In this video, Part 4 of 12? (I’ve stopped counting), I dry fit the repaired floor pan and contemplate how I’m going to get the braces welded up.
Well…it fits. It’s not great, but I think it will work. There are going to be gaps and those will need some seam sealer to make them water-tight.
The holes in the panel will present a welding challenge. The holes will likely need to be filled prior to welding on either the brace or the panel. I’m not sure which will be the best.
So there are some decisions need and I’ll have to fix it to get this project completed.
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In this week’s post I continue my work on the floor pan. This time it’s patching the panel wear rust munched it’s way through. I patched a roughly 4″ x 5″ piece and three holes. One was about the size of a quarter the other about the size of a nickel.
I made up a template cut it out for the 4×5 hole. For the smaller holes I drilled them out to make them uniformly round. This helped greatly with making the patches. The third hole I just welded shut by building up the weld to bridge the hole.
I had a bit of trouble getting the welder dialed in. I haven’t changed the setting but for some reason it the welder was being difficult. Once dialed in (set back to the original settings) I managed to get good penetrating welds.
Once it was all patched up I got some paint on every thing. I was also able to get some rattle-can rhino-liner/stone chip sealer on the Z bar. I still believe this is crucial to keeping the rust at bay for a few more years. I will likely put a bunch of seal sealer in there as well. Belt and suspenders if you know what I mean.
My next episode will be getting the cross beams installed. This will be a challenge I can assure you.
In this episode I diagnose a non-starting Range Rover. Turns out it was actually pretty simple. I do some mostly-questionable things in this video. When working with gasoline (petrol for those of you in the “other English” speaking countries) you need to be VERY careful. More careful than I am in this video.
First, I try to catch fuel from the return line, which would not have come out of that line, it would come out of the rail on top the engine. In itself not terribly dangerous on a cold engine. The second is opening the fuel lines from the fuel pump. Again not terribly dangerous in itself, but not smart either. A little static electricity and this may have been my last video. So don’t be stupid.
SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read the next paragraph if you haven’t watched the video and still want to be surprised by the cause of my non-starting Range Rover Classic.
Ever run out of gas? Well, I have now for my second time in 44 years of driving. I ran out once when I was 18 years old. I was 2 miles from the gas station and just forgot to fill up the FIRST time I passed the station. My dad was cool, and came and got me, chastised me the 2 miles to the gas station and was kind enough to drive me back to my 1973 Ford Maverick.
The second time I ran out of gas…was apparently last week after I parked the Big White Bus. I guess I had just enough gas to get her back into the garage.
Yeah, my non-starting was due to an empty fuel tank. I put 8 gallons in and she started right up. LOL.
I took the rest of the day and finished welding the Z bar on to the rear floor pan. Then I painted it. I spend a little extra time spraying paint into the gap between the Z bar and the floor pan. The idea here was the liquid paint would go between the metals and hopefully coat between the two pieces. I will also file the space with rattle-can rhino-liner, chip sealer, or whatever you want to call it. Then I will fill the gap with seam sealer.
I got to some length about perhaps melting some wax and making it run in there. Sounds like a great idea, but probably not a great idea. I’ll stick to seam sealer.
In this episode, I replace the fuel filter on the Range Rover Classic.
I had a premonition that I might have a dirty fuel filter. I had decided I was going to change it and was planning when I might do that. Then I went out to the Big White Bus this weekend and she wouldn’t start.
Fuel blockage was on my mind already, and I locked in on that. You need four things to start a Range Rover:
Fuel
Air
Spark
Hope
I threw in that last one, better safe than sorry. I know I have air. I don’t know if any fuel is getting up there. When I spray with starter fluid it tries to run. I know spark has been an issue for me in the past, so this is why I didn’t have any hope.
The fuel filter was corroded on the fuel tank side. I finally managed to get some PB Blaster in there to break up the rust. The steel fitting had been in the filter TOO LONG. So once I got it off I installed the new one.
Unfortunately this wasn’t the issue. So I have to diagnose if fuel is getting to the rail, and I have to check if I have yet again destroyed a coil and or an ignition module. I don’t have spares, or I don’t think I do. So playing the Easter egg swap game hoping I find a bad component is probably not going to happen.
If I determine the spark is the issue, I’m going to move to a fully electronic distributor from D.U.I. Performance Distributors.
In this episode. Grady and I get the Z bar welded to the floor pan panel. After the debacle of last week was finally solved, we had some new tools and great grounds to work with. These allowed for our plug welds and our panel butt-welds to hold.
I also noticed I had the heat up too high on the welder. Once I lowered that, the welder didn’t blow through the panel. There were a LOT of welds. We went through a half tank of shielding gas. And in the end we ran out of gas. So next weekend I’m going to need to get down to the welding supply house and get a fresh tank of gas.
If you remember the first video we determined we needed to cut about an 1/8th of an inch off one side. It turned out to be closer to 1/4th of an inch when I finished. We used the pinch vise clamps, some hammering, and a lot of bending to get the panel flat enough to make good welds.
Grady got to weld quite a few welds. I think I need a second welding mask so I can watch his technique and help him to get better. He did a pretty good job after he got the hang of it. Its fun for me to see him engaged and wanting to learn.
We have 2/3rds of the sides on now. Our first task will be to get the last one welded on and to fit it ONE MORE TIME. We fitted the panel and I’m 92.6% sure the panel will go in cleanly and fit properly.
That’s all for this week.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
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This week is part two of Grady and I trying to get the damn Z bar attached to the bed. We had a helluva time getting our welds to stick. In the end it came down to me removing a lot of the primer and paint I spent so much time getting into place.
The welds were not taking because the ground was poor. It required me to grind off a lot of paint and to get new vice clamps to hold the steel together.
Taking that paint off was no challenge for the power tools. It was painful to me because my ultimate goal in all this was to put this floor bed back together BETTER than it was before. The better is that I don’t have to worry about it rusting out.
Once I get it back together, I am going to spend significant time getting it recoated with paint and rust preventative coverings. This may be challenging with winter now upon us. It was 70F today but it is in the thirties in the mornings. I’m hoping for a warm spell around the new year so I can get the paint applied.
That’s about it for this episode. Like and Subscribe.
