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The Curse of Blondie


Blanco

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Time for a wee update, LH rear light got the same clean up although the bulb holder was still in one piece, for now I have glued a bit in at the top to re-inforce the cracked lens, but I will need a new main lens at some point, side piece is OK on the left.

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The RH side will need both, .... I seem to have one side (RH) with a black edge and one without. Replacements will be whatever I can get at a sensible price.

There is some problem with the crossover section of the loom which I haven't got to the bottom of yet so the LH fog light still doesn't work, but everything else light wise is now shining brightly.

The shocks turned up this morning so I have been able to fit them,... I would have preferred something less gaudy but they only come in the one colour!

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Tomorrow I'll drop it off the lift and check the wheel aligment again (having driven it up and down to settle the springs etc.) and have another go at the LH fog, re-test now booked for Monday afternoon.

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14 hours ago, Shackleton said:

are the wheels off a Freelander or something?

No they came off my D2 although they might be the same as the Freelander I am not sure. When I bought it it had RR Sport wheels on it, D2 P38, RRS all run with the same PCD (120mm?) and the M14 studs, Defender D1 RRC etc. are M16 studs on the wider 6 inch PCD.

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Time for an update,  .... passed the NCT/MOT yesterday at the 3rd attempt!. Apparently the list of stuff at the bottom which I took to be advisories were actually required, oh well.

As I had attended to the lights while waiting for Paddocks to deliver that just left the rusty bits to deal with.

Started on the rear LH corner light panel and quickly realised there was no easy fix, so it was time to find out how the rear wing comes off!

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Not too difficult really, although I decided the job would be much easier if I took the tailgate off first as leaning in was killing my backIMG_20190129_110729.jpg.f62458a714ea1c411576d1460712be04.jpg

Once the wing comes off, there are 7 little nuts and bolts that join the wing to the rear corner box, and then I was  left with just the rear corner which was quite manageable to work on.IMG_20190129_110716.jpg.d7a0393da4971b44bc6e727a3657eb6f.jpg

So drilled out the spot welds and separated the two pieces

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Sketched out the shape on new steel

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And welded it in, there was some rust on the lip as well but it looked quite tidy when I had cut it out, so I just left it as smaller 'tabs'

There is a bit of lace work at the lower edge of the inner wing which revealed itself, but as the wing is easy to remove I thought that could wait until a warmer time of year.

So I got the rear quarter back together and set about the drivers door.IMG_20190130_095357.thumb.jpg.7112a8429afc8c2059363105a2602cf2.jpg

Water has got down between the main door shell and the re-inforcing panel inside, there  are some fairly impressive holes 'growing',

this is very difficult to repair properly and coupled with this mess from the previous owner at the hinge end

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I think a second hand door would be a much easier solution ultimately, as it happens there is one on the forum which I hope will feature here soon ;)

So what it required for the moment is just to get it past the MOT inspectors, so making no effort to reconcile inner and outer, I just cut out the rust

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as you can probably see here, there is trouble brewing down the whole side of the door.

Less well documented than some but made up cardboard templates and cut new bits to fill the holes,

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This last one shows the extent of the problem in this door, it is going right across the middle as well, good job the MOT man didn't see that!

So I can get the tax today and then I finally get my ROI registration document, only 10 months after importing it, Result!

 

 

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  • 5 months later...

And so.... in between other stuff 'Blondie' sat for a while, ... quite a while really, I did use her a couple of times to go shopping and stuff, but not much in truth, I had hoped to go to a couple of the vintage shows now that the season is here, but for the local one last weekend, not only was it hissing rain but I had no working brakes so that was that.

The brake story started just before we had visitors back in June, with a puddle of 'oil' under the LHF wheel, at first glance I suspected the swivel which seemed wet but as hands were full with our guests I didn't get a chance to have a look for a couple of days.

On closer inspection I had a leaking union behind the front hub where the flexibles come down onto the axle, two short rigid pipes traverse the hub from the caliper to the support bracket for the flexibles and the bottom joint of two where the rigids meet the flexibles was leaking. Tightening the joint achieved nothing, so started to investigate.

Removing the caliper revealed several issues apart from the split copper pipe end, the DIY 'underseal' had reacted with the paint on the 'new' Britpart backplates and they were consequently going pretty rusty, the caliper was old and rusty anyway, the S/S flexibles were crushed in 2 places (?), and most worrying the original steel rigid pipes where they pass through the inner wing were so rusty i do wonder how they passed the recent test, have to assume they were overlooked.

I am afraid I only think of the camera when it is too late, but the following  give some idea of where I have been tinkering:

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The lower joint above was the original problem.

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I ordered 4 flexibles (imperial) from Paddocks and got three different manufacturers! I also cleaned up the filthy mess and sprayed the backplate and the caliper in zinc primer just as a temporary measure.

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The rigid pipes  were replaced in copper (pure copper over here, 'Cunifer' doesn't make it over the water?) 

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On the LHS the pipes were fine just inside the inner wing, and so I jointed them, on the RHS the pipes are very short into the Front/Rear manifold, so no joint was necessary.

The problem now is that having filled the whole system with fresh fluid and bled through, I still have no pedal????? 

 

 

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The rigid pipes  were replaced in copper (pure copper over here, 'Cunifer' doesn't make it over the water?) 

I read somewhere that copper work hardens with vibrations so Cunifer is preferred.  Not sure if there is any truth in this...

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Strangely it has a  BS Kitemark, but I have a remnant of Cunifer and it is definitely a different colour. Work hardening could also result from pressure cycling but at least rust isn't an issue.

Back out there in a bit to investigate why the pedal is not firming up............

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So I was fairly sure the problem was an airlock in the Master, so I pushed the pedal to the limit of travel and tried again, that makes 4 litres of fluid gone through now! Still no miracle cure....

retired hurt to ponder it further.

 

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This afternoon's efforts, 

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Followed by an in vehicle re-bleed. ..... got quite a bit of air out on the bench and was hopeful, ... but no joy, .... might see if I can pick up a kit for the original master while in the UK over the next few days and try rebuilding that.

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