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Another two weeks has passed and whilst I wait for my brother (Geoff) to turn up with his Mig welder, I decide I shall attack the brakes. Loosening off all the wheel nuts I pushed the chassis on to its side and removing the wheels one by one inspected and took apart all the brakes. On all 3 wheels the brake shoes are in good condition with plenty of meat on them so I can use those again. The brake cylinders are pretty much seized and whilst the front one is OK, I think its going to be wise to replace them all. My brother has discovered that the Series 3 Landrover has the same cylinders and so he has been busy sourcing new parts for me. Whilst inspecting the rear drivers side brakes I noticed that there was oil weeping into the drum. It seems as though the oil seal on the half shaft has gone and so I will need to replace it. This isn’t a job I’m looking forward to.
Looking inside the engine bay of the body there are some rough fibreglass repairs that are mirrored at the back of the body. This combined with severe crazing along the driver’s side of the body suggest to me that the van has been rolled over at some point in its life. Add to this the leaking axle and a strange fibreglass repair job to the petrol tank all tends to prove the case.
When my brother arrived we set about removing the radius arm (swinging arm) and the bushes inside it were totally shot. Worst of all the driver’s side mounting was completely rotten and when we tried to undo the bolts, half of the mounting just broke away. I was mortified, but Geoff calmly stated that he could easily weld up another one. With the radius arm and front suspension removed the front cross member was sanded down to the metal. It seemed there was a lot of bad metal, which is a shame as the rest of the chassis is great.
Reaching for a sheet of steel that Geoff usually fixes Landrover chassis with, he set about cutting and hammering the steel into shape and the cross member soon looked as good as new. Things did not go to plan however as half way through welding the welder broke and so with half of the cross member welded on he could do no more. It will now have to wait until we get a new part for the welder.
Undeterred Geoff set about cleaning up the radius arm as I gave the engine a scrubbing over with a small wire brush. The engine was covered in thick rust and even the aluminium parts were coated with either corrosion or dirt so deep you could plant potatoes. A short while later I gave the engine a blasting over with the air gun and once all the dust etc was removed it looked much more like a usable engine. It will still need a lot more cleaning and painting but once the chassis is complete we plan to mount the engine and run it for half an hour or so. This should determine how far we need to strip it down.
We got to a point where we could do no more and so decided to fix the fence panel that the wind insisted on constantly blowing over. As we walked down the drive I wielded a large lump hammer and Geoff a long wooden stake. I commented, “we must look right thugs”, and then looking at my hammer stated, “I prefer my weapon to yours”. Quick as a flash he responded, “Yes but a hammer isn’t much good if we meet a vampire”. Hmmm, you know, I hadn’t thought of that!
Elvis Payne, March 2004.
Go to Part 4 April
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