Long overdue update

It's been over a year since I posted here so I thought i should bring the blog up to date, incase anyone out there actually reads it!

I'll pick up from where I left off after just getting the engine running.

Next I started preparing my multi coloured panels from a host of donor vehicles. This was a bit of trial and error as I first tried only sanding the wings back to the original paint, but the new primer ended up reacting with the old paint and my painter had to take them back to bare metal.

This wasn't good enough!

 Lesson learnt.. The doors required rust repair to the bottom of the steel frames on both sides. They were donor doors from another vehicle, better than the ones that came on my Land Rover but not perfect. I carefully pryed the door skin up with a broad scredwriver, cut out the bottom of the frame and used a Britpart repair section. I primed and painted the back of the repair section prior to welding it in The hardest part was welding the new metal to the thinner, more questionable metal of the existing frame. Once welded in I drilled drain holes the bottom of the frame at each side.

Sorted.

Now aware of the need to go baremetal to have any chance of my new paint working, I begun paint stripping the doors. This made an absolute mess and was tedious. Being impatient, I decided to have the inside of the doors, bonnet and seatbox vaporblasted. It came back with a slightly coarse finish which I had to rub down anyway, but at least the paint was gone!

Multi coloured donor panels

All back from Vaporblasting

It was then all dropped off for paint. Craig did a fantastic job as always and it came back looking mint. You have no idea how hard it is to move this lot about without scratching anything!

The fun of assembly then commences, I won't go into too much detail and will let the pictures describe. I left the wings loose at the radiator panel incase the bulkhead needed moving in relation to the rear tub (and it did) Copious amounts of 1/4" & 5/16" UNF fasteners were consumed!

With the front half of the body loosely assembled it was time to think about galvanising. I removed all the cappings from the rear tub, took the glass out of the window frame, spare wheel mount, door latches, bonnet hinges, you name it, it got hot dipped

Before..

And after!

Good for another 40 years 

I used Perry Metal Protection in Hornby, Christchurch. Very helpful and surprisingly cheap. From memory it was about $150 for all of that. That included a 'cleaning fee' as it wasn't supplied in bare metal. Initially it's very bright but after 12 months it has dulled down and looks good. There were a few lumpy bits but overall i'm very happy with it.

The windscreen was reassembled with the original glass, using a thick bead of modern windscreen sealant. Bumper went on as well as a few small bits but most of it attaches to the tub so had to be put aside until the tub was painted. 

Spare wheel holder back on. I used sealed pop rivets rather than original solid rivets. The sealed pops look solid from underneath anyway.

Bumper back in place

Windscreen & door cappings

While procrastinating about starting the paint prep for the tub, I installed new side & indicator lights as well as a set of headlights I robbed off a very late series 3 with semi sealed beams. The side & indicators are brand new Wipac units.

It was about this time that my new exhaust system arrived from G-Rover & Son in Wanaka, so that promptly got fitted up using a Bearmach exhaust hanger kit.

Defender mirrors also arrived. Not original, but so much more practical.

Eventually I got started on the tub. It took hours of scraping to get all the glue residue off the inside, where someone had previously stuck marine carpet to the entire inside surface. There was also a hole in the rear bulkhead where an LPG tank had been mounted. To cover this up, I had two sheets of aluminium cut and folded to suit the profile of the tub and bolted them together from each side of the hole. Then ran a bead of seam sealer around the edges. I paint stripped 90% of the paint from the tub, then my painter Craig kindly offered the use of his workshop after hours so I could use the professional sanding gear to finish off the rest.

See plates covering hole hacked in rear bulkhead by PO

The additional fuel filler hole (for LPG) was skilfully welded up and covered by the guys at the panel shop

Once I'd finished prepping it (easily the most time consuming piece) I left it to Craig to do his thing with the paint gun, which turned out amazing as always.

Tailgate back from paint (gearbox in background is another project)

Tub looking like brand new 

Picked the tub up early Saturday morning and spent the whole weekend with an air powered rivet gun putting all the cappings back on. Really enjoyed this as it was truly starting to look like a Land Rover again. Lost count of rivets but it was over 200

Tub bolted into place

Cappings on 

Spare wheel bracket

Lights fitted

"can we go for a ride now?"

So close!

I'll come back in the next post explaining the last few jobs and the Re-VIN / re-compliance / dead rego situation.