need4speed

ah i see..sorry - its been a loooong day. cracking stuff. thanks guys!

Cool idea. I understand what you mean, the only thing that concerns me is the 'bang side of bar' bit. The swingarm alloy isnt really thick. Id be worried about deforming the alloy around the hole when hammering the aluminium bar, or am i getting the wrong idea?

Ive been working on my motorbike lately - been busy mirrror polishing the ally frame and swingarm. The swingarm has some ugly 6mm holes in it where ive done away with some unnecessary bracketry. What id like some of you fabrication gurus to tell me is, is there any way i can somehow fill the holes with something and re-polish it to make it look like the holes were never there?

Thanks for that info Sean. That saves me the grief of finding out the hard way...

The French dont put up with it because they actually have the BALLS to take action and stand up against their government. Sadly the British public dont seem to have the guts! Oh sure we moan til we are blue in the face, but when the chips are really down, we dont actually DO anything. The government work for us. we are the ones that put them in power, and we are the ones that can take it away from them at the ballot box. The public should unite (for once) and take action like we did before, only this time not crumble like little school children the minute the government makes a little threat!

Are defender 90 axle cases/diffs interchangeable, ie if i bought a crusty pair of early axles to rebuild, could i fit 24-spline diffs into them without hassle? Or would i have to buy a pair of 24-spline axles from the outset?

tried to a while back but couldnt download the photos for some reason. later on when someone explained how, id forgotten what site i saw the pics at. I'll have a trawl round and see if i can find them for you as you are obviously very interested...

oh well. seems fair enough then...

Would i be correct in saying that Richards Chassis just hiked their prices up 20% since last year... I know they have just moved premises, but jeeez.

Hi Roel. I think that all this talk about chassis distorting when heating up / cooling down is nonsense. I'll be ordering a galv chassis from richards soon but when i go to collect i'll be having a good look over it - if theres any distortion/warping they wont be getting a penny piece! Yes, panels large in surface area will be prone to warping ie bulkheads, but no way should the chassis be warping. If i were you id be having a good talk to richards...wish you luck fella cause at the end of the day when you pay good money, you want good engineering.. woopsie! Just re-read your post and realized its nothing to do with richards. am i understanding this right - you regalvanised an already galvanised chassis once you had fitted your x-member?

thanks for the info guys - i appreciate it...

yeah if you could dig out the larbert details that would be cool...

thanks for the advice python. gimme a shout if you like next time there is an event on, and i'll take a scoot along and see what goes on.. B)

cheers python. im wanting to join a club. im currently in the process of building a 90 from the ground up, and want to get to know the basics of off-road driving and recovery. where better to learn than a local club....

cheers ross. are you, or anyone else on this forum members of any of them?

Anyone on here recommend any club in the west coast / Glasgow area? Cheers.

what is the usual way to finish off axles? i was considering powder-coating them, but then quickly decided against it as it would be nigh on impossible to touch them up when they get scraped (probably v quickly). so is it going to be a case of red oxide primer followed by black paint? what about galvanising? thoughts appreciated...

Nice hyjack...

Ive driven every model of defender. When i drove a 4.6 V8, it left such an impression that im buiding one as we speak.....For sound and sheer grunt, NOTHING comes close. Try one - you wont even consider anything less!

thanks for the reply. hmm do i take the gamble or not. decision time......

Is it still worth pressure-testing a used 3.9 block, even if none of the pistons look 'steam cleaned' and the liners look ok?

What type of engine-stand is best suited to the V8. Ive seen a few reasonably priced items on flea-bay, but wondered if these are suitable. Just wanted to know what peeps on here thought...

I know, but the thing with that is i need to get hold of serpentine parts (ie crank pulleys, timing cover etc) to find out if i can do it. By that time ive spent a fair chunk of moolah.... I was just wonderin if anyone has megasquirted a serpentine engine that could tell me its ok, or not as the case may be...

The reason for wanting to go serpentine is simple. i want to use a f huge alternator without the poxy non-serp belt slipping all the time!! and i dont want to use 2 alternators. going serp will keep it neat and simple....hopefully