Repairing Defender Doors

[albert]

If you've got door bottoms like lace curtains, read on!

The repair pieces are from Paddocks and are £3.95 plus vat. They are for Series doors but Paddocks say "The lads make 'em fit! And fit they do. Here's what you get......

[albert]

Here's what I found with the door card off. You may notice the pictures swapping between sides, this is because I forgot to take piccys at certain points. Doh!

[albert]

With a scraper, ease the rusty frame away from the door skin. It seems to be bonded with a contact glue, or not bonded in this case!

[F41coner]

I need to do the same, but mine aren't as bad as that yet.

[albert]

Still here? Oh good.

Use a thicker scraper to bend the skin way from the rusty frame. Do this a bit at a time or the skin may split. Be very careful if your door skin is a bit ropey. Once bent, and with a wee bit of grinding, the rusty frame will just pull away.

[albert]

This pic shows the frame removed, but as it's from the other side. the lower skin isn't bent down. Notice the lack of paint where the frame came from:Cross:

[albert]

Cut the repair piece to fit and let it in. You may need to do a bit of repair to the side frames. this side was ok, but the drivers side is a bit manky and need a bit more fettling.....

[albert]

By 'eck, this is taking longer that the job did!

Ok, slap on your favorite paint on the bare door skin and the rear face of the repair piece, and let it dry, otherwise welding will be :hahaha: eventful........

[albert]

Gentle application of the MIG........

[albert]

Finally, carefully bend the lower door skin back into place and paint up to seal all the welds. I put plenty of paint in the seam before bending and loads between the repair piece and the skin. You could use contact glue as per factory. I didn't cos boy does it burn well! Finish with your favorite rust preventative.

The hole in the pic on the left hand frame isn't my welding, it's a hole for the door card screw.......

So, there ya go. Your looking at about 3 to 4 hours for both doors depending on how bad the rot is, the worse the rot, the quicker the rusty bits come off.

No more wobbly doors and showers of rust when closing. Bliss.


:goofylook

[seriesowner]

Proper Job!

[RPGreg2600]

Jesus, how do your doors get that bad? If your door is that bad, how's your frame?

[Suntzu]

California cars don't have to worry about that sort of thing, cause it only rains once a year there. (for four months straight) Plus there's no road salt in the winter, etc... My Landy was a California car, and the original frame is still in top shape... mostly.

[albert]

RPGreg2600.

That seems to be about normal for an 18 year old 90. The rest of the door frames are ok, but the window guides are shot. Thats another job..........:dunno1:

Ah, got it now, FRAME, what we call chassis? It's ok with no welding other than a replacement rear cross member and some patching on the front outriggers.

[callum]

Originally posted by RPGreg2600
Jesus, how do your doors get that bad? If your door is that bad, how's your frame?

the door frames are also particularly unlucky... the water pours on to them from above from the windy windows, collecting in the frame and all goes unnoticed because of the door trims covering the affected area. the lower frame is not really inside enough to stay warm and dry off and not outside enough to be dried by the wind.

chassis dont get as bad as they are more exposed and made of sterner stuff. I suppose folk always think of them as rusting and take precautions, especially as its pretty easy to access on a land rover.

another horrendous spot is the bulkead (firewall, sorry dont want to sound patronising, but just in case) as its made of pretty thin metal and has all sorts of factory perforations to let water in so generally corrodes pretty badly.

Another nasty s the rear cross member as all the water and salt and mud gets chucked up there and generally doesn't leave, causing it to corrode badly and thats made of really thick metal in places.

oh if only britain had californian sun...land rovers would be perfect, leave them bare aluminium and keep the sun off..oh and get some airstream chic

[albert]

"oh if only britain had californian sun...land rovers would be perfect, leave them bare aluminium and keep the sun off..oh and get some airstream chic"


And the roads would be even busier cos we'd all be driving around in our trucks, instead of fixing 'em! :heheheheh