Thread: The restoration of Wombat

An incorrectly placed crowbar in the end of that rear X Member will only open up the end hole and give you another job to do.. As Gav said, it will take quite a bit more force to get it back to where it should be.. but, with a well placed high lift jack, block of wood and hammer, you'll get it pretty close.
Option B is an Xmember length piece of RHS clamped/strapped to the back left x member leg (the bent one).. With it strapped tight, slide a piece of wood in between the RHS and x member. It needs to be at the point of bend. Using another strap, you can now pull the other end of the RHS against the other side of the x member, putting reverse pressure in the bend. With the RHS tight across the back face of the x member, the bend now will be under a to of pressure. Use a hammer and tap on the high points of the bends.. Only apply as much pressure as is needed to start the process, but with a bit of work, the bend will start to straighten. Eventually the piece of RHS will become slack. At this point you need to repeat the process with a larger piece of pivot wood on the line of bend.. Can draw it and post a pic if I've confused you...

G'day mate,

Good to see you back on the forum... and with your location changed I'm guessing you've done the shift. Living in a new house or living in a caravan?

As for what you've described, a diagram would be good thanks. Oh, and what's an RHS?

I can help you with the RHS bit, Rectangular Hollow Section. SHS Square .... Etc.

I think Sitec will have to put up a diagram to help us with the rest.


I would get a piece of hardwood and cut it down to a size that you can slip into the open end of the cross member. Make it a close fit, stick it in as far as it will go and leave some hanging out the end. The more you can leave out the end the more leverage you will get. Once the Cross member is supported by the hardwood it will not collapse or deform when you start to apply pressure to straighten the crossmember. Hiting it with a sledge hammer is going to be of limited value other than getting your frustrations on the world out. Unless the rest of the chassis is held down and braced to stop the chassis moving, jarring and vibrating and basically absorbing the energy in you hammer blows.

I think that setting up some solid RHS to pull against while bracing it against other parts of the chassis/crossmember will allow you to apply controlled force. Other usefull techniques would involve some solid attachment points in a floor slab against which you can chain the structure and use other anchors to allow you to pull. A bit like a panel beaters chassis straightening jig.

Welding is a good skill to have, equipment is cheap enough. But you don't have to be able to weld, you just need to know people who can. Then it comes down to beer currency or a BBQ in return for some welding.

Originally Posted by Sitec

An incorrectly placed crowbar in the end of that rear X Member will only open up the end hole and give you another job to do.

When I did this the rear cross member had been pushed back quite a bit more than the one on Wombat and I did manage to get it back without distorting the rear cross member at all. I did it just by myself so while it was still a fair bit of force it is amazing how much one can apply through leverage.
Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the finished result but in the picture you can see the one on the right is quite bent,

There is an evil side of me wondering if leaving it as is would be part of her 'heritage'
And I'm not being silly either, though it's probably better to straighten it. Wish I could remember how badly the tub fitted there (though it too is bent so maybe that's not a question I should be asking).

I'd have a go at straightening it as it will probably annoy the poo out of you once you finish everything , reassemble it all etc and then it will start gnawing at the soul why you didn't sort it when you could have- or - you put it right now and then on your first trip out once restored, you back it into a power pole or something similar.......
cheers,
D

Got me pressure washer today
And the lad was available
So we pushed Wombat out of the shed and while he worked on his Stupidroo... er... Subaru, I pressure washed the old girl.

Dirty Wombat



Less dirty Wombat



You can see the difference, honest
Note the yellow at the rear on the panel closest to you?

It's remarkable what those pressure washers take off... and what they don't. I can now tell you that the chassis was gavanised, painted yellow, then painted black (then layered with dirt ). Not sure if that was standard practice for 1956 (it'd be a late 1955 build) or not but the original owner's name is still painted on the front mudguard and it's not over yellow paint. It'll be interesting to see what I find when I start taking off body paint.

Thick crud on the gearbox and steering arm some of which run away in alarm, much of which stubbornly refused to budge. I'm guessing I'll get that off after attacking it with degreaser, then with the pressure washer - that can wait until the units are out of the vehicle and I'm ready to start restoring them.

The clutch master cylinder passes through a hole in a cross member and is bolted on each side. On the other side of the vehicle, is a similar hole, obviously so they can make the thing LHD if they want. Thing is, there's no cover over the hole and it's full of dust and crud and no amount of squirting water in there is going to get it all out. Wouldn't have been hard to fit a cover over it would it Mr Land Rover? Or provide a drain hole?

Next job. Remove the pedals. Disconnect the steering and remove the steering column. Break the rust mass holding the firewall bolts together and remove the firewall. Then start removing the gearbox and engine, as described in my thread in the general section. Still well short running out of things to do.

Originally Posted by Dark61

I'd have a go at straightening it as it will probably annoy the poo out of you once you finish everything
D

I did do the crowbar in the hole, push hard and whack with a small sledge job. The top of the rear cross member is now more or less straight. It is, however, twisted so I'm going to have to have a go at un-twisting that, probably with a pipe wrench if I can find my big one. A tear opened in the top of the metal as Sitec suggested but nothing a line of weld won't fix/hide.

Looking at that cross member, it's had a hard life. If I wanted her to be perfect, I'd have to cut it off and replace it. Leaving her as is, with all her dents and bings, just reflects her age and character. With a bit more work on that right hand side, I reckon leaving it is probably a good move. I'm also considering that unless I buy a really good condition tub (if I can find one), mine is going to be banged about with big repairs at the back where the metal is badly torn. She's unlikely to be a fashion queen. Things to ponder as I get to them. I can always cut that cross member off and replace it at a later stage.