English Gent

I'm probably beginning to sound like I'm flogging this stuff, but honestly I'm not. There is a specialist anti-corrosion treatment called Zinga. It's aimed squarely at the industrial markets, but they will sell it and ship it to anyone. It's a paint which is roundabout 95% zinc (or 97%?) which is applied to shot blasted bare steel or abraded existing galvanising. I bought a pattern IIA bulkhead from Craddocks, brought it home and built a large box so I could grit blast it back to bare metal and then painted it. I used an extension probe kit with waxoyl to treat the internal sections. Once the Zinga was dried (very quick drying) my Dad brush painted the bulkhead in marine coachpaint (luckily he used to be a coach painter/sign writer). It still looked perfect when I made the hard decision to let her go. Also I treated a set of secondhand sills by wire brushing all the surface dirt and oxide off and then gave them a coat of zinga at the same time as the bulkhead. I left those bare, but again, they still looked spot.

A sacrificial anode system generally only works when submerged in an electron carrying solution (sea water, for example) so a uniform coating is your only real option as even a small gap in the coating would act as a corrosion pit for the beginnings of rust. If the steel frames are sealed tubular sections, then you will likely suffer pressure build up during insertion to the zinc bath resulting in possible distortion. Exposure of the brazed joints may result in the braze (tin, copper?) melting out at the elevated temperatures, so if you really want to have internal hot dipped zinc then you're going to have to weld the frames. If however you're not completely stuck on hot dipping thin walled components, then a good second would be to abrade the sections back to bar metal and bush apply a substance called 'zinga' to the outside of the frames, and use a chassis treatment hose sprayer to apply lots and lots of waxoyl to the inner frames. I did this with my replacement bulkhead and it was still perfectly solid when the old lady went. As has been mentioned, you should insulate the alloy door skin from the steel frames as this in itself will set up a galvanic reaction whereby ion transport from anode to cathode (or the other way round... it's been a long time since I was studying corrosion mechanics) starts the breakdown of the alloy skin. This insulation can be achieved with thin rubber, wide insulating tape or even thick paint. I think Frost's use to sell body sealer for just this sort of application.

Yep, I'm afraid I stopped offroading a good few years back now so I wasn't using her at all really. Over the 18 years I had her I spent the first 10 or so seemingly rebuilding her every other year. Eventually she was very capable, even helping me to win a team spirit trophy in the Nene overland challenge... I was rubbish, got stuck everywhere, but laughed it off all weekend. I'd built her with the intention of doing solo greenlaning, which she was very good at, but a mortgage put a stop to all that. I'd decided that as long as she was still running I would keep her, and keep cycling to work. Over the last couple of months I had 'gremlins' instigating faults in a sort of will I get home or not manner. Then the starter motor started to play up, and I eventually deduced that the ring gear had been pushed off the flywheel by the mean-green custom starter. I didn't fancy having to do another partial rewire to go back to the proper starter motor as well as having to split the engine and gearbox to replace the flywheel. My drive isn't the best place to work as it's sloped quite a bit, and nor could I take it to my sister's as she's split from her husband who did a lot of work for me. I couldn't see the point in paying out to fix something I was only using two or three times a month. The scrappage deal was the simplest method of simultaneously clearing my parking space and getting a little run-a-round. I never thought I'd see this day myself.

Right, as I'm nearly chocking back the tears right now I'm in no mood to get back in the garage... My Landy has finally been hauled off by the scrapman. The only consolation is that at least some of it 'may' find another life elsewhere. One of the bits I removed was the rear axle Detroit locker. This is however a convoluted mish-mash of Land Rover parts. The differential is a 4.7 ratio standard SII/SIII unit but I specified the inner end of the half shafts to be 24 spline to suit the high strength martensitic steel shafts I purchased at the same time, these have the removable outer flanges as per the early 90 coilsprung back axle. So I have a 4.7 ratio diff with 24 spline shafts that presumably won't fit with a normal SII/SIII half shafts, and a pair of 90 high strength half shafts that won't fit anything other than a early 90 back axle, with 24 spline planetary gears. Would any 90 owner want to run with 4.7 ratio diffs instead of the 3.5 ratio?

I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the company you've highlighted, but I thought I might offer you a different option. I purchased a pattern part from Craddocks for my Series IIA which was supplied in primer. When I got my hands on it I sand blasted it back to bare metal and applied a cold galvanising 'paint' supplied under the trade name 'Zinga'. This is a high quality, really high zinc content paint that has to be applied to abraded bare steel (hence the sand blasting) or over prepared galvanised steel. The inside of the main rails were treated with waxoyl using a long insertion spray kit. I did this work several years ago and my bulkhead is still perfect, but still destined for the scrapman I'm afraid.

Whilst I admit the camshaft would've been nice, it wasn't an option when I had my engine converted by ACR. At the time I got the K&N filter, SU carb, induction manifold mated to a stage II head. The tubular manifold was merely an idea in Rowland's head, so the only exhaust modification was the straight through back box.

Kingdong2, this might be your mates lucky week... I have one of the early converted spec II heads and powerplus kits using the custom inlet manifold. I loved it, plenty of torque even from low down. It would also freely rev up. The straight through exhaust sounded delightful, but the back box rotted out so I replaced it with a standard back box. I know what the other poster meant with a throttle switch, I cured mine by converting it to a cable throttle using a Defender pedal. A bit fiddle to get the holes in the right place but it worked a treat. Here's for the lucky bit... as I'm doing a scrappage deal, I've already swapped an old head onto the block, and put the old manifold assembly in the back, so I will have a stage II head, powerplus manifold and SU carb, and a relatively new exhaust manifold up for sale shortly. I've got to make sure the deal goes through ok before I part with some of my 'retained items'. If it's something he'd be interested in, then just let me know.

Yes David, they still do a 4x4 version, a petrol and a diesel. However, I'm a bit skint, so went for the cheapest possible option of a 1.1 for £5000. Ideally had the landy been a simple fix I would've sold it on and bought a cheaper second hand Panda. For what it's worth, my £5000 would've got me an 2005 petrol 4x4. For the moment I shall see how I get on with the little Panda and maybe change to a 4x4 at some later date?

Erm, Sorry David, it was the final straw for me, I wasn't using her as I used to. For a few years she's just been a shopping trolley that only made sense as long as she was running. I've done a scrappage deal on a Panda. One or two people have said 'You'll have another within 12 months'

It's okay, its off now. Removed a finely toothed cog with a roller bearing which appears to be firmly attached. I wasn't hitting it hard enough before It was enough to simply put the gearbox into first to get it to stop rotating, and it wasn't even engine compression as there were no plugs in.

Right, I've got the overdrive off, but the castelated nut is round. I've had a look in the manual, and it says use a special tool (which I found for £170 ). Does anyone have a bright idea as to how I can get this bit off?

Oooh, I think I might 'accidentally' exchange the cylinder head... I 'might' also swap out the expensive diff with a cheap one. Do you think I'd get away with sending her away with no rear half shafts in and the end caps showing the open shaft holes?

As far as I can tell, it'll be towed a short distance on to a transporter and then to the scrapyard , but I don't want it to fall apart until it gets to the scrap yard, so my plan is to let it sit on the hand brake in 4wd (gonna 'liberate' the rear diff and shafts) then let the handbrake off when they tow it in neutral, so hopefully the gearbox bits shouldn't turn, and therefore hopefully won't explode as it goes through the estate. I shall however look at getting the castellated nut off whilst I'm underneath. I'm actually sad at the prospect of this. 18 years of blood, sweat and tears. I'm not convinced this is the right thing to do, but it's kinda too late to back out now

As I'm more of a 'remove big bits' rather than delicate fiddly bits, I thought I would take the opportunity to ask a question, prior to doing something potentially stupid. I had a company fit one of the last Superwinch overdrives to the back of my IIA gearbox. I'm just about to strip out the overdrive, but, if I undo whatever it is that holds it on, will the handbrake still work. Actually, as I've typed that I've realised that it should as it's holding the propshaft still. Okay, as I'm obviously thick at the moment, is there any kind of fittings inside the overdrive that I should be careful of loosing? Basically, I've reached a point whereby I don't use the old girl like I used to, and she no longer makes any sense in me paying to get it fixed (start motor and or flywheel) as it's never going to sell for what the govt will give me, however, if I can, I'm going to 'liberate' a couple of not critical bits