Replacing Defender Body Capping's

[tommi]

Replacing Defender Body Cappings

Hi all. For some time I have been meaning to replace the body cappings on my Defender. I had a day off work today so I thought I’d get in gear and replace them. I couldn’t find anything in the Tech Archive relating to this, so I thought I’d take a few photos, they may come in handy for someone. (I only started taking pictures half way through, but hopefully it will all make sense.)

You will need some replacement body cappings obviously.

You will also need some basic tools:

Drill & 6mm drill bit, hammer, rivet gun, assorted screwdrivers, pliers, 10mm & 13mm spanners, and a 10mm socket / ratchet. WD40 or similar is useful if some of the fixings are rusty.

You will also need plenty of new rivets, I think 60 is enough. To begin with, you will need to remove the headlining, so sun visors and mirror needs to come off.

Then remove the 6 10mm bolts which hold the front of the roof to the screen surround.

I then removed the rear door hinge from the rear body (13mm).

I then removed the 4 13mm nuts which hold the body to the tub.

I then removed the 10mm nut and bolt on either side of the tub.

Next, I pulled the door seals away from the body.

Now, because I was on my own, there was no easy way of lifting off the roof completely. Therefore, I kinda had to bodge it, i.e. supporting the roof with blocks of wood, while i got the cappings off.

I don’t have any pictures of the first side, as I was trying to work out how to do it myself : ). Here you can see the old capping removed.

You can see clearly why they needed replacing.

Here, the new capping is in place, ready to be riveted on.

This is how the roof was supported.

Now, onto the other side. This one was even worse.

Make sure all the bolts are undone, and lift the body clear of the tub. Then undo the angled bracket which supports the rear body.

You then need to drill out all the rivets which hold the capping in place. There are about 25 for each capping.

Once you have removed all the rivets, it is a case of levering the old capping off; this is easier said than done. I used a flat head screwdriver, chisel and hammer to remove it.

Eventually, it will let go, and the capping will come loose.

The next job is to remove the remains of the rivets; I used a drill in some cases, and a screwdriver / hammer in others.

When you have removed all of the rivets and cleaned up the body, you can slide on the new capping. One useful thing to do, is to put all the rivets into the holes, before you start to ‘pop’ them; this means if the capping distorts slightly when you ‘pop’ the rivets, you won’t have difficulty trying to put the rivets into the holes.

Once it is secured, it’s simply a case of putting the body back on. It’s not hard, but will take a bit of jiggling to get everything lined up. Make sure you put on the angled brackets by the rear door first.

Once the body is sitting correctly, tighten the corner bolts, and add the bolts for the side supports.

Then bolt the rear door hinge back onto the body. Put the door seals back in place, and make sure all the doors shut ok.

Below you can see the finished result.(I ran out of rivets right at the end, so there are a couple missing . I will fix this tomorrow.)

I started at 9, and had all the tools packed away by 5. Now I know what to do, I’m sure I could knock a few hours off next time. Not that I’m planning on doing this again for a while...

[western]

Super thread Tom, another one for the Tech Archive

[Retroanaconda]

Great writeup. Mine need doing at some point, will probably oblige the truck when I next have the roof off!

[Litch]

Just wonderng why you didn't paint and/or rust-proof them before fitting?

When I rebuilt my 90 10-years ago I fitted all new body panels and I was surprised to see that the new rear tub came from the factory in primer but ready fitted with the cappings. As I intended doing the rebuild to factory finish (although it ended up better) I removed the cappings as the whole body was to be painted in separate peices to ensure full coverage. I was shocked to see that the underside of the cappings had only a thin application of primer to protect them and it was only the exposed parts that were normally painted (explains why they rot out so quickley nowadays). Anyway, the body came back from the bodyshop (amazing how much space a complete 90 body takes when separated into the different component parts) and the cappings were generously coated with Waxoil on the back before being riveted into place.

10-Years later the cappings are still solid but there are a few paint chips which are starting to allow a bit of surface rust to form so they are coming off in a couple of weeks and going for galvanising (going for the retro look) which should mean they last longer than the rest of the vehicle.

[tommi]

Just wondeirng why you didn't paint and/or rust-proof them before fitting?

It's hard to see in the pictures but the capping's are galvanised. From what I gather, there was a period when land rover didn't galvanise them, but IIRC the later ones are galvanised. Also, I am planning a full rebuild at some point in the not too distant future.

[Yostumpy]

Nice thread, How much do you want for the old ones!

[tommi]

Nice thread, How much do you want for the old ones!

As I'm feeling generous, they're free to anyone who collects them

[LandyManLuke]

Good thread. This job is on the to-do list, so I'm grateful indeed.

[landroversforever]

Excellent thread

[Litch]

"It's hard to see in the pictures but the capping's are galvanised."

Ah yes, looking at the photo of the inside of the rear tub you can see the galvansising showing through the paint.

[reb78]

Nice thread. Its not such a daunting job as i thought! Thanks

[Spearos]

Great write up - just wish you did it sooner! I only did this job at the beginning of April and your tip of inserting all the rivets before you start 'popping them' would of saved me a bit of hassle!

Just one thing, the old cappings on my vehicle were bonded/glued on and were a complete bugger to get off. I doubt that my '87 county has been through 2 lots of cappings so maybe some were bonded/glued on at the factory?

If you're unfortunate enough to have a LR with cappings that are bonded/glued on, good luck! Whatever was used is bloody tough stuff - large screw drivers, pry bars or chisels just started to distort the aluminium side panel before the cappings gave way.

How I did it in the end was use the capping for the rear bulkhead (I had one spare)as a kind of chisel inserted under the capping from the rear of the vehicle to break the seal then once inserted a few feet, use it to lever the capping off.

Not much help if you haven't got a spare rear bulkhead capping I know, but a similiar shaped piece of metal would probably suffice. However it would need to be strong, I did manage to bend the bulkhead capping slightly - that's how solid the cappings were held on!!

Oh and I bet you had fun with that hand rivet gun?! I got myself a pair of lazy tongs for this job, money well spent - there's a lot of rivets!!

[tommi]

Just one thing, the old cappings on my vehicle were bonded/glued on and were a complete bugger to get off. I doubt that my '87 county has been through 2 lots of cappings so maybe some were bonded/glued on at the factory?

My cappings were stuck down, but not very well, they were easily seperated from the body.

Oh and I bet you had fun with that hand rivet gun?! I got myself a pair of lazy tongs for this job, money well spent - there's a lot of rivets!!

My arms were hurting a bit by the end of it - you do one rivet and think 'Oh, this is easy' .

[EdF]

I did this job last year when I also acquired two late (2006) rear side panels with windows from a breaker. I hate removing headlinings (they rarely look the same after refitting) so I didn't bother.. I left the roof bolts in across the front above the screen. Then I undid the other bolts between the roof and the side panels and lifted the roof up at the rear just enough to get the side panels out. Admittedly it was awkward getting the bolts out above the seatbelt brackets, but it was possible. Worse getting them back! Of course, had to do other stuff like taking out the door seals..) I sprayed everything to match, put some Waxoyl under the cappings where it won't show, and got new corner pieces for the back end as well. Incidentally, I had intended to remove the windows from the new panels to make spraying easier, only to find they are bonded in. At least they don't leak like the old ones!

[Troll Hunter]

An excellent thread, but another one that has suffered by having all the photos in PhotoBucket, and, of course, they're no longer available.  Any chance of having them re-inserted?

Mike

[Nick666]

On 28/07/2017 at 0:53 AM, Troll Hunter said:

An excellent thread, but another one that has suffered by having all the photos in PhotoBucket, and, of course, they're no longer available.  Any chance of having them re-inserted?

Mike

I agree, would be great if you can do it (bloody PhotoBucket). (Shame the placeholders don't even link to them on PB's site so a kindhearted soul could do it for you! I think Flickr seem to be the best free alternative - anyone use someone else?

[Bowie69]

Just host them on the forum, any other service is just as capable of pulling the rug from under you.

I looked at imgur's terms of use, and they include a fairly seriously worded clause about using them as a content delivery network!

I suspect most will follow suit, they have to make money somehow.

 

[Troll Hunter]

Mike

[thatnorwegianguy]

Came over this thread via Google and managed to dig the photos out from the Wayback Machine (it stores old websites).
Here's the link: https://web.archive.org/web/20170109043226/https://forums.lr4x4.com/topic/55697-replacing-defender-body-cappings/

Images with original text:

You will need some replacement body cappings obviously.

You will also need some basic tools:

 

Drill & 6mm drill bit, hammer, rivet gun, assorted screwdrivers, pliers, 10mm & 13mm spanners, and a 10mm socket / ratchet. WD40 or similar is useful if some of the fixings are rusty.

You will also need plenty of new rivets, I think 60 is enough. To begin with, you will need to remove the headlining, so sun visors and mirror needs to come off.

 

Then remove the 6 10mm bolts which hold the front of the roof to the screen surround.

 

I then removed the rear door hinge from the rear body (13mm).

 

I then removed the 4 13mm nuts which hold the body to the tub.

I then removed the 10mm nut and bolt on either side of the tub.

Next, I pulled the door seals away from the body.

Now, because I was on my own, there was no easy way of lifting off the roof completely. Therefore, I kinda had to bodge it, i.e. supporting the roof with blocks of wood, while i got the cappings off.

I don’t have any pictures of the first side, as I was trying to work out how to do it myself : ). Here you can see the old capping removed.

You can see clearly why they needed replacing.

Here, the new capping is in place, ready to be riveted on.

 

This is how the roof was supported.

Now, onto the other side. This one was even worse.

 

Make sure all the bolts are undone, and lift the body clear of the tub. Then undo the angled bracket which supports the rear body.

You then need to drill out all the rivets which hold the capping in place. There are about 25 for each capping.

Once you have removed all the rivets, it is a case of levering the old capping off; this is easier said than done. I used a flat head screwdriver, chisel and hammer to remove it.

 

Eventually, it will let go, and the capping will come loose.

 

The next job is to remove the remains of the rivets; I used a drill in some cases, and a screwdriver / hammer in others.

 

 

When you have removed all of the rivets and cleaned up the body, you can slide on the new capping. One useful thing to do, is to put all the rivets into the holes, before you start to ‘pop’ them; this means if the capping distorts slightly when you ‘pop’ the rivets, you won’t have difficulty trying to put the rivets into the holes.

 

Once it is secured, it’s simply a case of putting the body back on. It’s not hard, but will take a bit of jiggling to get everything lined up. Make sure you put on the angled brackets by the rear door first.

Once the body is sitting correctly, tighten the corner bolts, and add the bolts for the side supports.

 

Then bolt the rear door hinge back onto the body. Put the door seals back in place, and make sure all the doors shut ok.

 

Below you can see the finished result.(I ran out of rivets right at the end, so there are a couple missing :(. I will fix this tomorrow.)

 

I started at 9, and had all the tools packed away by 5. Now I know what to do, I’m sure I could knock a few hours off next time. Not that I’m planning on doing this again for a while...

Edited April 27, 2018 by thatnorwegianguy
Added text

[Peaklander]

Amazing. Didn’t know that you could find old sites that way! Great thread update. Thanks.

I used this thread three years ago to do the same job on my Landy. It’s good to have it ‘back’.

[Mo Murphy]

Good write up Norwegian chap. An excellent addition to the thread.

Mo

[Yostumpy]

thanks for doing that. 

[theyoounglaird]

I was just wondering whether there should be a seal/gasket between the hard top and the new cappings? I am looking to do this job in the next few weeks and am keen to get it right.

[paime]

Certainly is! You need one of these: https://yrmit.co.uk/product/side-panel-to-capping-foam-seal-lr-defender-90/

[Troll Hunter]

Tommi, many thanks for restoring the lost photos.  It now makes it a brilliant thread for all current and future members.  And, is the Wayback Machine a tool that could be used to recover the photos for all those threads where they had been stored on PB and are not now available?

Mike