Ok today i lowered the chassis to the ground at the rear, and lifted the front right up high and used compressed air to blow as much pink sand out as i could. Then drilled a couple holes in the lower section of the rear x member. Wow. The dirt was packed in there. I had to get a hammer and screwdriver in the hole just to loosen the dirt. Then out with the blower and about an hour later the dirt was out. That was the left side. Same on the right side but not as much crap. Then out with the hose and flushed out as much dirt and sand as i could get out from all the outriggers and x members. Then flushed out the chassis rails. I thought id gotten most of the dirt out before i took it for sand blasting. Nope. With the front right up high, i put the hose into the front dumb iron holes underneath, and man, so much crap came out the two drain holes in the rear of the chassis. I left the hose running and used an old electric aerial mast top (very strong and stiff) to break up the chunks and wash them out on both sides. You should have seen the amount of crud. And i thought id gotten most of it out b4. Well i can say the chassis is definatly clean now. Raised it and put it back on the rotisserie frame. Drained as much water out as i could. Now we have a couple hot days coming so it should dry out pretty well. Then out with the fish oil after i coat it with paint again. Then i spose ill have to find some plugs for the extra holes i drilled. Gotta try n keep some dirt out in the future.
I got a bit sunburned today lying under the rear x member.
Ahh well. "Such is life".
All good fun.
Well today after reading a post by another member, and replying to it, i got a bit motivated, and, taking my own advice, i extracted my digit.
I finished painting the chassis. Its now fully coated in white knight satin black one step paint. Finally.
Now i will have to work out how to coat the inside with copious amounts of fisholene.
Then the plan is to clean up the springs and hangers and paint some more. Then hang the springs. Then the diffs and disc brakes f&r. See how that goes 😆😆
Well its a warmish day and the paint is dry. So i thought i might get my fishoil gun thingy and spray inside the outriggers and x members. Ohh boy does that stuff stink. And its "deodorised". 😵
That went so well that i got out the other gun thingy with a loooong probe tube and sprayed inside the chassis rails. That seemed to work really well. I was already smelly from the outriggers so i thought what the hell. Ohh i think hell would smell better than that stuff😈. My poor neighbours. Its gonna stink for ages.😷😷😷.
The chassis is in my front driveway.
I hope the cats stay away.
Well now to get cleaned up n go for a drive in the s3. It stinks too much at my house😎😎😎😎
Ok i did a trip to Mildura to pick up another tub for my 2a. Its a s3 tub but it will fit. Its in heaps better condition than my 2a tub, which is full of bog and steel strips and plates and brackets pop riveted and bolted all over the place. What a mess it is. Anyway as space is severly limited at home, ive started stripping the old 2a tub. See some pics below. The galvinised steel strengthening straps underneath the tub are rusted out and still full of dirt and crap from 49 yrs of aussie dirt roads. Also the alloy longitudinal straps are corroded thru as is the floor where the steel straps were. The old girl was probably carrying 300 kgs of dirt around for years in the chassis and under the tub😠. She wont know whats going on when i get her going again. What an ordeal im going thru at the moment😯. Its all good tho, its Land Rovering at its best or worst which ever way u lean too😆. I hope everyone is enjoying Melrose show this weekend my club is putting on.
Ok a bit later now and this is whats left of the well used and abused s2a tub of betsy 😓😓😓
Im gonna have to modify the s3 tub to accept a tailgate coz it had a wagon door fitted. Not too hard i hope.😉
Ive been pondering about this build for a few weeks as ive been slowly sinking into depression again about it. Then last night while sleeping and dreaming about it i had to remind myself that im not doing a full rebuild to better than new, (Id like to), but im just trying to remove the rusty bits and make it look better and obviously last longer. So this morning i got stuck into it again.
So i got out some mixed petrol and diesel that i obtained from some smart person a long time ago who put 60 litres of petrol in HER diesel kia van. I had 20L drum of it, and cleaned up all the spring shackles and U bolts and plates. I then mixed up 2L molasses to 18L hot water, (it seems to dissolve better in hot water) and put all the (dried by now) parts in it. Ive never used molasses b4 so i spose ill see how it works.
I noticed that one unthreaded shackle plate is badly worn where the spring had been rubbing up against it. Trouble is its been worn on both sides so someone has turned it around some time in the past. Ill have to source another one from somewhere.
A couple of the shackle bolts are also worn away on the threaded bits but not where the nuts are so ill get a couple new bolts from the local supplier.
Just on this spring shackle topic, im wondering if someone found the bolts loose and has tightened the nuts up not knowing the plates are threaded thus giving false sense of having tightened the bushes up when they have only locked the nut tighter to the shackle plate.😕
Also found that both front shocks are still working good but the rubbers are stuffed and the lower mounts have only one washer. That will also need to be rectified.
The search for rubbers starts now.
Gee that molasses smells. Hope the ants dont like it😆
No the engine is good. I had the head done a few years ago. Was fitted with hardened seats and blue holden 6 cyl exhaust valves and bronze guides. Will replace a couple gaskets tho coz theyre leaking. Will go through the gbox and transfer coz i got a bearing kit. Would like to go through the fairey overdrive coz its noisy as hell, but i think money might be the issue with that.
Today i donned some latex gloves and carefully removed the lid of the molasses tub. What i found amased me. The top of the solution had outlines of what was below and i could see little bubbles coming to the surface. WOW. Thats outstanding. So i removed a couple of parts and the metal is getting cleaned up and the rusty bits are dissapearing fast. I am truly amased at this. I look forward to getting all the bits out and painting them ready for installation. Not sure how long i should leave the bits in the solution. I mixed it up at 2l molasses to about 18l of water. Any clues anyone?
So happy with whats happening.
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