Discovery 1 Inner Wings

[discodyson607]

Hi all, after some assistance and advice.

I've had a D1 for around five years and have slowly been turning it into my perfect Greenlaner. When I bought it it had a rotten boot floor (standard lol) so i spent some time replacing the boot floor, rear boot side panels and repairs to the rear sills and rear wheel arches. I have also spent more money than I care to think about on other repairs,  Turbo, alternator, radiator recore, intercooler, lift pump, rear axle rebuild, rear callipers, front callipers, brake pipes the list goes on....... 

However the front inner wings, wheel arches and battery tray are now very rotten and they need to be attended to. I have considered selling it but she really is part of the family and I love her, just cannot part with her.  

I have read lots about Easy-On Panels and YRM panels and I know that Easy-On can be bolted on, however i think that the bulkhead / front footwell on at least one side will need repairs do i would prefer new panels to be welded on.  I no longer have the access to the unit and welding equipment i used to. 

Any work will far outweigh the vehicles value but then if i sell it i won't recoup what i have spent on it this far. So am i mad to want to plough more money into her?

Does any one have any recommendations for bodyshops in or around Essex that would take this on?

Thanks in advance guys  

[Richard Mills]

Hi There,

My recommendation is to log on to Toolstation's web site and buy shiny a new gas less MIG welder.

I did for my disco 1 and it saved it from the scrap yard. The first job was the boot floor, and you have already done that one.

Get some sheet steel, even sides from an old washing machine will do, and patch it up. You won't find anything as good as the one you have. I miss my disco 1; it's replacement, a D3 is much harder to work on.

The inner wings are not that hard to do once you get going and as no one can see them, you can weld on as many bits as you need. Plenty of under seal and it will last another 20 years.

[Snagger]

These are immensely practical vehicles, and strike a great balance between capability, comfort, simplicity and ruggedness.  Many of us think they are superior vehicle to the later Discoverys as they are so much more dependable.  Age does take its toll, and repairs end up costing more than the paper value of the car, but not necessarily the practical value.  The repairs are much cheaper than replacing it with a Discovery 4, with all that more complex vehicle's associated depreciation and maintenance compounding the point.  But some cars are so rotten as to be money pits.  It sounds like yours can be done with fairly typical repair, and that your not too precious about the cosmetics, so I'd lean towards it being entirely viable and rational to fix it up.  As values of older LRs goes up, it may later be a candidate for restoration, but ultimately you don't need to justify the cost if you feel so strongly about the car as to call it family - if something (legal) brings you that much pleasure, surely it's worth whatever you can afford?

[Bowie69]

I'd go with the above, get a cheap welder, if it is just the bulkhead and floor localised repairs, then it doesn't need to be pretty. 

The bolt-on inner wings look excellent value to me, if I were doing mine again I would almost certainly go that route, though I would weld them to the bulkhead, like you suggest.

Chop the lot off and build it from scratch, you can do this sort of thing under a tarp even if you have no workshop -I know I have... My RRC has been too tall to get in a garage for a very long time...

[Ally V8]

I would use parts from YRM and do it properly,I recently did a RR Classic inner wing job,their parts fit well and are easy to use.The car can be as good or better than new in the repaired areas and last longer than the original if coated properly.

[Maverik]

I did my first disco inner wing repairs with a sip180 gasless rig, not the prettiest of repairs, but its still on the road 4yrs later.

When I repaired the Camel Disco I used these inner wings, I bit cheaper than the YRM stuff but fitted in really well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LAND-ROVER-DISCOVERY-LEFT-HAND-INNER-WING-REPAIR-PANEL-LR320-LH-/201166330788?epid=1429473057&hash=item2ed6729ba4:g:d64AAOSw7I5Tvpp7

[andy2986]

I used the easy on panels and did mine on the front of the house out doors !!

I found them to be a good fit and ( no pun intended ) easy to get on.. (well maybe a bit )

I pushed myself a bit and bought a slightly better welder than I could afford at the time, although the wings are sold as bolt on there will still be plenty of welding to do. I was pretty rubbish at welding to start but I did get plenty of practice with my Disco.

 

 

 

[discodyson607]

Thanks for all the replies guys. This has made me feel better about keeping her! Thanks to Andy for those pics. I think its time i did some stripping down to investigate exactly what i need to buy! 

[joe1]

Pretty much as the guys above have said really, the only thing I'd add is that sometimes a casual observation of the trouble spots doesn't always reveal the full extent of the work (that sometimes only becomes clearer only when your well into the job) I've just done a similar exercise on a D1 that had obvious holes in the front wings in the usual places - attached (couldnt get image hosting to work today) - fairly quick I thought, so ploughed on. Then I discovered the metal around the front most body mount areas were weak (the ones by the radiator), so that meant cutting out some of the (good) lower inner wing to access the area. And the area on the bulkhead where the inner wing meets it was also weak - more plating there. Oh and I also did some re-doing of the front sill mounts as well - the weak ones that had some oversills previously welded to them  

But cost of repair was pretty small - already had 1.2 / 1.4 / 1.6 sheet metal lying around, so just  cutting discs, gas, mig wire, seam sealer paint and underseal to guarantee another 10 years on the road. My point is just be prepared for some additional work beyond what you first think. In fact if time is not a real issue I'd say do some stripping off, and cutting  and grinding back to sound metal even before buying any new metal, and have a good prod at those areas that may even appear to be sound (often they aren't, particulalry if covered with some previously applied nice thick underseal)! Well worth doing though.