yalan

The back end of that bodywork looks fairly tidy .... But if you're wanting to do a full on job with the bulkhead expect to find a lot more rot. They rust from the inside out and nOrmally perforate all the way through exactly where yours had. Fun ahead!

Something to do with drills having brakes or not? The good ones only need one hand to tighten whereas the cheaper ones need two hands on the chuck ?

As above, I've got a decent dewalt 18v drill and always found the chuck to be excellent. But this was a high end dewalt with metal Rohm chuck. The cheaper dewalt drills with nicad batteries and plastic chucks are built to a much lower spec... I'd change the chuck for a decent branded one. I've also got a keyless chuck on my corded Bosch drill and that is terrible for releasing & slipping. Must change it....

Wehay. Looks like I've just about finished my 5 test pieces successfully. Here are the 'not quite' passed samples I've taken home to show colleagues. The ones which passed have been destructively tested to check for penetration. They also looked slightly better! I've gotta say - when it goes well its a great feeling! I think I now prefer ally over steel. Never thought I'd say that. So here comes the cutting and re-welding coke cans! And as a word of thanks - Hybrid_From_Hell - ta very much; I'd never have got round to joining a course if it hadn't been for this thread!

air riveter sounds like a good purchase to me. This is what riveting on my cappings did to my old cheapo rivet gun....

X Defend or X Secure ........... bugger, I see they've both been suggested already. I'll take 2nd dibs on the free unit

No its not. Its made by Danaher. ..... And to be honest - if it was made by BluePoint it probably wouldn't be very good. The only Bluepoint things I've ever bought have had to go back because of poor quality / reliability.

you could try eBay - probably have you one before the weekend for under a tenner. Personally I'd call Snap-on head office, get the number of your local man & see if he has one on the van. Round about £20...

Machine mart keeps media on the shelf but you pay the price. I found eBay was cheapest including delivery... Do share the pics of your modded sealey. I've found my clarke cabinet next to useless and so have been modding that too following lessons learnt from this thread: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=20261 . So far extraction and lighting has been done with the sump still to go...

Irregular / non-continuous penetration. 8 was best effort from that point of view but messed up finish and stop start in the middle.

Following this thread I enrolled too. Picture attached of my 11 attempts at a butt joint. All fail. That is all.

Sounds good. I may well follow you there as Crawley isn't too far & I need some tuition - especially with ally. Do you know when courses start again? Website seems to say Tues / Wednesdays 6pm-9:30?

I agree. Hope mine looks that good when I'm finished. Just deciding now whether to a) fix original doors b) buy later defender doors c) buy series III doors. Didn't realise that making the wrong decision here would have me immediately pulled over and my vehicle confiscated.......

Nice job - what & where did the materials come from?

Where abouts are you? I'm currently painting my 90 and want the matt black flexible arches instead of the painted versions I currently have fitted (currently in red). Maybe a swop would be in both our interests?

Don't those hinges put the headrests through the windshield?

Another vote for the SP flaremaster. They've brought out the Flaremaster 2 now which has replacable clamps and capacity to do bigger tubes (6mm)too which looks useful for clutch hydraulics? Shame the original Flaremaster can't be upgraded like this. Very nice tool for std brakelines though.

Thanks for that - I watched a cracking video explaining diffs on Ashcroft's website yesterday and was starting to think the same thing - its not a particularly natural thing to ask the diff to do. Without a spare gasket at the ready I don't want to take the diff off just yet as I'm in the middle of so many other jobs. Yeah - the diff has been refilled with 90 but it didn't make any difference to the noises. I was just wondering whether it'd be gears or bearings making the noise. And a quick look online suggests rebuilding a diff isn't an easy job.

Just wanting a second opinion here. I've scavenged a '91 disco for parts on my 90 and have recently got round to putting the new discs on the rear axle. Whilst the hubs were off I checked out the bearings and replaced duff units in pairs as necessary. On refit, the hubs were set for endfloat and spin silently now. Upon refitting the halfshafts, I gave everything a spin and was disappointed to hear the noises shown. Handbrake is on so propshaft is stationary. Both wheels off the ground and the rumble is definately from the axle case. When the OS driveshaft is removed and NS hub spun it is all silent again. To be honest I don't know if this is good, very bad or just normal. There is some wear on the splines but I'd appreciate comments...

What tools have you got... ? Bandsaw, router, jigsaw, circular saw, guillotine will all do a good job. I've even used an angle grinder on 12mm plate with reasonable success.

I like the look of that - surely with that attachment you can also put a milling cutter in the chuck and use it to fishmouth tubes at various angles.....

I went the same way as Zim and fitted out in steel. Though not galv as I'd read rumours about the risk of zinc flakes coming off & causing troubles. Followed this guidance regarding drops & drains in order to cool air & remove moisture. Good tips here: http://www.tptools.com/StaticText/airline-piping-diagram.pdf

Anything out of the ordinary is very expensive. http://nakatanenga-tours.de/shop/article_RRHNAHI/Reserveradträger-NEU-Defender-ab-MY-2002.html?shop_param=cid%3D4%26aid%3DRRHNAHI%26 or http://www.kaymar.com.au/pdf/Defender%20spare%20wheel%20carrier.pdf

I'm currently weighing this one up too. Last week I bought a '4x4' rapid lift from Halfords in the sale. With trade card it came down to £33. But its not quite the 3tonner I was after to replace my old trolley jacks.... Saw my local snap-on man today who gave me a flyer with this one listed... £159 + VAT Sounds good - but at x6 the price of the halfords one...?

Yup thats the same set as being discussed here. I'd put money on it being bought on eBay for £65 then marked up another £60 for a tasty profit. That pic shows the exact same set of parts as I received.... too much of a coincidence!