NickJ

Find rust, cut, make patch, check fit, trim, check, trim, check, trim, check, weld Thats pretty much how the last few sessions have gone, props to @mof for hooking me up with some argon, that got the boot floor into place legend! Gave up searching for 0.8mm offcuts and just went a brought a sheet, that allowed for visible panel repairs to kick off, starting with the drivers front guard The trailing edge had significant rust repairs, what appears to have been the strategy was cut out the rot and where the frame/stiffener is, just weld direct to that and fill with bog. Of course this made my job fun, I had to give up on like for like replacement going with judgement and dry fitting to the car. First of all replaced the rotted section of frame: Then shape the contour into a fresh piece Never got a weld pic, but its now securely attached. Then work on the lower, this got nasty, can just make out the multiple weld lines from donor patches and is pretty rusty/bent to work out where it should be. Reproduced the lower frame and glued that in after many dry fits to the car Also see the back edge of the upper patch fixed in place, managed to replicate the folded edge too, very chuffed. A quick inspection of the passenger guard showed it to be in much better health until I started digging... While it is relatively rust free, it had the best part of 5mm bog over the whole thing, its been very bent at some stage, beaten about right then filled (with much enthusiasm!) Full clean up showed quite a mission ahead Using the better guard as a guide, I sat down with the hammers and various dollys I've got much better shape now with the larger dents out, but will give it more time, it will need bog but hoping I can learn a few tricks to minimise the amount. New repro guards are near $500 give or take with freight extra so i'll be avoiding that bill as much as possible! Thats the notable work to date, many more smaller patches here and there in the sills and boot and two more large areas to tackle, most challenging is the rear guard lip, thinking a shrinker/stretcher combo would be helpful here, anyone have experience with them and able to offer advice? The vice mounted Machinery house ones look pretty good value, any reason to double down and go to larger stand mounted ones?

If the untouched filter is a water separator, I shudder to think what it looks like on the inside. In my limited diesel experience consisting mainly of neglected farm machinery is this is one of the first places to look.

If you had them matched to a slotted sleeve, they could be rotated to act as an extremely complex throttle

Where does our supply of Argon come from, I know a few small producers but is the bulk imported? Currently Helium supply is on the meltdown cos no tankers have come by for a while, is Argon similar?

I went in to get a fresh bottle a few weeks back and the trade guy said they hadn't had a delivery in months......

All healthy other than the diff then?

Beers 4 @Beaver! Picked up 4 new glowplugs at first light, threw them in and unsurprisingly the voltmeter now drops to 11V on pre-start, never done that in my ownership! Turn the key and the engine was tripping all over itself to start. Pretty stoked to finally have it starting with ease, hopefully the last two years of ownership haven't taken too much out of the starter. That will teach me for reading too many Land Rover barry forums that state the 300tdi doesn't need glow plugs, although I would still like to do a compression test for future reference.

Bugger it, popped out to the truck with a multimeter and spanner, can only reach 3 of 4 but they read 86, 86 and 7 Ohm. Hold the line, might owe you a beer.

On the check list, internet seems to say the engine doesn't need them but i'll pull them and test anyway.

Still fighting start trouble in my truck, after pulling the entire fuel system to bits, I can no longer find air in the system but nothing has changed. I have previously discounted engine health as once running its great with no other symptoms however for completeness would a compression test go astray? Is it possible to get a diesel compression tester thats not moonbeams? I mean the petrol one I brought was sub $100 with a stack of fittings, the only real difference to diesel is the guage, relatively its not that high pressure right?

Two thermostats for twice the reliability?

Liquid Nitrogen works a treat.... Otherwise a wire wheel where the heatgun and scraper can't reach is my current method. Too scared to try any chemicals cos like Bling mentions, not sure I can remove every trace prior to final coating.

Keep the jets and tubes for drilling/experimenting!

I'm already reliant on sticking my tongue out to direct the bead, adding another variable might end up with slag on my favourite welding jandals! Due to some seriously questionable life choices, getting to the CO2 outlets during 'normal business hours' doesn't work for me, hence i'm stuck with a top shelf product from a rock bottom supplier.

Yep, Coregas Argoshield..... Buy from Bunnings..... open on the weekend they said....... I'm hoping I can get a bottle from Blackwoods when they open on Tuesday, but if you've got a bottle i'll happily empty it for you

Where were we? Ah yes, Rust.... Folded up a patch allowing me to warm up on the relatively simple rear guard. And so onto the main event, the boot floor. I have been thinking many hours how to do this panel, if not for the cobwebs in my wallet I would have just dropped a stack of coin on bead rollers and such and moved forth, instead I gave an idea a go and managed to fold up a test piece with the pan bender which impressed me enough to push forward with making the repair. Hold the breath and... Almost there, used some rivets to hold across the bends and tapped the end around a suitable shaped offcut of 4mm Not the tidiest up close, but it is rust free! Next step would be to launch into welding up but my gas bottle is near empty from other projects and there seems to be somewhat of an Argon shortage going on, hedging bets on making some calls Tuesday. Until then i've got some grot in the front guards that needs attention, folded up some more test pieces to confirm the process and dimensions

Is there any trick to welding 6000 series aluminium extrusions? Have a small side project that would be much easier if I started with an extrusion but being a noob at Al welding i have no idea about the finer points

Max out your broadband on this fellow Golden bay sailor https://www.youtube.com/c/VernonDeckLearningByDoing/featured He brought a boat, learned to sail and filmed the whole lot.

For the price of the gasket set, i'd pull the rest down especially that you already have it on the bench, eyeball the bores and journals, clean up whats easy then put it back together. They're bloody tough little motors, but at least you'll confirm everything is in one piece ready for a hearty Italian tune.

Progress....... Heard the neighbour wasn't too pleased by my weekend activities on the angle grinder, they're lovely people so went and had a chat to keep the peace, end result I spent a day rearranging the workshop so I could work with the door shut, day behind, but further ahead. Workshop tidied and organised, fizzed on patches The light surround was a challenge, none of the holes would be doubled up on the final placement, took me a while to think of the obvious, dry fit with bolts, drill spot welds, hold with clecos then do a slow and terrible job of trimming off the excess. Not the visual end result I was hoping for this patch, but secure and better than it was plus it will be hidden behind the guard! Drivers floor patch, slight pain to fold up but lots of hammer work to stretch around the corner. The scuttle drain runs down the middle of the firewall, the bottom had folded over (Likely during engine/gearbox swaps) blocking it off and was subsequently full of crap, with the lower edge showing heavy corrosion, I couldn't leave it alone thinking what could be in there, drilling out the spot welds underneath was thankfully only surface rust, wire wheel, treat and epoxy primed. With those patches in I can officially tick off front end rust repairs, with the car now spun around in the workshop work on the boot floor can begin....

A mate did exactly this with his winch, from memory he had to rebuild the winch cradle or modify the mounting system because the standard receiver hitch doesn't like the bending from from the cable not being in line. He commented that keeping the winch clean in the back was a bonus, other than the amount of space it took up which lead to it getting left behind...

I've been looking at the same stuff, real world question, how many tins would be needed for an average underbody respray?

I use a pedal only because the torch seems to have been designed for midget hands putting the button in an awkward position. I have also used a welder where the pedal gave proportional control and it was the tits just not at a price I can afford at home.

Thats interesting, some brands of Pushlock hose state not to use clamps/crimps as the barb geometry can damage the hose.

UI looks shit but has all the features you'd want for casual use, sounds like a good deal at $800, i'm tempted!