Another weekend and time for some more work to the Defender. This weekend the cross member will be on!!!!

First up I lined up the cross member to the jig and clamped it in place. 

 

 

I tacked a couple of welds on so it would hold in place and fitted the tub to make sure it lined up. It's as good as it can be but the tabs are a little out, if needed I'll cut them off and re-weld. Important thing is the centre one is correct and it measure up correctly every where else.

 Now it's time to weld it into place. Its quite windy today so I'm having a bit of a nightmare welding - hence the need to shield the weld.

 

 

Next up I cut and welded into place some support brackets which I also sealed top and bottom.

 

Once the cross member was welded into place I fitted the drop plate and 1 rear step - just to see what it will look like (one day).

 

 

More brackets were cut and welded into place.

 

 

Now I moved on to capping off the end sections - normally mud from the rear wheels likes to sit here which helps the rusting process.

 

First off I welded around the crush tubes to hold the plates in place, then the out sides were ground down to better match the profile of the cross member.

 

Then I welded the perimeter of the plate.

 

 

Then the welds were ground down and smoothed off.

 

Then the void between the bracket was capped, again to stop the build up of mud.

 

Well the night has drawn in and work has stopped, but before I finished up I managed to drill out and fit the hitch pin in the QD tow bar slot.

 

 

There are a few more jobs on my list before the cross member is fully complete, but for now its on.

Job list:

• Grind off and re-weld some shabby looking areas.
• Make provisions for rear wiring loom route (as I have capped off the original route!)
• Fit bolt into QD to bar to stop rattle
• Polish up cross member
• Give it a spray of under coat.
• Drill new hole in drop plate

Then after that, on to some other jobs.

• Clean up the rest of the chassis
• Rust proof the rest of the chassis
• Fit a new fuel line
• Rust proof fuel tank and fit
• Rust proof / stone chip bottom of rear tub.

Removal Of The Rear Cross Member

Another weekend of work on the cross member.

I finished up a few items of welding and then test fitted the newly delivered drop plate for the tow bar.

 

Next task was to weld in some crush tubes into the ends of the cross member where the rear steps will be located. The holes were widened to take the steel tube.
 

They were then welded into place

Once all the welds were complete they where ground down to be flush and the cross member and then were polished up - nice and shiny.

Now on to the actual replacement - firstly I made a jig to aid locating the new member. At this point I also pulled the bunch of cables which runs through the chassis so they where away from the heat produced by cutting and welding. I attached a cable to them so they can be pulled back.

 

The I set about removing the old cross member - at this point the plasma cutter tip ran out so I got out the 12 inch grinder and had to remove the jig. Its position was marked before removal so I should be able to get it back into the same place without a problem.

Some bits needed a little persuading, so a more persuasive tool was used.

The old cross member is off (took a while). This revealed some not so cleaver looking chassis ends.

So the rotten sections were cut out and the metal cleaned up ready for welding.

And new sections welded into place. The next stage will be to weld the new cross member onto the chassis. I will be welding in more reinforcement to ensure that the join is strong.

At the end of the day I had just finished repairing the chassis ends. I dummy fitted the new cross member and it looks quite smart.

Reinforcing the Rear Cross Member

On to the next stage.....

 

I brought a cheap Britpart cross member which I have decided to beef up a little. Firstly I sanded down all areas to be welded.

 

Then re-welded some of the welding and replaced tac welding with complete welds. I also welded up some of the redundant holes.

 

I also welded plates on to the end to stop mud from becoming trapped inside.

Throughout the welding of the cross member I started to think about what needs to be attached to it so I can better plan the welding. There will be two items attached to it - the rear steps and quick detach tow bar. I placed the order for the steps and will weld in crush tubes through the cross member to support these.

 

I started thinking about the QD tow bar and decided I would make my own built into the cross member itself - cheaper and neater.

Firstly I measured up the location for the QD tow bar.

 

 

 

I then cut it out with the plasma cutter

 

 

 

The slot for the QD to bar will me made out of 60x60mm 4mm box steel.

 

 

 

I then welded on a strip of 3mm thick steel sheet to the end to give a profile, which should help strengthen the end.

 

 

 

This is then welded into the cross member.

 

 

 

then I cut some 8mm plate to fit around the box section and welded into place.

 

 

 

8mm plate was then welded onto the back. both of these should provide enough strength.

 

 

 

I then started sealing and strengthening the cross member. Two plates were cut to weld onto the back to stop the ingress and trapping of mud.

 

 

 

These were welded into place.

 

 

 

That's all for this weekend, I have a couple more plates to weld onto the back before I weld the cross member onto the chassis.