Cool. Thx. I owe him a call then.Yes. He’s still cranking it out over there. Right now, he has a 6 wheel Perentie ambulance undergoing a bit of a refresh. It’s a monster!
Cool. Thx. I owe him a call then.Yes. He’s still cranking it out over there. Right now, he has a 6 wheel Perentie ambulance undergoing a bit of a refresh. It’s a monster!
Its never over in a Rover! Great to see you are still working on it! Although your pictures scare the hell out me and make me go look at my D1!Hmm, good questions, Greg! My plan for the next step is to cut away most of that inner fender (it clearly needs to be rehabbed anyway!) for access, and then to strip all the rust off of the mounting bracket and see what is left. If there's enough material there to trust it, then a riveted/welded reinforcement might well be the way forward. I'd really like to avoid having to pull the whole wing off right now to put in a froggatts replacement part, but if it comes to that, I will!
Hold your minimally rusty Rovers close tonight, y'all! They're treasures.Its never over in a Rover! Great to see you are still working on it! Although your pictures scare the hell out me and make me go look at my D1!
The most positive aspect is that everything is fixable and you’re capable enough to perform the work. Parts are getting tougher to find for both my Rovers yet eventually they can be sourced.Good news! The mount has been replaced. After scraping, filing, hammering and stripping, I was convinced that the mount, while ugly, is good enough for now. So I dressed it as best as I could, shellacked it in rust converter and then paint, and installed a brandy-fresh body mount and bolt. It actually looks okay! View attachment 62683
But, of course, what would this project be if I didn’t slide back as many steps as I claw forward? (We gotta be able to laugh at these things… right? RIGHT?!) While dressing out the body mount bracket, my hand slipped and the back of my palm rubbed up against the starter-to-frame grounding strap. Which disintegrated into powder as if it were auditioning for a role in a mummy movie!! Naturally, nobody has the grounding strap in stock, but Amazon has something similar. That finally shows up, at which point, I discover that, to remove the old strap, I need to pull the starter heat shield… but the one bolt that holds that to the motor mount snaps off while I’m removing it. So now I need to crawl under the rig with the welder and try to weld a nut onto the stub to hopefully break the last of the bolt free. It seems the longer I look at this thing, the more rot I find, too. Looks like the left sill will be needing replacement in addition to the right. Then, a moment of clumsiness resulted in a hammer dropping on the back door sill, which crumbled to reveal that much of it is rusted out (and was cleverly disguised with body-filler and riveted aluminum sheet…) as well. I begin to feel like Captain Jack Sparrow, climbing my boat’s mast as it sinks beneath me!
No path but forward, I suppose. With values skyrocketing, I don’t suspect I’ll be finding another, cleaner D1 for reasonable money. Once more, into the breach, dear friends.
Rover on.
Yes, it’s true. I wish the Discos enjoyed as much parts support as the series and Defenders, that’s for sure! Though if you’re willing to wait a week, the boys over in the UK seem to stock much of what you can’t find here in the states.The most positive aspect is that everything is fixable and you’re capable enough to perform the work. Parts are getting tougher to find for both my Rovers yet eventually they can be sourced.
Yeah, there was a degree of madness involved in my dogged refusal to stop on the D1. I grew up learning that “quit,” was a dirty word, and I’ve taken that with me through life, for better and worse. I will probably go to the grave wondering if, in a different world, I might have been able to get it back on the road. For now though, I’m airing out my doubts by wire brushing any rust I can find on the LR3 (and it’s a NE truck, there’s a bit!) before coating the frame with a three-step coating that will hopefully buy me a few years of peace of mind. I’ll start a new thread for the new Rover, which we’ve named Margret Thatcher (So decided by my wife and Frobisher!) but to close the story of Winston out; thanks to each and every one of you who provided advice and encouragement along the way. This community has been a real source of answers and inspiration, and is definitely largely responsible for keeping us in the Rover fold for truck #2!Damn, that sucks but makes perfect sense to stop throwing good money (and time & effort) after bad on that thing. I can't believe you took it as far as you did. Not criticizing your efforts, just wondering at what point that whole Disco body would turn to dust and blow away.