I fill this? patch it? fit a new bulkhead? This is the only rust on the bulkhead that has reached 'hole' status. What is the recieved wisdom on this?
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
Hmm, I'd say it's pretty bad. If it's holed that badly then it will likely be pretty thin elsewhere. Have you looked (carefully) at the footwells - they tend to go just as badly as the top rail.
Repairs can be done, as long as there is some decent metal to weld to. Various places sell repair pieces. On my S2 there was so little footwell left that it wasn't really viable to rebuild the bulkhead, so a decentish second hand one was sourced. As the chassis was being replaced it was easier to fit new than weld up the old one.
As you can see if you flick through the album the drivers side was not as bad on initial inspection as your piccy, however after a bit of proding around and the inevitable replacement of the door pillar and footwells anyway it was replaced with a bulkhead repair pannel.
As Tim says, if the top is that bad then unless the footwell have already been done then I'd expect they aren't much different.
Replacement of the bulkhead is an option. but given the rewiring and faffing I prefer the repair option, also bearing in mind the cost of a new bulkhead. Fortunately for me labour isn't an issue.
regards
Lee D
-- ________________________________
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Just a little hobby site about Landies :-) ________________________________
If the top just under the windscreen is OK (looks to be) you shouldn't have any problems repairing it. I've repaired much worse than that!! Craddocks/paddocks do a repair piece that goes down as far as the hinge and across a good bit too. The welds are well hidden. It's worth chopping the rot out completely as the repair patch is designed to go over the top. I'd echo the advice of others - do check the rest of it as well - footwell replacement panels are only £15ish a side, and can be done in about a day a side (though allow two). You definitely want to be welding, don't use filler anywhere on a bulkhead! If you don't weld yourself, remember the vast mjority of the time taken for welded repairs is the preparation, which anyone can do. It wouldn't be too expensive to take the screen / door hinge off, remove paint, chop out crap metal, clamp repair panel into place and then go to have it welded (local agricultural engineers probably a good place).
I've repaired 110 bulkheads like this before, some a bit worse. There's quite a lot of work involved in doing a proper repair - you'll need door off, windscreen surround out, wing off to get access to chop the rot out and get a welding torch at it. There's probably quite bad rot inside the bulkhead - the inner web structure will no doubt need to be fabricated. I have purchased top bulkhead repair panels in the past, but they were a big rip-off for what they were - would just use my own sheet metal for future repairs.
Remember and fill the inside with coating of waxoyl when you've finished with the welding and painting!
Twas Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:58:41 +0000 when Tim Hobbs put finger to keyboard producing:
I had a look in the seat box under the drivers seat and that's pretty bad, although under the passenger seat is fine. I've not checked the footwells yet.
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
Twas Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:04:15 -0000 when "Lee_D" put finger to keyboard producing:
Faffing, I don't like faffing.....
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
Twas Wed, 14 Jan 2004 09:39:08 +0000 when Mr.Nice. put finger to keyboard producing:
How urgent it this?
right now before it kills you.
next month will do fine.
wait until spring/summer/sunshine.
it's a Land Rover.
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
I'd chuck some filler in it, and slap some paint on to tidy it up and stop any water getting in and making it worse, and then leave it until you feel inclined towards doing it (so in the warm weather/if you have a warm and dry garage or when you have some free time).
I dont think it should be an MOT failure up there (or is it?), but i'd say that having a big obvious rust hole up there would make the tester poke harder when he was looking over the rest of the landy! Which probably isnt good!
Twas Wed, 14 Jan 2004 22:50:11 +0000 when Tom Woods put finger to keyboard producing:
Well, the hole had to be there for the last MOT surely.... (september).
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
Hmmm - big hole that! I've had a repair done to a bulkhead where the rust damage (at first sight) was a lot less. In that case, the footwells and pillars were fine. Once the roof was off (Yes!) it became horribly obvious that there was more than just a wee hole, so beware. Inevitably you'll find rust on the top rail with that amount of damage already evident where it is.
A very good repair shop, with a first class welder, spent a lot of time cutting back the rot, adding fresh metal where necessary and then using the repair pieces readily available. The end result was excellent but not cheap. We managed to avoid having to remove the dash, but at one stage thought it would have to come out too.
The only thing that made the work viable was the fact that the roof was coming off anyway for other work - personally I'd question whether a bulkhead repair is worth the effort unless you have the skills and resources to do it yourself and then do it properly.
Patching (without cutting out) is a total waste of time and money. Except as a botch. The other side will inevitably need doing as well, even if it only looks like it has a minimal amount of rot.
My bulkhead looked very like that on my Defender 90, I filled it and sprayed it up to start with because it looked like such a nightmare to weld up and replaced the bulkhead last Summer with this:
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I bought the bulkhead for £50 with no rust (think I got lucky) and had it hot dipped for another £80, didn't buckle but obviously all the rivnuts needed replacing.
Another thing to look out for if the bulkhead has rotted that badly is chassis rot in the centre section, the rot was invisible from underneatch but look what I found when I took the back body off and had a few taps with the hammer:
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Not a lot of metal holding the rear spring hangers on which was a bit scarey.
Took me 10 long summer days to swap the chassis and bulkhead and recon all the bits and pieces to look like new:
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But it looks and drives like a brand new vehicle now so I think it was worth it.
Twas Fri, 16 Jan 2004 00:06:51 -0000 when "Fergus Kendall" put finger to keyboard producing:
I wouldn't mind replacing the chassis and bulkhead I'll start pricing things up, I have heard that chassis for a 110 csw are pricey..
Thanks for the pointers.
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
Twas Sun, 18 Jan 2004 16:38:47 +0000 when Austin Shackles put finger to keyboard producing:
It's the workload that scares me, big job..
-- Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.) ___________________________________________________________ "To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
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