Land Rover Discovery 200TDi

It was suggested, in the Intro Forum, that I post some photos of the work I am undertaking on my Disco.

Not so much a project, but ongoing repairs to the rust that appears, which is one of the downsides of owning a Disco 1.

Must mention that this my daily use vehicle.

I must say that this is such an amazing forum and website, all I have learnt about MIG welding has been from here, so thanks to the site owner and all you good people here

The latest work I am doing was somewhat unexpected, as all I was going to do was to replace the mudflap bracket that had rusted off. Whilst looking underneath I noticed the rear body mount was virtually non existant


So, after using a borrowed welder about 2 years ago to patch up the sills (wont' show the terrible job I did there ) I bought myself a Clarke 160TM welder a week ago and seeing I had to take my leave before the end of the month, took this week and next off, thinking that I would not really have a lot to do.

Took the bumper off and the tread plate on top of the rear cross member and this is what I saw:


The tread plate being a lovely rust trap, won't be putting that back on.

Proceeded to cut out the bad bits:


and, after reading Redwines thread http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15465 I am inspired to fabricate the metal properly this time, to be welded back in, with the minimal tools at my disposal.

There is more rust to be dealt with, but that will come once the body mount and cross member is sorted, later this week or next.

Sorry this is such a lengthy thread to start with.

In answer to Andy in the Intro thread, I will only be using a MIG, as I have no experience with TIG welding. I am not even a competent welder with a MIG

Crikey that body mount is in a sorry state looks like you have stepped in at the right time, use the search function for discovery as I have seen numerous posts on here showing repairs in detail.
keep us updated
Regards Norm

Norm, forgot to mention that I have ordered a replacement mount from YRM, so need for fabrication of that.

Rather buy something that is strong enough than trying to make something up myself.

Excellent keep the pics and posts coming.....

I will have a similar job to do on my '96 300tdi(even though MOTd until next November!!!)

SNAP , 3/4 of the way thru work on my 300 tdi , n/s sill replaced ,inner wing patched just got o/s sill to patch and wheel arch to repair .

All takes lot longer than u think hope to get a new mot by april ..

looking forward to more pics and progress

cheers Mike

Take a look at YRM - they do pretty good replacement panels at a price that is good value for money, that can help the job be much more straightforward.

Welcome Gandalf .
I also have a Disco 200tdi and have just replaced the sills with 60x120 box, one of the best jobs i have done on it so far and not as difficult as some people would have you beleave.
If tou are interisted in how to do it let me know and i will talk you through it.
Also one other places to look out for rot is behind the front plastic wheelarch liners which help the front foorwells rust out a treat.
Pity your so far from me or i could come round and give you a hand, good luck with it.
Mouse.

Darren, see post no 3. Mount on it's way from YRM at the mo.

Coo and Mikey, will be posting more as I go along.

Mouse, thanks for the welcome.

Replacing cills with box section is on the list for a bit later in the summer.
Some good threads out there on replacing with box section.
Did repairs to both sides a year ago.

Why not post a thread about replacing the cills, I am sure there are a lot of guys around who would also be interested.

Once the mount is done, I am attacking the front, so will be pulling the fenders off and done some repair there.

There is rust under the battery tray area on both sides, so will be sorting that out.

We have another 200TDi, my wife's, which is SORNed at the moment, which is also going to need a bit of tlc.

The rear cross member and clutch fork needs to be replaced, plus one or two other bits.

Strange thing is, both the Disco's are 93 models, but mine is the one with the most rust.

The rear mount arrived today, together with some other bits, inluding a gas flow meter, which doesn't fit my existing regulator. So, now awaiting a decent one from Weldequip.

Having somewhat of a struggle to get the body to lift off of the chassis.
Undone all the body mounting bolts around the back and on the sides, but when trying to lift the body, the chassis follows.

So, I am going to have to investigate if there is anything else holding onto the body in the rear.

So, if anyone has done this on a Disco before, some pointers/advice would be gratefully appreciated.

As usual, thought this would not be a major job, but am finding out it is not.. Will have to be adding some good metal to weld the mount onto.

Luckily, I have until the end of next weekend to complete.

At least the weather is being kind

yu want to check front of the rear the cross member at the back of the fuel tank you may find it's rotten as well have you taken boot carpet out yet
2 body mounts on rear cross member 2 at the back of the sills you will have to jack the body up disco is heavy body you will not lift the body off the chassis by more than and inch or two you will need to jack between the body and chassis to get anywhere

Done the back 2 years ago. The floor was fine, the wheel arch area on the left side had a fair amount of plate replaced.

Cross member behind tank is fine, main rust is on the left hand side, where the body mount is.

I reckon I will have to replace the whole cross member in the future. Will do that once I have practised replacing the one on my wife's Disco

Well, if an inch or so is all I am going to get, then that is what I will have to work with

The saga continues and gets worse

Took off the right hand front fender, as I knew there was some rust around the headlight mount and this what confronted me:


So a new inner wing and headlight mount will be on order from YRM tomorrow morning.

Still not sorted the rear body mount, but that will be done later this week, once I have figured out how to patch it in.

It will have to be a patch, as I will be replacing the rear cross member later this year, so need to get it good enough for MOT time in June.

Took the left rear quarter panel off and cleaned the inside up of surface rust and gave it a coat of paint:


Still some rust in the top of the picture. That will be cleaned up before panel gets put back on.

Might as well bobtail it while you've got the rear quarters off?

No chance of that

MY inner wings werent quite that bad !,mainly rotted out where the wheel arch liner ends ,all patched now prior to refitting the bolt on wing i waxoiled the inner wing outside . ....
The next day i decided to finish welding the end of the cill ,as thngs got a bit warm ,waxoil started to drip out ...swiftly followed by flames rising upwards

certainly burns well that stuff , the dogs water bowl failed to extinguish it luckily the watering can was a short sprint away ! luckily no damage apart from slightly melted plastic liner .

Lesson learnt Allways have extinguisher/water to hand

cheers mike

Got a fair amount done over the last couple of days.
Removed the inner wing and headlight mount


and found more rust


so decided to try my surgeon skills and cut out the offending bits


Fabricated a new lip


which you will see when I post a shot of it in place, too dark to take a photo.

Did some test welds in the garage and was happy with the beads I laid down.
But, when welding the part in, it was horrible.

Spattery type of weld.

Changed wire speed, gas flow and power, but no luck.

I am using a Clarke 160 and have set my wire speed at 2.5 (8mm wire), power on 1.

I bought this regulator from Weldequip http://www.weldequip.com/argonmix-conversion-kit-se.htm , but am not too sure what setting/flow to set the gas flow to in LPM (litres per minute).

So hopefully someone can point me in the right direction, not used to fancy regulators.
Was using disposable bottles before.

Gandalf said:

....Having somewhat of a struggle to get the body to lift off of the chassis.
Undone all the body mounting bolts around the back and on the sides, but when trying to lift the body, the chassis follows.

So, I am going to have to investigate if there is anything else holding onto the body in the rear.

Click to expand...

Have you got the body up yet? There are two mountings under the front seats on a 300, I didn't know they were there until the other day

My 300 (1998) is pretty good, the main scabby bit, though no where near holed, is along the top of the nearside chassis rail.

I've cut the back of my body off behind the rear seats and above the dash so its easy to get at, but it ain't going back on

Cheers, H.

Edit, nice going so far!

You want about 10litres/min flow rate gandalf . Are you getting the inner wing bits from yrm ? i guess you will have to temp refit the outerwing to get the inner wing bits to line up ?

cheers mike

Right, this is the photo of the part welded in that I was referring to in my previous post, was having a problem seeing where I was welding and today realised my helmet was set to the darkest setting :


Really a horrible looking weld.

Today I started putting the inner wing together, no photos yet.
Had to drill a lot of holes using a hand drill.

Also had to measure and mark where the holes go for the water reservoir etc, so took quite a while to do that. Will finish the inner wing assembly tomorrow.

Thanks for that Mikey, tried today with 10l/pm, but am still playing to get the perfect settings for a nice weld. Maybe I am just too much of a perfectionist.

Can't believe that I am finding welding with this MIG a bit of a challenge initially. Did some arc welding when I was a teenager, some 40 years ago and thought I would fall back into it easily.

Yep, got the parts from YRM. Will offer them up and clamp and do all checks that things line up before welding, thanks for that tip.

Epicyclic, got the body to lift about 2 inches, but was hoping for more. Will make do with that when I finish the front end.

Not looking to bobtail this one, as it is my daily driver and off road toy.

Ordered and received a Dremmel today, so hopefully that will make the rear end job a tad easier.

Some info on this thread from when I restored my 300tdi. I used box section for the cills,new rear crossmember,floors etc. hth
http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=65387&st=0&p=625179&#entry625179