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Sunbeam’s Farm Truck


Sunbeam

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  • 3 months later...

Hi everyone. I had a few minutes of boredom today so I played with the Landy for a bit. Poor thing is already buried, that flat deck is such a useful surface...

Anyway, I’ve had it running on the rancid stale gas albeit with difficulty, so I quickly rigged up a very safe temporary fuel feed.

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Started very easily but runs a bit lean, so you have to leave a bit of choke on. Alternator even alternates!

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Meanwhile I have the fuel line poked into a bucket, catching the filth being pumped from the tank.  Vid for thread:

https://youtu.be/_MEXZxtKxHI

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

The Landy is great for pottering about with when you have a few spare minutes.

LPG stuff.

35C7776D-B6AB-42D8-925D-2416DB991E14.thumb.jpeg.72ee97da5e280ea85414cb62515a37fe.jpeg

Out.

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One small issue, however. There is still gas pressure in the hard line from the tank. I very gingerly cracked it and it went hiss, so I’ve nipped it up again. Now, I know nothing about LPG systems so are there any experts out there with some advice on how to safely get rid of decades old LPG? 

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Hit me up here Sunbeam’s Land Rover discussion

 

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  • 3 months later...

I have decided to start taking the Landy apart during lockdown. I still go to work occasionally because I’m essential apparently, so small chunks. I have already run out of wd40 though, so my wings may be clipped soon. I started taking the front bumper off a while ago and ended up resorting to cutting it off in 3 sections. The remains of the bolts are trapped inside the front chassis ends, but I need to cut the ends off anyway because of rust, so I can retrieve them later. 
Today I took out the radiator.  Eleventy million fasteners to hold in one little radiator (thank you England) and all held tight with copious Organic thread lock compound.

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Happily the radiator still has all the fins 

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And I got some dirt for the garden

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I can scarcely believe how much this thing is fighting me. Every single nut and bolt is a major struggle, and there are zillions of nuts and bolts! I spent a few hours today using sockets, spanners, hacksaws, heat, angle grinder and bfh. I feel like I am starting to win a little bit. 
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The left front guard is in my opinion, scrap. It is full of bog and has a number of large and nasty creases and cracks in it. I have a less shit one to fit later. This old thing had quite a whack in the left front corner. Enough to bend the bumper end about 30 degrees (3mm galv boxed channel!) and rip 2 of 3 tabs that hold the centre radiator panel clean off the chassis. 
As I slowly back the wiring loom out of the front guards, I am amused by the Britishness of the setup, eg. the left headlight is daisy-chained off the right headlight. With shitty bullet connectors. Marvellous, old chap... and there are earth wires all over the place so they can connect to steel bits, because aluminium panels. I see room for improvement. 
 

Oh, and it can stop raining now. 

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Another day, another panel. And it stopped raining. I managed to get the radiator panel off after soaking the remaining bolt overnight and then applying heat this afternoon. The mounting tab should look like this:

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the other side looks like this:

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and the centre one is snapped clean off. The panel itself is one of the two major assemblies that are made of steel, the other being of course the bulkhead. It has a bit of grot in the bottom, but should be quite salvageable.

The next step was to spend an hour with my head inside the wheel well very slowly hacksawing the head off a munted bolt in a very confined space. This is not mood enhancing. It’s still better than dwelling on the possibility of losing my job in an industry that has been all but destroyed by Covid-19 lockdown.

Landy buffs may recognise this panel:

A20C34A5-5F2E-45D4-8D56-02A889C5E845.thumb.jpeg.29a1d47e80674217481a2f9d2ef0f7ed.jpeg

It’s the inner splash guard which is bolted to the guard at the top, and bolts through the footwell panel in the bulkhead at the bottom. Obviously all the fasteners were unbelievably rust welded. And no, it’s not meant to have a jagged half-moon section missing. However, happiness as replacements are available and not too spendy because Landrover.

Now, behold some typical series Landy rust. This is the bulkhead outrigger on the driver’s side:

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The footwells on both sides have also had patches in the past, and may need re-doing.

The meccano set is slowly falling apart...

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I think I’ll take the doors off next, then the cab roof and see where we go from there. Undecided about whether to take the bulkhead off the chassis or not. I’ve been told it’s a big undertaking, but I can also see some of the repairs could be tricky if it’s left in place. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another semi productive day in the shed. As well as replacing front wheel bearings on the ride-on and cutting the grass, I have managed to pull some more bits off the Landy. Pretty simple stuff really. A couple of the hinge screws wouldn’t budge so I just smacked the hinge pins out. The rest of the hinge screws came out very easily. The roof bolts are also a doddle, and the whole thing is very light once you break the seal. The windscreen then comes off very easily. Many archeological discoveries were made too. A pocket knife, numerous ancient, live .22 rounds and bits of Nana’s finest china. Next was the rear cab panel which also didn’t put up much of a fight. I might do the seat box next. I should get one of the kids to lie under the truck and hold the 7/16ths spanner on the nuts while I go to town with the impact driver and socket.

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Other observations: the driver’s door is pretty wrecked. It needs a new door top and the frame is also rusty and has some large structural cracks in it. Passenger door is fixable. The bulkhead will need some patches and new footwell panels. It’s going to be a big job...

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I’m on a roll. Some more dismantlation has occurred. I’m struck by how simple these cars are, but how bloody difficult at the same time! The following represents about 5 hours work, but then again I tend to work like this

2A3037CB-A5F7-4E9F-B946-E4B69A473581.thumb.jpeg.106e65505490fee4af3e1a3d461078fb.jpeg
I can tell you all I’m thoroughly sick of getting  dirt in my face, up my nose, in my eyes, ears, hair (what’s left of it), etc. once again, every single bolt was a knuckle skinning, rusty shit fight. The seat box is quite light, and easy to remove by oneself. Next was the fuel tank. The front tank outrigger was quite bent, so application of earmuffs and vicious assault with a large hammer was called for, followed up by several different socket and spanner sizes and the trusty angle grinder.

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I found some hieroglyphics 

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Continued from previous.

Another protracted battle then followed with more nuts and bolts. There is a sill trim that runs along the bottom of the cab that is in two sections. A short section attached to the lower rear cab and a long section that runs along under the door, and ends at the rear of the front wheel arch. These trims are thin aluminium and were already quite wrinkly. Removing them has destroyed them. They would be quite easy to remove if the bolts weren’t rusty and seized, but the brackets are quite flimsy and will not stand up to high torque situations. 
Finally, having extracted all the bolts, the rear cab lower half lifts away, and is a bit awkward to remove without a helper, as it is a decent weight, and the galvanised sill frame now has no rear support, so you can’t put weight on them.

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It’s a good thing Land Rovers are not fast, the seat belt mounts don’t look like much. But hey, there’s a sticker that says they are approved by Her Majesty so they must be OK. 

Factory toolkit:

D15C3FEF-CFCB-481F-9ED0-DCDCA219EB13.thumb.jpeg.ddf9c25d74d044cb6e43c3c373624c56.jpeg

 

Exploratory choppy-chop. To be fair the end caps were just about weet bix anyway

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Til next time

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I decided today would be a good day to pull some more bits off the Landy, rather than doing gardening. The deck looks easy to remove. Only 6 bolts, and some tail light wiring. The wiring was carefully disconnected with a pair of side cutters.

On the subject of the deck, its big. 2300x1800 big. This seems great, however it puts the tow ball a long way under the deck, and I forsee high head injury risk. Also, the deck is high. It’s been lifted to clear the LPG tank.

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I would love to see pictures of a properly mounted flat deck, as I don’t think British Leyland had 6 tall stilts bolted through tabs arc welded to the chassis in mind.

Anyway, I digress. The bolts are METRIC!! And galvanised, and undid very easily. At this point I gave the deck a test lift and thought yeah, that’s not too heavy. So I stacked some spare wheels on the floor next to the deck, and tipped it off the side. Easy peasy. But then it suddenly got very heavy and not well balanced. Luckily the children were playing in the shed, so while I held on for dear life brewing up an  aneurysm, I got the kids to move the cab roof, toolbox, some trestles, and my drop saw out of the way so I could finally lay it on the floor upside down. Stupid idea to do this by myself in hindsight, but here it lays.
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It is also rotten and not very well made, so maybe I will build one from scratch.

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This morning I arranged a divorce2DB09DB1-929B-43B9-A479-7432D21894A9.thumb.jpeg.ebedefa8fa4f520286d8d93e565b99b7.jpeg

 

There are no rivers of oil etc, so just normal Imperial seepage. The clutch looks quite new, a Borg&Beck. The release bearing also feels new. I think they can go another round. Winning!ABA80BCA-8177-4850-B40F-DDACC8C93BC3.thumb.jpeg.6445e64cf913346c05ad4f6a97d4c63d.jpeg1BCC89CB-A796-4846-B5CC-918B21AC5535.thumb.jpeg.49ce08d3ce2f84d6fa7e2c382a009c86.jpeg

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Not much actual work done today, but a massive cleanup of the workshop. I spent a few hours going through my shelving unit, having a purge and a re-pack and managed to get enough space to store bits of Land Rover in some semblance of order. Also drained the fluids from the engine and tucked it in the corner. Then I did the same with the gearbox/transfer case. This is how much oil came out of the gearbox:

9DB6C32C-0673-4CC3-8709-D8C8FB22CE4A.thumb.jpeg.8a002e4d73a098364b7cb604c817a3db.jpeg
 

This goes some way towards explaining the horrendous noises it made. Anyway, that’s a problem for later. A good half litre came out of the transfer case (still a long way shy of a proper fill) and it was very black indeed. It will be interesting to see inside it when I eventually get around to cracking it open. Plenty of work to do before worrying about the gearbox.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This thing is not easy to roll around on the tractor grips, so I fitted some low rolling resistance tyres I had on a spare set of rims.

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I also wanted to drain the diffs. Rear diff will have to be done off the car, because some animal managed to shear off the square head on the drain plug. Front diff was easy, but this came out:

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Probably not supposed to be there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

After 5 minutes practice on some scrap steel I decided to do a patch on a fairly no jeopardy part of the chassis. The outrigger in front of the left rear wheel had a rust hole in the top. It so happens that the steel thickness of the front bumper is the same as the chassis so I cut the patch out of the bumper (bumper is bent badly at one end) and ground the galv off with a strip disc. Bear in mind this is the first thing I have ever welded onto a car...
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Welded it in. 
 

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Grind down

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And blast some zinc primer on it.

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Can I just say grinding sucks. It seems to get good penetration I end up with a fairly thick bead on the top. Operator error, no doubt. Also, a quick run over with a flap disc at the end would make it look nicer too, but hey, it’s only a Land Rover chassis.

Then I thought I would try out my new twist knot cup wire brush on a crusty piece. The bottom part of the photo is a minutes work after which I had to undress in the workshop, and pull a piece of wire out of my leg that had gone through my overalls and 2 layers of clothing. I am inclined to dislike the wirebrush. Anyone else get stabbed by these? In contrast the top half of the photo is 10 seconds with a 3M strip disc and zero injuries:

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