tyrobenz: Restoration

Day 4 - Restoration (22.01.17)

Day 4 and I am really getting to see some of Leif's secrets. My aim for the day was to loosen all fixings for the rear tub, and I am glad to say that I achieved that, but it took a lot longer than expected, with a few hurdles along the way.

In order to remove the tub, the B-pillars first had to be removed. To do this I had to remove the repair panel that had been added to the passenger side of the tub. I was really interested to see what the panel was covering and after a lot of drilling of rivets, and grinding of body filler to expose those rivets, the result was somewhat anti-climatic with only a few holes in the original skin; presumably caused by rot due to the water tank behind. The effort taken to fit the new skin, and the amount of filler used to blend the joint was in my mind excessive, but on the positive note, I now plan to repair the original skin, leaving the tub intact rather than fitting the replacement side I have in my parts pile.

Repair skin - Exposed pink line is where repair panel stops and filler has been used to blend to original panel. A crack in the filler was an indication to the repair, in addition to the abnormally placed rivets

Thank goodness for friends with the right tools! This made light work of finding the rivets buried in the filler

Dusty work!

Repair skin removed and original body revealed. There is definitely no doubt about the original body colour!

There is a lot of filler still to be removed!

Bleeding bullet holes? Haha

Covered up rot

More covered up rot

With the repair panel removed I could access the last few rivets holding the B-pillars in place, drill them out and remove the pillars in their entirety.

I knew the B-pillars were in bad shape, but I had no idea just how bad. The C-pillars on both sides are only attached by a lightweight repair which is basically a cosmetic cover up. The B-pillars which I had noticed were a different colour, could now clearly be seen as a rough replacement. I can only assume the original pillars rusted out and this was a DIY repair solution.

B-pillars removed, and very fragile

Drivers side C-pillar completely rotten. I must say it is hardly surprising given the design of this section. The extended sill rail serves no purpose other than to collect mud and trap it. The result is inevitable

Passenger side C-pillar. Yes, as bad as the driver's side

Close up - looks like something from the Titanic!

Driver's side cosmetic cover up piece hiding what is below. This is all that holds the C-pillar to the sill rail

Passenger side cover up

Cover up piece on the driver's side did well to conceal the damage

What I have.......

.... what I would like to have!

The part pictured above is what the B-pillar is supposed to be like, but I am not sure if it is available anymore. I found this picture on a forum post from 2010 where people were in search of it. As it turns out this same piece fits Defender 110's as well as Series vehicles. The difference in wheelbase is apparently in the tub. (please don't quote me on this, but do let me know if you have two of these parts in your possession!)

So, what to do? Well, thankfully I have two spare B-pillar sections from a Series 3, they are old and rusty but hopefully they are better than what I have, and after some internet searching and talking to my brother in the UK, it looks like YRM metal solutions might be the answer:

Link to YRM Metal Solution