Swivel Balls; Instruments

Finally have the swivel balls installed, but ran out of time to do the rest of the hubs. Will get to that soon. It'll be nice to have the front axles done, as it will mean a rolling chassis isn't too far away.

Have pulled away the instrument panels, preparatory to taking them out - but first I will take many more photos to aid re-installing. Here, the somewhat chaotic wiring of the main instrument cluster.

This view is of the turn signal and dome light auxiliary panel. At left is the switch housing, in the middle is the indicator light, and at right is the pull-knob switch for the dome light. Judging by the condition of the terminals, I doubt a dome light has ever been connected.

Here's the auxiliary panel for the oil pressure and water temperature gauge, which can't be removed unless it's unbolted from the bulkhead plus has the input leads disconnected - which I'll do later. And what is that extra thing with a light bulb at the end?

Here's a view of the bottom of the oil instrument auxiliay panel. In there was the red knob for the high/low ratio lever (had already bought a replacement, of course!), plus an assortment of bolts and debris plus a good many bullets and casings. Will be removing those with great care.

Pedals Out

To do something a little different today, the clutch and brake pedals were removed, along with the "bean can" brake fluid reservoir. This also afforded a little better view of the rust around this area. Interesting to compare the pedal openings with those on the new galvanized chassis. Aside from the bulkhead, though, everything else is in pretty good shape aside from surface rust and dirt.

Not too much left here! The accelerator pedal will come one next, but only after I carefully photograph all the linkages, etc.. The black substance on the bulkhead is the remains of the glue that held on the original insulation. The strait-edged sheet metal at bottom is just something the previous owner had put to stop his feet going all the way through....

Axle Work

With the differentials complete, they've been attached to their respective axle casings, and the casings are now attached to the springs. The rear axle just needs its hubs and brakes, while work should begin soon reassembling the swivel hubs at the front.

In this view, it's just about possible to note that the insides of the brake backing plate has been painted with Eastwood's brake fluid-resistant paint, which is stainless steel based (and silver in colour).

Ready for the swivel hubs:

New Galvanized Bulkhead

Ashtree Landrover International were kind enough to send two photos of the new bulkhead as it was being prepared for crating and shipping, and so I thought I'd share the pictures. Bulkhead looks really good, and note the 'extras' in the 'glove shelf' - these will be very welcome!

Hand Brake Re-assembled

Put the hand brake together this afternoon. Hopeful that it works (and looks) a little better than when it was taken off! The outer backing plate shows some signs of its former surface rust under the paint, but the inside was almost rust free. New parts are the brake pads and springs, plus the locking plate, packing plate, retaining spring and their rubber dust cover (which were completely missing). The rest is original.

Tires Removed from Rims

Today's lunch time project was to get the tires off, which was done by the good folks at the local Firestone tire center. Let the air out of all five tires before taking them over, and boy did the air inside small bad! However, once the tires were off, nice to see that the wheels are in good overall shape. The paint inside almost appears to have been painted by a brush, or is that due to the tubes? In the next couple of weeks they should be off to a specialist for soda-blasting, and then I'll be painting them back to their original Limestone off-white colour (as per the top-most rim seen here).

Two views of numbers stamped on the wheels: the first is the year of manufacture, I assume.

The second is the wheel part number, described in my Land Rover Parts Catalogue as "Road wheel, well base rim type."

Rust; Springs

A typical time spent with an old Land Rover: a selection of rusted nuts, bolts and washers, all in various states of damage and corrosion - all to be replaced with brand new ones, thankfully.

Test fitting of the front axle casing on the new springs. Good thing I tested, as it turns out the dowls that center the axle are not exacty in the middle, from front to back (not side to side). On each front spring, they were off by about 3/16, both in the same direction when reading the stencilled words on the springs. Not much, but when I had the springs initially placed with the stencilled wording facing outwards on each side, it was visible, by comparing with the chassis, that the axle had a very slight 'turn' in one direction. By making the springs identically placed, i.e. with the stencilled wording reading from the driver's side, on both sides, the axle lined up properly.

Have now made sure the rear springs are also identically placed.