly empty space. Today, I started to realise that one box must of not made it to that shelf. :wallbash:
Snowy is getting back together again though. Today I fitted the radiator frame; radiator plus all the related hoses. Well until I pulled one black steel pipe that goes from near the turbo to the intercooler. Most of the black paint on this pipe had flaked off and looked daggy. Especially with the new silicone joining pipes. So off the pipe came and I sanded it down and sprayed it with etch primer. I will paint it with some rust resistant paint tomorrow.
I had taken the radiator to a repair shop for testing a couple of months ago. It must have been the original 1993 radiator and subsequently it had multiple leaks. When they tried to repair the leaks the holes blew out. One new radiator later it looks really nice and shiny sitting in Snowy.
I will take some photos and post them up tomorrow to document some progress.
It is good to have things moving forward again.
Kind regards
Lionel
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This is becoming a real project Lionel. Good work...
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Snowy "Lives"
Hello All,
Since my disassembly of Snowy back in December 2020 and January 2021 it has sat idle. The whole front clip was taken off so I could panel beat the mudguards and remove all the bull-dust from in between the panels and the firewall. I also replaced the timing belt and seals for the crank and cam shafts. Plus the water pump, thermostat, and all the hoses and belts.
Thanks to Paul (Pop058) providing some missing parts - yes mine are still somewhere lurking in a safe place - Snowy has a radiator expansion tank again. As the inner and outer mudguards are still off I rigged up some temporary supports for the expansion tank and the power steering fluid reservoir.
The newly refurbished Bosch injector pump is self-priming and fuel made it all the way up to the loose fuel injector nuts when I cranked the engine over. Once everything was tightened up Snowy roared back into life.
I took Snowy for a drive around the paddock and let him idle for a while. The only fault I found was one of the thin pipes that loop together under the fuel injectors had perished and was leaking in a succession of drops. I will get new pipe tomorrow and replace the set.
Oh despite my supplying the year of manufacture and the Serial number and describing Snowy as having a 200tdi, I was sent the wrong power steering pump. Snowy's is the cylinder type and I was sent a square block type - probably for the 300 tdi. Gee it is certainly "armstrong" steering without a pump. I connected the old pump back up and just left the v-belt off so oil is not leaking everywhere. When I bought Snowy he was very-very incontinent in the fuel injector and power steering pump aspects.
Before start-up I did have strong concerns that the flywheel timing mark locking pin did not align with any of the flywheel slots which need to be aligned with the crankshaft. The flywheel slot aligns with the crankshaft woodruff key and a marker on the back half of the timing cover. I could only get the fuel pump lock pin, camshaft pulley and crankshaft woodruff key lining up with their respective markers. Contrary to what the Workshop Manual; Trailer Fitter's Land Rover Toolbox and Britannica Restoration's YouTube video clips suggest I had to totally ignore the positioning of the flywheel and not use the timing pin. With some advice from Blknight (Dave) I just concentrated on the front of the engine. Dave suggests that the incorrect flywheel might have been fitted to Snowy when he was back on the previous owner's farm.
There was a surprise. I did find the air cleaner unit. It was being incognito on a shelf trying to blend in with a Series III air cleaner and a Donaldson air cleaner. You know - my now super organised shelving system. The one I set about achieving just after I pulled parts of Snowy. I did a Maxwell Smart - I missed storing Snowy's parts safely by that much. In fact Snowy was a tipping point. I realised I had to get myself organised so I could find things when I needed them. Also, be able to access parts and tools without risking life or limb, or having to play Rubik's Cubes to get to stored items. Anyway, the air cleaner filter was one of the worst I have handled - it was chockers with bull-dust.
I will now concentrate on sanding off the mudguards and respraying them. Having Snowy running again is a strong motivator to get the cosmetic parts sorted out. I did not want to have a nice looking lawn ornament. I want to have a vehicle that is fully operational that I can get registered for the road.
A final note for this post. Having the passenger door flying open in the paddock and stuff falling off the passenger seat reminded me that I must fit the new passenger and driver's side door latches! Yes, I know exactly where they are stored!
Kind regards
Lionel
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2 Attachment(s)
Hello All,
Today's work involved buying new flexible fuel line to replace the lengths of pipe that make up the fuel return line or split rail between the fuel injectors. I also traced a couple of other leaks that were caused by my being too cautious while tightening things down. For example, the top nut on Number 4 fuel injector.
While the mudguards are off I sanded down the area where brake fluid had removed all the paint from the firewall below the master cylinders. The area was covered with surface rust. Having sanded it back to bare metal I then cleaned the area off and once dry, a coat of red oxide was sprayed
on.
I have to admit to being more motivated to do cosmetic work on Snowy now that he is running and driving again. Well that is it for today.
Kind regards
Lionel
