More Stub Shaft; Brake Backing Plates

Good news about the stub shafts, they have been declared usable, and have cleaned up nicely.

The brake backing plates have also cleaned up pretty well. The bad news there is that the brake shoe pivot on one is loose (they should not move), and may be off-center on the other, most likely due to corrosion between the pivot and the plate. Given the importance of brakes, it may just be prudent to buy new backing plate assemblies.



Broken Halfshafts; Stub Shafts

I think two new inboard halfshafts are in order, for the front axle! Both had inboard end damage, one being twisted and the other twisted right off completely. That answers some questions! Have ordered new ones....

 
The good news is that the stub shafts are in good shape, as are the universal joints. Have ordered two new Hardy Spicer uj's, however, as the swivel housing clearly hasn't had any oil in it for quite a while, and I can't be sure in what shape everything is inside the bearing caps.

Here's a view of the swivel housing opened up. The remains of the oil that was once in there can be seen, in a sort of droplet form. It comes right off, and there doesn't appear to be too much corrosion, but new swivel balls and Timken swivel bearings are going in there in any case.

You can't see it here, but with proper light it's possible to see the twisted off end of the halfshaft still in it's receiver end. We'll see what's up when the differential is removed. Here, you can see the outer race of the halfshaft bearing at the entrance to the axle tunnel. The gunk at the very bottom is just road grime yet to be cleaned off, with a bit of oil mixed in.

Stub axles are a mixed bag. One is clearly just fine, the spacer is in good shape as well. The other has some surface corrosion. I'll consult with those who know more than I do, and perhaps one or both will be replaced - although it would be nice to be able to keep them both.

A closer view of the corroded stub shaft. The non-corroded areas were under the hub bearing inner races.

Steering Wheel Repainted

While waiting for a set of brass punches/drifts to arrive (which they say will be next week), in order to be able to install the new hub bearings without damaging them, it was time to finish up the steering wheel centre. Ended up using a high-temp (250 F) interior paint, just in case the sun on the steering wheel should get a little hot. The aluminum steering wheel centre received a self-etch primer, while the steel cover of the centre received a rust-converter primer. Haven't pushed the cover all the way in yet, in case it has to come off again.

Very tempting to put the leather cover on the unrestored outer part of the wheel, but given the amount of work left to do on the Land Rover, and the number of times the steering wheel may have to come off again, I am resisting!

The original bolts holding the steering wheel on cleaned up beautifully, and so they'll get used again. I intend to keep all original bolts on the vehicle wherever possible.

Seen here, the steering wheel itself is sitting on the cleaned, sanded and primered floorboards, which, along with all other parts to eventually be painted Pastel Green, are going to be stored in primer coat only until the green can be applied to all parts which need to be that colour.

More Bearings; Old Shock Absorbers

Christmas cookies? Nope, just the old bearings, nuts and lock washers in a cookie tin, with the two cleaned-up outer hubs. Managed to get three out of the four outer races out of the hubs without problem, but the fourth was really wedged in there. Took a lot of strong coaxing, so much so that the shift actually flaked at the end. The hubs are now ready for a deep clean, painting where appropriate, and all-new bearings. The bearings should be arriving from Atlantic British Ltd. any time now.

Just a view of what I assume are hub oil filler ports (diagonal hex-head screw). The screw caps were so deep in red paint and rock-hard dirt that at first I never thought I'd get them to work properly, but they do now.

After the hubs are done, the next parts to be done will be the brake backing plates, followed by the swivel balls.

Just out of curiosity, I put the bearing inner races temporarily back on the stub axle, to see how things go together.

Last but not least, the old shock absorbers have been removed, as have the old rubber axle buffers. The new shock absorbers are ready to install on the new chassis, just waiting for new washers, while the backing plates on the new buffers have a few scratches I'd like to paint/seal before installation. Note the condition of some of the old rubber bushings on the old absorbers. The axle buffers are soft and spongy and falling apart. All will be disposed of.



Bearings: Inner and Outer Front Hub cont'd

Rear oils seals off, and all inner races removed, revealed that all outer races are most likely in need of replacement, and so will put new bearings for all.

Here's a view of a corrosion pit in one of the outer races. All were different: one had as indicated below; one had discoloration and grooving; one had several gouges from possible a metal shard; and one had scratches.

Both hubs apart, with their bearing inner races aside. Next will be to remove the inner races, thoroughly clean the hubs, install new bearings, and then paint the hubs. After that, on to the swivel mounts.

Bearings: Inner and Outer Front Hub

Managed to get the temperature in the garage up to 10 C today, which is like summer compared to the -9 C (windchill -16 C) outside, thanks to a very good and inexpensive small radiant heater sold by Lee Valley. And so, off came the front hubs, for an inspection of the hubs and their inner and out bearings.

View of the inner end of the hub, with the oil seal over the bearing, which can just be seen underneath. Some small corrosion on the seal.

A view of the outer bearing, looking shiny and brand new.

The inner race of the bearing. The brown is just the coating of oil (the little there was left - I'm not sure it had been filled often in its lifetime). The rollers look in good shape, and all moves smoothly, so I'm hoping all is well. All four of the inner and outer bearings of both front hubs look like this. I can't see anything wrong, but will ask the experts to be sure.

Another view, not looking conical due to the camera lens....

A murky view of the inner race. No scarring or scratching, and so here again I am hoping all is well. The inner bearings weren't removed, as if they are in good condition there's no point in damaging the seals, etc..

Radiator Painted; Steering Wheel Center

Managed to create a sufficiently warm 'micro-climate' in the garage to paint the radiator. Used Eastwood's Underhood Black Semi Gloss paint, as it will withstand higher temperatures (250 F). It went on easily and produced a nice finish. Haven't painted the radiator vanes, as they seem ok plus I'm not quite sure how to get the dirt off without damaging things, as they are made of a very thin and rather soft copper. Now, of course, the radiator cap looks bad! But I can live with that. :)

The steering wheel center round, after it's Evapo-Rust bath and some further cleaning and sanding smooth. Here's the inside, with the factory-applied black. I'd read somewhere that these parts had crackle-paint applied, but this center clearly had smooth paint on both inside and out. The chip at top is from where I had to hammer out a dent.

The outside. The surface corrosion (rust) remenants are very visible, but if you run your fingers over the surface it feels as smooth a silk. This will get a coat of rust converter as primer to neutralize any remaining rust, and perhaps a two-part epoxy primer as well, for longevity.



Steering Wheel Cleaning

 Nothing much to it: the paint was chipping off on its own accord, and a few minutes with a paint-removal-wheel on the drill took the rest off. The metal underneath was in excellent shape, and so I can only guess that perhaps a primer would have kept the paint on better - which is what will be done here when repainting. The center cover is presently having a rust-removal bath, due to surface rust. The plastic part will be left as is, although that could change. There's a nice leather cover for the wheel, but that will probably be the last thing to be installed on this project!

From whence it came. Note the heater hose at upper left - completely decayed after half a century.

Grill

The grill gets it's own post only because it took three evenings to get it to look like this, seen here propped up on the front panel. The previous owner had painted it gold, and the paint refused to do much even with the strongest stripper I have, and I have no media blasting equipment - and so, every little segment had to be scraped and wire brushed and scraped and wire brushed on and on, until it came back to the original galvanized metal. I don't want to paint it, as I like the look of the original finish. However, if by some chance the galvanizing has been scraped off in some places and the grill rusts in the future, painting it won't be an issue; but until then I like the way it looks, even if it is just a grill.

Visiting Another Land Rover

Today I had the good fortune to visit Tim and his 1961 Series 2 Station Wagon, in Peterborough, Ontario. Only 8 months seperate the manufacturing dates of our respective vehicle, Tim's being made in April, 1961 and mine July, 1960.  Tim's has the original chassis, fully repaired and in great shape, and the bulkhead has had the footwells replaced. The tub has all the seats and trimmings. The engine and transmission have been replaced at some point, with those from a Series 2 109, according to the engine and transmission serial numbers. Tim's put a lot of work into this project, and it shows. The principle differences I noted initially between out two Landies were that Tim's has the lower steering control arms, plus it appears his came with a Smiths heater (mine has a Kodiak). It was interesting to note that we have both chosen the same replacement tires for our vehicles, although Tim's are 6.50 and mine 7.50. And of special interest to me is that Tim has a media blasting machine, and it may be possible to do my wheels in Tim's workshop!

Also worth mentioning is that Tim's also came with a snowplow...must be a Canadian thing. : )

It's impossible to write everything that's been done to bring this Land Rover in the seven years Tim has been working on it, but it's definately producing one nice example of the type.

On the left in the photo below is the frame for the rear door, with some locally-custom-made channel to replace the rusted areas.

Nice replacement wing outer panels over the new tires and re-furbished wheels.

Our interiors are fundamentally identical, but Tim's seat box has a hinged center panel (mine is just a bolt-down panel), plus a horn-push button on the steering wheel center (mine has it on a seperate arm). Mine also has a double-cranked shift lever, unlike Tim's.

Front Panel Stripped

My daughter being off school today gave me some extra time to work on the front panel, and so was able to strip the paint off plus give it a good sanding to try and remove as much of the surface rust as possible. It seems to have worked pretty well, but I think a coat of rust converter will be necessary to reach down into the bottom of all those remaining almost-microscopic corrosion pits. Interestingly, there appears to be some small repairs (spot-weld-sized brown spots in the photos) to the sheet metal around the central opening, that were under the factory paint. A little product prep before painting?

The front panel after washing. Next on the list is sand down the rear side where necessary.

Landy Birthday; Front Panel ('Breakfast') Initial Cleaning

Received the certificate from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust today, which informs me that this Land Rover was originally completed on July 18, 1960, and was shipped out to the Rover Company of Toronto on July 20. Another birthday to celebrate next summer! :)

Started cleaning the front panel. The rear side is pretty good, easy to deliniate between good surface areas and bad (and where there is paint, it is like new), while the front is different. There clearly was some surface corrosion originally over which there was no Pastel Green paint left, which may have prompted the overlying gold repaint scheme. Where the was surface corrosion, the present paint layers chip off easily, revealing a lightly pocked steel surface. Where there was only minimal corrosion or wear, the black primer coat is still attached, but the gold and Pastel Green colour is gone. Where the corrosion/rust stopped, all paint adheres well. And then, there are areas where just the gold is not adhering (see centre-bottom of panel). Makes it hard to know what's doing what.

Here's a view of where the corrosion/rust stopped. All paint layers still adhere well. The black area is where there is just original factory primer. I'm not sure why the factory Pastel Green comes off but not the primer.  Incidentally, the rear side of the panel does not appear to have any black primer under the Pastel Green paint.

Finally, a view of the other side (front), where the Pastel Green is adhering well, but now it's the gold that's not adhering well.  Those tiny bumps under the gold paint of the curved grill-holder bracket are what surface rust looks like under paint, on this Land Rrver. All in all, I think this all calls for a complete stripping of the front side of the front panel, to make sure all surface rust is exposed and given a primer coat of rust converter. Would have been nice to have had the entire panel soda blasted (and then galvanized!), but that's not possible, and so I'll have to do it with stripper and elbow grease and hope that the primer and paint offer enough protection.

Radiator Cleaning

Only had time to do a flush and a bit of cleaning of the radiator today. Water flowed through at the same volume it was being pumped in, and so I assume there is not too much obstructing things in there. Will do another flush, and a better one, when the radiator is installed again and the engine is running. Copper cooling fins are in great shape. The paint came off very easily, just needing a gentle scraping, wire brush and a scouring pad, perhaps due to being oil covered for many years - except on the solder, where it adhered very well! Overall, the radiator is a very nice colour combination of metals: brass, steel and copper. Too bad it has to be painted!

Radiator; Front Panel; Axle Markings

Front panel and radiator came off easily enough, to reveal their inner surfaces for the first time. The front panel ("Breakfast") is in as good a shape as I had hoped, just some very superficial surface rust. This will be cleaned, sanded, and primed, ready for painting at a later date.

The radiator appears to be in good shape, too, although I'll try to flush it tomorrow and see what come out. The drain tap performed flawlessly, which was good news. If all is well, the radiator will be cleaned up, stripped and repainted.

With the front panel off, the front axle is now easier to see (and do an initial cleaning of). Revealed were the numbers 7828. I assume for now that it the axle serial number. Once the front panel and radiator are put away, it'll be time to take this apart and see how things are inside.

 Broad view of the area, showing the front panel mounting brackets (the middle one had a rubber 'shim'), steering relay, and engine front - note the small balance weight on the fan blade at right. At the very bottom it's just possible to see the remains of the snowplow mounts, which the previous owner had welded to the chassis and are thus difficult to remove at this stage. On the front of the crossmember is the steering damper bracket, which from its shape and welding technique I don't think is original to the vehicle. The rebuilt Land Rover will not have a steering damper, as it's not needed and most did not have one.



Chassis Painted; Lights; Horn

The chassis, having passed the paint test, is now horizontal and painted. It took four aerosol cans of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black, and the result is a very nice semi-gloss black chasis. Just got it painted in the nick of time, I think, as the temperatures in the garage are now going to be too cold for further painting.



The headlight retainers, which were rusted (see previous post), were soaked overnight in Evapo-Rust, which does an excellent job of removing rust and leaving any remnants converted and black, following which were then given a coat of rust converter to seal them up, and after that a coat of zinc paint. The result is a finish almost indistinguishable from the originals (they were coated, too, although it looked more like anodizing or something similar)), and will have good rust and corrosion prevention.

The headlight bowls (not seen here) were placed in a shallow dish of  Evapo-Rust, which removed the slight rust on their rims. I then rubbed the rust converter into any corrosion holes in the paint, leaving the original paint untouched, and as the converter is black, have left things like that.

Finally, just a view of the horn after repainting. Thought it came out pretty well!

Headlights and "Breakfast" prep

While waiting for the chassis to be finished, it was time for the front panel, or "Breakfast" as some call it, to get some preparation prior to being removed and refinished. First out were the headlights. The bowls are in pretty good shape, the paint is still nice and shiny, but there are very small corrosion spots in many places, plus a hint of rust on the bottom rim. Will have to think of a way to correct and hide those spots without compromising the original paint, which I'd like to keep.

The front panel, in black and white as the photo came out so yellowy-orange is was distracting! Around the headlight openings the paint is the original pastel green. All the split rivets that hold down the bonnet cushion strip have been drilled out (brass, so pretty easy). The radiator itself appears to be in great shape, with what appears to be only the tiniest of leaks around the drain plug, hopefully fixeable with a new washer.

The bonnet latch cover plate has been cleaned and refinished, while the mechanism itself has been cleaned but will get a bath in a gentle rust remover to clean it thoroughly. The front panel, while having the original pastel green paint chipping off, has almost no rust at all, and that which there is, is very superficial.

All the headlight components in one shot. The chrome parts are in perfect shape, and cleaned up very nicely. The rubber seals can perhaps be used again. The retainers have rust at their very bottoms, and as such after cleaning they will most likely get a coat of rust converter and then a silver spray (perhaps a zinc-type paint). The headlight bulbs will be replaced, as one is burned out (at least, it din't work before, and I can hear something small rattling around inside), and it's probably better to start with two fresh new ones.

Note the shadow of the chassis on the right, which is now horizontal!

Chassis: Painted the Undersurfaces

Undersurfaces of the chassis have been painted. This should make painting the rest a little easier once it's off the wooden frame and lying horizontal. Couldn't open the garage door, as it's too cold outside for the paint requirements, so basically covered up everything except the chassis and used large sheets of cardboard to make an improvised painting area. Proper breathing mask is essential equipment here.

Process used for the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black was as Eastwood recommends for a galvanized chassis, which is pretty simple. First, scuff the surfaces well. I used a sanding sponge with rough and fine grit, about equivalent to 100 and 400 grit paper, as the sponge worked better over the blobs and sharper spots produced by the galvanizing. Then, wash the surfaces with household vinegar. (This also gives the impression that you are making a weird sort of salad.) After this, paint a small area, wait 24 hours, and then do an adhesion test using scoring of the surface and then pulling with strong tape, just to make sure all is well (Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black does not require a primer on galvanizing, but worth testing on galvanized surfaces anyway just to make sure). If all is well (nothing came off, and it would barely even scratch), then two coats of the Extreme Chassis Black, which leaves a really nice semi-gloss finish. Given the pretty rough surface anyway of the galvanizing even before scuffing (perhaps helped by a couple of weeks of salty sea air in a container?), I'm pretty sure the surface was quite good for adhesion. Time will tell! The chassis will be left for a week or more to cure, and then I'll do another pull test on the paint. Easier to fix at this stage if anything doesn't work out.

Air Cleaner Painted

The paint was dry enough to re-assemble the air cleaner today. I'm glad to get these small painting jobs out of the way before it gets too cold in the garage, as most paints appear to require approximately 20 degrees C for proper application, and it's already becomming a struggle to keep the garage at that temperature. Mechanical items can be done when it's colder.

Air cleaner has a rust transformer as the primer, and Eastwood's Extreme 3X Chassis Black as the topcoat (as on the other black steel parts as well). This is the same topcoat that will go on the chassis. I masked off the air cleaner's flange just to stop scratches from the clasps from showing up; also masked off the overlap of the top cover to the main cleaner body (just visible in the top photo), as the top had become stuck around the rim there before, and adding paint probably wouldn't help in getting the top off in the future. Doesn't show when the top is on.