Thread: Chassis Repair Tips

Originally Posted by Randylandy

finally had a leave pass from the mrs to go and work on the nome (the trayback sitting in the garden the last 6 months) today. I pulled the tray off to start cleaning it up and found the rear x member needs a bit of attention and one of the rear spring out riggers will need replacing. Am I best to get a new one bent up or what will it set us back for a replacement? Also whats the best method to remove the rear x member without desroying every thing? Any other tips?

Cheers

We are about to remove the rear cross member on the county, it's welded on i'm not shore about s3's though.
We are planning on cutting it off with a plasma cutter, if you could get in there with those extra thin grinder blades they might do most of it
otherwise i would use an oxy

CHEERS TIM.

If you don't mind a bit of work and you want a neat job you can grind the welds and remove it with no problem at all.

I swear by 1mm 5 inch grinder discs. 3 will remove the cross memeber from the back of a series and you dont have to worry about the plasma blowing holes when it hits chunks of crud or thin spots.

you have to be smart about when you change the discs tho as theres a couple of bits you need to hit when the disc is nearly full size or you wont complete the cut.

IF you can find them get the .5mm wheels they make using a 1mm wheel look like using a grind stone but be warned they take absolutely NO side loading or off axis torquing.

thanks I tried the .5mm ones yesterday for the first time they are awsome also found out about the side load pretty quickley lol

ok have finally managed to cut all the crap that people have welded on the rear x member over the years to strengthen it up and think I shoud build my own x member an extra strong one so I can mount some decent recovery points and tow hitch the old design just looks too flimsey. Anyone built there own any chance of some pics?

A bloke called "The Chisolm" built a rear cross memeber from scratch. You could try PMing him, and seeing if he still has the photos etc (he sent them to a few people). The link is here:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/series-i-l...-properly.html

Also there is another link to his work, but the pictures are all gone:
Trans Tasman Land Rover Series 1 Register Forum • View topic - Making a rear crossmember

HTH
David

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

I swear by 1mm 5 inch grinder discs. 3 will remove the cross memeber from the back of a series and you dont have to worry about the plasma blowing holes when it hits chunks of crud or thin spots.

you have to be smart about when you change the discs tho as theres a couple of bits you need to hit when the disc is nearly full size or you wont complete the cut.

IF you can find them get the .5mm wheels they make using a 1mm wheel look like using a grind stone but be warned they take absolutely NO side loading or off axis torquing.

Totally agree, nothing beats an angle grinder. I removed my rear crossmember and some of the rails this way. I was lucky in that i already had a new rear crossmember plus sleves to sleve it onto the chassis when i bought the car.

It passed RWC so it can't be to bad haha

Originally Posted by Randylandy

ok have finally managed to cut all the crap that people have welded on the rear x member over the years to strengthen it up and think I shoud build my own x member an extra strong one so I can mount some decent recovery points and tow hitch the old design just looks too flimsey. Anyone built there own any chance of some pics?

When we get a fuel tank for the county (a week or two) we'll be getting stuck into making a new rear x member from scratch, plans are to build a whole new toung stile tow-bar built in up hi so we don't hit it anymore, it will be very strong, bolted on not welded and maybe getting it Hot gal dipped
also have some strong recovery points some where
I'll start a thread when we get into it