Spanners on the Fen: September 2020

Monday 21 September 2020

Lights! Coolant! Action!(?)

After three years and a lot of fun and learning new things I'm now putting the 2A back together with a view to making some road tests with it this autumn. We may be moving house later this year, or early next, so it's a good opportunity to get it ready to make the move under its own steam (petrol?).

There's lots going on, but mostly I'm bolting bits back on because that's the reverse of how Series Land Rovers are put together (Haynes manual joke that, for the uninitiated).

I'm wiring in new front light harnesses, and relays for the headlamps. Banging out dents on the wings, putting together new headlamps, running the engine up to temperature whenever I go out to work on it, fitting a new coolant drain tap - and doing my best to get it to seal.. yes, lots going on.

Once the lights are in, I'll need some tyres as three of the four I have are badly cracked from when it was stood up those years before I bought it.

Then I'll need some insurance.

It wouldn't pass an MOT at this point on some welding I need to do in the passenger footwell, but there's nothing that would stop me from driving it. Hard to believe I'll be driving it down the road soon - bar something unexpected turning up in these 'final' stages.

Enjoying the underside views while it's still all clean! :)

Shiny!

N/S wing propped in place for last checks.. couple of dents I missed there above the headlamp port.. I'll knock those out a touch.

Sunday 6 September 2020

Driver's Door Pillar, Footwell, and Bulkhead

I've just welded a new door pillar on to the driver's side and it's been quite a step up from outrigger replacement and dumb iron rebuilds so now is a good time to review how it's going so far and what I've learnt.

Required Work

- Pillar rotten through at bottom, half-way up, and badly dented on crease
- Pillar foot looked very bad, from what I could see, and apparently not welded at all to existing pillar
- Hinge bolts wrung off in dual-captive nut plates inside pillar
- Footwell rotten where it meets pillar and on inside corner
- Bulkhead corner rotten completely around top hinge area, plus other holes and rust

Bulkhead Alignment and Door Gaps

I wanted to ensure I had a vertical bulkhead and the right door gaps before I started cutting out the old metal, especially the pillar, which I had decided to replace entirely. This would mean I could be sure the same could and should be achieved when the new metal was to be welded into place.

34 1/2" gaps between the face of the rear tub and face of the door pillar allows for a good fit to a Series door including seals. I had this at the bottom both sides, just above the sill channel (the galv section, the aly part lower down is the sill 'panel') with no spacers between my pillar feet and bulkhead outriggers. The top of the door gaps, just above the crease, were both out by up to 1/2", which explains the difficult door fit when I first brought the vehicle home. I used the adjustment points on the bulkhead/chassis fixing plates, and the bolts in the driver's and passenger footwells, and those hidden away the other side of the steering box beneath the steering box bracket, to set the bulkhead vertical. With 34 1/2" gaps top and bottom both sides everything was tightened up and I was confident enough to start cutting the old metal out.

The work is better detailed by the three videos I uploaded to youtube:

Overall I was pleased with the result. I have a lot to learn about painting but I was pleased to get everything aligned correctly and welded in right. The bulkhead corner is not perfect but it's pretty good for a first effort, and much, much better than it was, and than the other side(!). The footwell is now sound, and the door gaps are good.