mahon257 Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Well, it happened. I knew I shouldn't. After the rear door got jammed, somewhere in the Western Sahara, I knew something was up... When I got back home to Sunny Norwich, put the car up on the ramps, and foolishly decided to poke about for signs of rust. Oh dear. My tRusty 1996 300Tdi has a few "issues" - I'm told this is all part of the experience, as they say in China, "One Life, Rivet". So, I'm up for a challenge! Has anyone any experience of removing / fitting a "rear body cross member"? From the little that I can see - with the bumper removed, it looks welded to the main body. I know I can buy a replacement cross member - just looking for advice on tackling it myself.. (have a MIG welder etc). Here's a few pics of the state of things - pretty much beyond repair (I also optimisically bought the cross member supports - but have now accepted the proper fix is to replace the whole thing). Any help would be much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrRob Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 If it's only the hangers that are rusted then I believe you can replace just these. YRM do these. Also do replacement cross members if you need to go that far.... HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtail4x4 Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 You will struggle to buy a replacement full one, the manufacturer stopped last xmas, I had to buy a genuine one at IIRC £150. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahon257 Posted November 9, 2008 Author Share Posted November 9, 2008 If it's only the hangers that are rusted then I believe you can replace just these.YRM do these. Also do replacement cross members if you need to go that far.... HTH Many Thanks Dr Rob... I think committing to buy a cross member (from YRM) is the best way forward - once I've got my hands on a new one - hopefully, figuring out how to remove the old one will be a bit easier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil200tdi Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Many Thanks Dr Rob... I think committing to buy a cross member (from YRM) is the best way forward - once I've got my hands on a new one - hopefully, figuring out how to remove the old one will be a bit easier... I need to do this too. Mine has gone where the door retainer is and on the underside... Could patch it but fancy replacing to future proof.. I recently did the sills on my disco with box section steel so I guess this is a similar job.. I quite fancy putting a piece of boxsection in with the YRM mounting brackets as the YRM replacement crossmember is only 1.2mm (plus the boxsection will be cheaper) I would be interested to know how you get on (tips and problems you encounter) I cant find much info on the net about this.. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Althought not a Discovery, we replaced the rear crossmember on my old Range Rover. The write-up... Bear in mind that the work was done at the same time as the rear floor and arches so it looks like more work, but it'll give you an idea of all the annoying places that LR decided to put spot-welds... Believe me, there will be 2 or 3 that you don't spot and will be a real pain to get to!! Not an exact science as you can probably tell. Most of the work was done by judgement, but the tailgate fitted better after we'd done this!! There are, of course, ways of making sure the body doesn't move by adding tacked supports, but we decided that we'd chance it without and it all went swimmingly well. Hope that's of some help... Adrian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkwack Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Hi, recently done mine, floor and sills as well, find as many of the spot welds as possible and drill them out. Use spot weld removal drill bit, or flatten a 10mm drill bit but try to leave a pip to help centre drill, try not to go through both skins as you will have to fill them in, hardest part is removing section attached to wings. I used a thin cutting disk and carefully trimmed bit by bit checking against the replacement,as with most body repairs look twice cut once, the replacement section I got didnt have the end infill sections with it so I folded some up to close ends to mud etc, enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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