I have a customer in Bodmin who owns two B suffix (Jan 1973 - Oct 1973) cars. his keeper was 1st registered on the day he was born. The other car is a parts car. We bartered my time to travel to his workshop, remove the running 1973 B Suffix v8 from the parts car and install it into his car. In exchange I get dash, roof and seats from the parts car - all needed for Bob. Anyway short youtube vid is here
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here is the parts car engine out, the clutch cover is borg beck but the plate has loose springs on it. So we opted to install the brand new borg and beck clutch that the customer had
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The dash is unmessed with, I don't get the steering wheel but should have everything else. The car is proper hanging, the chassis is ok but the whole body frame is sitting on the chassis rather than the body mounts. Both doors and fucked, every panel except the roof is dented. So even though this parts car is a matching number car I have no guilt at removing the engine.
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While I could deal with everything this car has wrong with it, I have better stuff in the polytunnel. Cannot save every one of them. The remains of this car will be sold as a parts / project. p.s. it is rusty
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bunged up the exhaust ports and got busy with the jizer and a pressure washer
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new spigot was also fitted, the OE part I bought from rimmer brothers was made from fucking cheese. Luckily another unit was available else this would have been a fuck up. oe + rimmers = cheese!! Be warned
Anyway, made up an alignment tool with threaded rod, two sockets and some tape. Worked perfectly and engine slipped onto the gearbox input shaft like a greased stick up a pigs arse
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My sisters car is up for MoT next week, the only real issues with this car that gets no attention from one year to the next was a service and a quick polish of the headlamps using a cutting compound and a cloth.
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Bob's chassis has been 3/4 painted, I spray painted it with a 2mm hvlp gun but had to crank the air up to 80psi. The paint is an epoxy paint by rustbuster called 1-2-1. good stuff but very gloopy. Needed to thin it 15% with the special thinners supplied.
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part 2 coming up
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Focus on Bob is now to get the bulkhead restored. believe it or not this one a good one!
This is the bulkhead as removed, there were plenty of bodges, some pop-rivetted on, some glued on with Pidgeon snot. none of this was pretty
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Drivers side, plates snotted over plates, original bulkhead mount was still in place but was unsaveable. Bulkhead side had gone in the usual way
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despite the devastation the passenger side was in far far better shape. For me? much excitement at original strengthening, brackets etc etc. all of which will be replaced but at least I know how now. The big hole had a lump of very heavy steel poprivetted into place. Nice when it takes seconds to unstitch the bodges to get back to factory
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so with all that said, why start on the drivers side? because I can get brutal with the cutting disc and use the intact passenger side as a reference. Here I have cut away all the shit and got back to what is left of factory
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Because I was waiting on a delivery of repair panels, (took near 2 weeks and arrived the day after I moaned like hell.. funny that!) I started to get the bulkhead mount in place as I had nothing else to play with. This did mean butt welding a plate at the top of the footwell. kind of a waste of time really. Not doing it like this on the passenger side.
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here everything is lined up, reference points taken from the passenger side to ensure a mirror image. Because of propshafts the passenger footwell area is not the same as drivers. plenty of other reference points to play with to be absolutely sure that it is proper.
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part 3 coming up
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Customer who is now signed up bought a 1991 2 door RR blind. Wants it RHD which I will do, this visit was to see what he has and confirmed the details. his home is not that far away from my drive home from devon
Anyway, the car is a beauty. Barely any rust, doors that ker-lunk. sits square and straight. Brake lines are original steel and uncorroded! Not bad for a 1991 car eh.
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Dash has lumps of wood glued on! nice... The centre console is made from an old pallet. the interior has a very odd smell to it. Anyone who has experienced "dead rodent" smell will know what I mean. But it is all there and it is quite tidy, if somewhat smelly
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Cairngorm is the colour, I like it. Metallic bronze. The bonnet and roof need repainting but the rest is more than presentable.
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The engine is a 2.5 VM fitted to a LT77 5 speed, though it might be a r380. Cannot recall where reverse was. anyway the job is RHD, road legal, MoT and UK reg. then at some point in the future the customer is keen on V8 efi auto.
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the only rust found is at the base of the footwell, both sides.
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like I said it is a beaut
part 4 coming up shortly
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Unlike the old style G-clamp you have there these fuckers don't walk across the job when you try and tighten them and the pressure you can put on with one is immense. I've seen one break and the amount of pressure being put on it by a certain delinquent Blacksmith I know was totally beyond what any sane person would try. It sounded like a gun going off when it finally broke. They have a variety of uses and I'm sure you'd find them a lot handier than the old style ones. With a bit of dexterity they can even be used one handed.
when the parts eventually arrived, I was able to weld in the drivers side panel for the bulkhead. you will note that I have not used the entire repair panel. the top half (blue bit) is in great shape, so rather than using 4 grinding discs to remove the good bit, I used 1/2 a 1mm cutting disc to slice up the bits and then butt weld them together
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The lump of wood is my template as I predrilled it for the 4 bolt holes that hold the a post to the bulkhead. nice easy to use reference point. then made sure that the edge was straight and welded it up
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Here is the drivers side back together, I use the footwell repair panels but cut off the bit that is shit, in fact I only use 50% of the repair panel but I cannot roll the strengthening ribs in within an hour so these are still cheaper. The radius is different between the transmission tunnel and the side panel. the repair section doesn't accommodate that so is another thing that needs fixing.
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passenger side was handled differently. did the side panel first in the manner described above
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this is the radius issue on the repair panels. I made up this template years ago and it is super useful and getting stuff right quick
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Then I welded the footwell panel in, starting at the bottom end and butt welding it into place
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all done, aside from grinding back the welds, all I need to do is remove the remains of the old and fit the new bulkhead mount.
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all the remains are off, everything is in the right place and is much easier to do
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new mount welded on, 1mm perfect, not bad for a 1970s Land Rover
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Next steps will be to fit new sills to the side frames and then un-bobtail the side frames.
Try and report back next week
Last edited by richardthestag on Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Unlike the old style G-clamp you have there these fuckers don't walk across the job when you try and tighten them and the pressure you can put on with one is immense. I've seen one break and the amount of pressure being put on it by a certain delinquent Blacksmith I know was totally beyond what any sane person would try. It sounded like a gun going off when it finally broke. They have a variety of uses and I'm sure you'd find them a lot handier than the old style ones. With a bit of dexterity they can even be used one handed.
furniture "F" clamps, I have a load of them, awesome things but they don't have a deep throat I have a super deep u-clamp which does help else it is butt clamps
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Unlike the old style G-clamp you have there these fuckers don't walk across the job when you try and tighten them and the pressure you can put on with one is immense. I've seen one break and the amount of pressure being put on it by a certain delinquent Blacksmith I know was totally beyond what any sane person would try. It sounded like a gun going off when it finally broke. They have a variety of uses and I'm sure you'd find them a lot handier than the old style ones. With a bit of dexterity they can even be used one handed.
furniture "F" clamps, I have a load of them, awesome things but they don't have a deep throat I have a super deep u-clamp which does help else it is butt clamps
Ah OK, can't say I've noticed you using them, carry on as you were
Despite the best efforts of Communist China and the fucking WHO I am still drawing breath and working
Anyway
Assembled bulkhead back to chassis and riveted the sill sections together for alignment
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Passenger side a-post, stripped it back to factory - all patches and bodges removed! Often this is the only way, work one side at the time so at least you have a reference to work from.
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b-post has a lot less shit on it but will be no less work, the structure is multi-layered and complex, but at least the steel is largely flat,
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this chap is the gearbox crossmember, quite a bulky old thing but thick 16 gauge steel and loads of rust traps
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bottom edge is showing signed of OLLITWAT rock damage
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top corners cut out and replaced with clean steel
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bottom dented section cut out, percussed flat and realigned to weld back in
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beautiful, just fuckin beautiful
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this is a box load of chassis fittings
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all cleaned and treated with rust treatment
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part 2 to come
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
part 2, still breathing - fuck you Covid! Chinese commie cunts
anyway
inner and outer sill sections welded together
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finished chassis paint, rust buster epoxy 1-2-1 chassis paint. sprayed on through a hvlp 2mm gun. needed 90psi though
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painted the sill sections with a 4-2-1 primer to protect while waiting for topcoat
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one of a series of heavy storms that swept in off the Atlantic and across North Devon
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finishing up some of the little bits on the bulkhead
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resty shite cut out and butt welding clean steel back in
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still needs some welds grinding back before primer else it is 95%
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remains of the passenger side body frame, a and b posts are in pretty good shape compared...... to shite! Anyway need to remove the rear wheelarch side panel and top rail to make it easier to handle
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starting to build the a-post structure back up again.
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like I said, b-post is more complex than it needs to be I am sure
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last part coming up
"The Dark Wob. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
I have a super deep u-clamp which does help else it is butt clamps 
Ah OK, can't say I've noticed you using them, carry on as you were 
