Thread: The restoration of Wombat

I now had to address the tear in the chassis by the gusset.



Taking a very deep breath (and not because it's heavy), I dragged out the welder.

My first REAL welding job

The first thing I discovered was that I've got the wrong sized rods and instantly burned big holes in the metal. Probably I should have given up then but seeing I'd already done the damage (and because I'm stubborn/stupid), I persevered. After carefully building up bits of weld, in very short bursts this time, and attacking the results with the angle grinder (it was an iterative process), I wound up with this.



The top I'm fairly happy with, the corner (the bit facing us) looks pretty horrid because I suddenly had big holes to fill.

But for my first real world welding, I'm happy...

...but not happy enough to tackle the brackets that'll need to go back on the chassis (like the one for the front brake line). Obviously, my welding rods are the wrong size. My welder is a fixed amperage, I can not turn it down, so will have to use different sized rods. My current rods are 3.2mm, what do you suggest I use for the Landy chassis?

That looks so much better. Well done. Just shows what you can do with some simple tools.

Cheers,
Russ

Thanks Rus.
I've had a go at knocking out the dents along the back but don't have any dollies long enough (and most of it is closed box section anyway).

Nice work. Well done.
Sensible decision with regard to the footwear.
cheers,
D

Originally Posted by crackers

I now had to address the tear in the chassis by the gusset.

]

Taking a very deep breath (and not because it's heavy), I dragged out the welder.

My first REAL welding job

The first thing I discovered was that I've got the wrong sized rods and instantly burned big holes in the metal. Probably I should have given up then but seeing I'd already done the damage (and because I'm stubborn/stupid), I persevered. After carefully building up bits of weld, in very short bursts this time, and attacking the results with the angle grinder (it was an iterative process), I wound up with this.



The top I'm fairly happy with, the corner (the bit facing us) looks pretty horrid because I suddenly had big holes to fill.

But for my first real world welding, I'm happy...

...but not happy enough to tackle the brackets that'll need to go back on the chassis (like the one for the front brake line). Obviously, my welding rods are the wrong size. My welder is a fixed amperage, I can not turn it down, so will have to use different sized rods. My current rods are 3.2mm, what do you suggest I use for the Landy chassis?

You're going well Crackers,

I'm going to have to pull my finger out and catch up to you again

On friday night, this weekend was free and I planned to vacuum the house (ruddy dog's moulting isn't he), check what that horrible noise is under the bonnet of the MG, then pull the suspension off Wombat and, hopefully, get the chassis upside down on some saw horses for the long scrub and clean up prior to painting (for a long list of reasons, getting it sand blasted isn't going to happen, this'll be traditional suffering).

Anyways.
That sodding MG. Water pump. So I looked up how to change it. My favourite MGZR forum has 'how to' articles and, for a forum that prides itself on being able to fix everything, I was disconcerted to read at the top of the 'how to' for the water pump - "Warning, this is an extremely difficult operation" The day went down hill from there and no, I didn't attempt a repair. This vehicle has a long history of 'easy repairs' getting expensive quickly such as the wheel bearing a month ago that chewed out the drive flange and, seeing none are available in Australia, an engineer had to repair the old one. A solution was eventually reached - I'll brag about it tomorrow if the bank decides to be generous.

But back to Land Rovers. I didn't get to her until after lunch today (Sunday). I knew the nuts on the shackle bolts were loose, so all I had to do was hook up the engine crane to do the lifting, pull the bolts, and Bob's yer uncle.
Right?
Hooking up the crane wasn't much of a problem. Getting it into position was... because even a double garage can get full of stuff and those cranes are big, unweildy brutes. Eventually I wound up with this, which actually worked very well as the job went on. That crane is really paying for itself.



Standing and looking at how clever I am, I suddenly realised how dumb I can be because I hadn't removed the shock absorbers No biggie. The nuts at the top came off easily and surprisingly, all the rubber bushes look in good nick (though I'll be getting new shocks and new bushes). Funny looking things too.

Then we had the bottom of the shock absorber. Just a thumping great big split pin I couldn't believe it. I'm used to shock absorbers being bolted in place with absolutely no chance of jumping ship... but a split pin? Even a nice big fat one seems like the 'easy' solution. Ah well, a bit of swearing (and yet another blood blister) and the pins came out with coercion I'm not willing to discuss on a polite forum like this one. Again, the rubber bushes were in good nick.

Now all I had to do was pull the shackle bolts. I'd already done the week of heat and penetrene a while ago and had broken all the nuts free. Consequently, all the nuts came off easily and went into their labelled bag to await the bolts. The front bolts tapped into the chassis... 'easy' isn't the right word but there was considerably less drama that I've had on other jobs. I left them sitting while I addressed the rear bolts.

Now these didn't want to move. In fact, exploratory whacks suggested there was a better reason than simple bloody mindedness.

So I came inside and did some reading.

The experts have already spotted the reason - the inside shackles are threaded. All I had to do was put a socket on the bolt and undo it.
I'll pause here while the hysterical giggles die down
Actually the bottom bolts both conceded defeat with merely extreme measures, so that was good.

The top bolts on the other hand, made up for things in spades. In both cases, the inside shackle turned on its thread, one quite easily. As I understand things, the outside shackle just has a hole for the bolt to pass through, but do you reckon I could break the rotting things free? Not on your nellie. What's worse, neither top bolt would drive out of the bushes.

I was able to get the inside shackles off, but the outer shackles are still held in place by the bolt which won't come out of the bush
Some thoughts on how to get them out would be appreciated.

Seeing the bottom shackle bolts were out (tapped through the bush with a drift) and so were the front bolts (same thing, tapped through with a drift), the suspension was now free of the chassis. I simply lifted the chassis clear, then...

Oh...

My tight fitting shed came into play again... that and the long legs of the crane. I had to pull the chassis to one side, then wangle the rear axle unit out and around the crane leg before I could push it into a corner where it will hibernate until I get to doing it up. Then push the chassis back into place and lower it onto a saw horse.



So that was my afternoon's work. I'll pencil the front suspension/axle in for next weekend.

Hi Crackers,
Two things come to mind. Heat and if that does not move it cut it off beside the shackle plate and drill it out as a last resort. You will need to get the centre of the hole accurate if you do that. Those thin disks on the angle grinder are good.
Are you replacing the bushes in the spring as well?
Cheers,
Russ

Originally Posted by Brisruss

Hi Crackers,
Two things come to mind. Heat and if that does not move it cut it off beside the shackle plate and drill it out as a last resort. You will need to get the centre of the hole accurate if you do that. Those thin disks on the angle grinder are good.
Are you replacing the bushes in the spring as well?
Cheers,
Russ

I tried heat... and doesn't rubber pong nice when it starts smoking
But I didn't give it a real good go, it was enough to get the suspension/axle set up free.

I don't want to go cutting these bolts if I don't have to because they're those funny ones with the shoulder after the thread and I imagine they could be hard to get or expensive. If reasonably excessive force fails, I'll reach for the angle grinder.

The plan is to replace all bushes - the only thing that'll stop me is discovering something is no longer available.