Defender TD5 Rebuild

[grizzlychicken]

very nice indeed!!!!

Can you see that little spec of light at the end of the tunnel ;)

Yes feels closer every day! Although the tunnel is getting a bit obscured with the paint splatter right now. I was just picking specks off my specs earlier tonight!




Now high build primer. I'm sure you guys are familiar with this but for me I'm learning every day! Turns out that fill primer gives you a pretty bumpy surface to start, kind of like an orange peel but different to "orange peeling" if you know what I mean. Well the way I paint it anyway
There is quite a bit of sanding to get it to a flat surface and you invariably get back to the metal in a few spots with blocking it. (Think I'll need to spot shoot a bit more primer sealer on those bits)
I found that after sanding if I used a dry cloth to wipe the surface down from sanding residue when I rub the cloth across the surface and it slides smoothly it's good for color. If it hangs up or has a bit of resistance at all then it needs more sanding. Hard to explain......easier to feel.

Fun facts


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[grizzlychicken]

Looking in my rear view mirror



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[grizzlychicken]

Ok my clear doesn't look good. Too much orange peel!



So chatting to the body supply guys they think it's the product I'm using. Not flowing properly. So changed products and going to wet sand it back to the color, hit with another coat of color then reclear with the new clear coat and plan to reduce it 10% to help with the flow.

Already looks better wet sanded but will need some color and clear. Color mostly because me it is hard not to sand through so have some light spots in the color after sanding.



This painting thing is a little fussy. But if your fussy then it will turn out better.
Ok time to drop the tools and head for a 2 week backcountry road trip! Canoeing in north western Ontario!


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[binch]

Where you plan to go paddling???

[grizzlychicken]

Where you plan to go paddling???

Wabakimi lake near Armstrong Ontario. 150k canoe trip with the fam.


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[grizzlychicken]

I back on the never ending project! In sanding hell!

Ok so I have a question for the painters in the room. I'm sanding back the orange peel in my previous post and wondering how far I should go. When I dry my panel off it has super small dimples still. But if I sand much further I'll burn through the base coat. There is a little room here though.




I plan to touch up the burn through spots of base then do another coat of base then clear coat it again.
Do you think the layers will cover the dimples? Or keep sanding?
Here is the same panels wetted up with a spray bottle:





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[mike.heathcote]

Hey, 

If you don't have one already, I'd strongly recommend getting a paint thickness gauge.  They're on Amazon, starting around $30, and go up past $100.  If you know how thick your primer, or base is, it'll let you know exactly when to stop before you break through. 

To a certain extent, additional paint layers will sit on top of the dimples, and possibly 'flatten out' the smaller spots.  Larger spots not so much.  If it was me, and the plan was to run a few more coats anyways, I'd keep sanding till smooth.  If your gun is set up right, you should only get minor, if any orange peel.  I'd suggest checking your gun setup (use a bit more air), and make sure you've used enough thinner/reducer in your paint mixture. 

Good luck - you're going to have an awesome truck when it's done!! 
Mike 

[grizzlychicken]

Hey, 

If you don't have one already, I'd strongly recommend getting a paint thickness gauge.  They're on Amazon, starting around $30, and go up past $100.  If you know how thick your primer, or base is, it'll let you know exactly when to stop before you break through. 

To a certain extent, additional paint layers will sit on top of the dimples, and possibly 'flatten out' the smaller spots.  Larger spots not so much.  If it was me, and the plan was to run a few more coats anyways, I'd keep sanding till smooth.  If your gun is set up right, you should only get minor, if any orange peel.  I'd suggest checking your gun setup (use a bit more air), and make sure you've used enough thinner/reducer in your paint mixture. 

Good luck - you're going to have an awesome truck when it's done!! 
Mike

Awesome advice thanks mike. I was even thinking of just keeping my original paintwork and just have it as "textured" it actually is pretty uniform. But I'm 3 doors in with sanding now so in it for the long haul! Wet sanding with 400.
The paint shop thinks it was the product I was using too. Might be that a bit more air is needed. The guns I have are from princess auto and are their basic guns. Have both 1.4 and 1.8 nozzle sizes:

https://www.princessauto.com/en/hvlp-gravity-feed-paint-spray-gun/product/PA0008059833

Used the 1.4 for my first round of clear and 1.8 for the doors. The doors have way more textured clear finish and think it's from the 1.8 nozzle.

Well learning the hard way :)


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[grizzlychicken]

Well had a little break doing other projects now back at it and have been still sanding off and on. Getting closer to rebase and clear:



Also improved my paint setup. Got a nice shiny new gun! The 1.3 nozzle should help with my finishing!


Now to reconfigure my garage paint booth to accept the whole 110.........


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[grizzlychicken]

Now I have my sanding done I'm rebuilding the rear tub putting in a more solid 3mm floor. Setting my rear door gaps and committing to where the rear tub will sit.



Connecting the floor to the longitudinal cross members. Original floor uses spot welds but I'm options for rivets. Should be strong enough and will be covered with carpet anyway.


Test fitting the exmoor seat bases. Think they will work great! Although the mounting brackets seem to be not quite square.....!

Once this is all set up I'll prime and fill the tub then paint the whole car as a unit so the paint will hopefully be more consistent :)


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[binch]

Still enjoying the thread!!!   Keep it coming please ;)

[grizzlychicken]

Thanks bill!

So got back in the garage again and finished buttoning up the rear tub. I think I mentioned this earlier but I went with a thicker 3mm floor and matched the front rear footwell return to it. A little bit of fab work but think it is turning out really well. Also bent up a new support that goes between the c posts and supports the floor join and the front of the wheel well.


I also installed the new stainless seatbelt mount points and drilled the holes for the floor to frame mounting points that sit next to the seatbelt mounts.
I will make a rubber insulating gasket to protect these bits from galvanic corrosion


Then went back to look at my inventory of rubber gaskets from YRM.


So since most of the body is aluminum we need to create a barrier where it touches steel to minimize that galvanic corrosion. When we look at the rear tub the contact points have interesting engineering.  Firstly the floor sits on vertical aluminum rails which sit on 4 horizontal steel crossmembers so these need to be insulated.



I was surprised how much the rear tub actually "floats" on the chassis. It has 4 contact points on each side where the steel crossmember rests on a chassis support. There is a rubbed spacer at each of these points that allows some movement at these points and for the front most aluminum cross meme we an insulating point for galvanic corrosion.




The main structural attachment points of the rear tub appear to be:
-To the chassis crossmember in the footwell of the second row seats
-to the c Pilar itself where it is both riveted to the c post and bolted to the front floor crossmember.
-to the floor to chassis mount points next to the seatbelt anchors.
-to the rear chassis crossmember
- and there is a rear crossmember to seatbelt bar attachment tools of these aluminum to steel point need some insulation for galvanic corrosion.





I still have to chat about the chassis differences between the original chassis and the new galvanized chassis. Particularly the mounting points for the tub. The old chassis has pretty level support points for each of the tub crossmembers.





Where as the new chassis has a more significant height difference between support #2 (from the front) and supports 1 and 3. So much that I had to add an extra spacer there so it would take some load.




Well I'm sure the majority of you guys are probably thinking "yup tell me something I don't know" so if so sorry for this long winded update!
I learn something every day on this project! Ok enough screen time, back to building....,.


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[grizzlychicken]

Well continuing to finish up the rear tub, door Pilar and 2nd row toe kick panel. This really sets up the alignment for all the doors and of the tub on the chassis.
I didn't quite have enough yrm gasket material to finish all the aluminum to steel interfaces. So found some gasket from crappy tire.


Then measured it up and installed them on front of the brackets


Worked well. Then installed there's in the second row heel kick panel and started to bolt it all up.



Then went to the toe kick panel that joins the b Pilar's together. There are 6 mounting points for that panel that gives a bunch of stability to the b Pilar and sets somewhat the position of the b Pilar's from the front and rear of the car.
I think to change the position of this panel and hence the door Pilar's you would have to shim it at the bulkhead.
My door gaps are pretty much right on where they were so was happy that the panel position will work. It is sitting about 1/4" off the mount points toward the rear of the car so built some aluminum shims and then insulated the steel to aluminum interface again.



You really need these shims so you don't bend the kick panel...



This overall leaves a slight body overhang at the rear of the tub on the chassis but since the door gaps are good I can work with a small overhang as the rear mount point is adjustable :)


Very close to having the rear structure of the tub all set which is exciting!  Decided at the end of today to add all my lubes before the seat box and floors go in.
Transmission oil- check
Transfer case oil- check
Rear diff oil-check
Engine oil- check

Crap didn't realize I needed this much lube!
Off to Napa for:
-More engine oil(need 7.8liters!)
-More diff oil
-power steering fluid
-brake fluid

That's a job for the weekend.

Thirst little truck.....


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[Matt H]

Still enjoying the thread!!!   Keep it coming please ;)

X2. Very cool to see the progress. It's not an easy thing to see such a comprehensive project through to completion.  Well done.

[grizzlychicken]

Still enjoying the thread!!!   Keep it coming please ;)

X2. Very cool to see the progress. It's not an easy thing to see such a comprehensive project through to completion.  Well done.

Thanks Matt. Well it's far from completion but every day is a step closer!  Funny how much time the little things take! I took me about an hour to winch and bolt my engine into place but to mount the rear tub seems to be taking weeks. Shim this, measure that, get all the steel and aluminum separated, drill out rivets when things aren't lining up, check and recheck the door gaps...... well just got to keep moving forward........to quote finding Nemo:
" just keep swimming......:)"