Range Rover

February 4, 2024February 1, 2024

Part 5: Welding Patches in the Rear Wheel Well (Post #641) February 4, 2024

In this installment I continue patching the rust on the passenger rear wheel well. The patches went pretty well, all things considered. I am learning that i should probably use the zinc weld through primer. The basic primer I am attempting to use prevents me from having solid welds.

I wire wheeled off A LOT of paint to get these welds to stick. Not great considering I need paint of some kind on this metal. I have one more patch to weld on this fender. I will use the zinc primer.

I also replace one of the sunroof drains using some tubing I bought from one of the big box stores. I’m going to come right out and say I don’t recommend this stuff. It had too many pinches in the tubing. I thought I could use a heat guy and get the tubing flexible enough to reshape the tube.

This failed miserably. What did work was using some zip ties to eliminate the pinch. How this worked was the zip ties press equally all the way around the tube. This seemed to work amazingly well. Super happy with that clever trick. So if you can’t find high quality tubing, you can use the cheap stuff and you may need to employ this trick.

Getting this tubing into the C pillar was challenging. If you are patient you will succeed. It took longer than I thought it would to get this tubing in the right place.

As I mention in the video, I needed to cut a hole in the lower part of the C pillar. I decided to direct the tubing down the INSIDE of the fender well. This removes another hole in the wheel well. I will, as I mentioned in an earlier video, drill a hole behind the mud flap and using a pass through pipe thingy I will be able to send that water out while attempting to have a less rust prone way to get the water out of my Classic.

I also learned welding upside down is HARD. I had absolutely no luck getting the final patch to stick. I said in the video I would would watch some videos. Unfortunately I did not find a single video on Youtube where someone was demonstrating welding sheet metal from below or upside down.

I watched a couple of videos of guys welding structural steel joints upside down or from below. The one trick I will try this coming weekend is to increase my wire speed and maybe increase my voltage. Basically being more aggressive. Maybe if I’m lucky it won’t just blow holes in my steel.

That’s all for this week. Like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Comment as well if you see something I’m doing wrong or could do better. I’m no expert, I’m just winging this like most hobbyists do.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/nEzSJ3lHLV8

January 14, 2024January 14, 2024

Too Cold to Work (Post #639) January 14, 2024

Holy crap it’s cold outside.

Most of the country is experiencing extremely cold temperatures. It got down to 1.6ºF last night here at Okierover Base Camp. Thankfully the winds were mild (mild for Oklahoma anyway) and the windchills stayed in the minus teens and single digits. Still VERY dangerous to be outside.

That didn’t stop some of my fellow overlanders from going out in this mess. This is not fun camping weather. Changing a tire in this weather can seriously test your constitution. Frostbite is just 15 minutes away in this weather.

Instead I give a short overview of what I called a short-term To-Do List.

Wire for Power in the back for a battery and fridge eventually
Install radio and cameras
Purchase and install a GMRS radio
Fix the Ignition Issues

You’ve heard it all before. My goal is to get back behind the wheel by April. If you don’t set goals, you’ll never achieve them.

That’s all for this week. I’ve got to go take care of Mrs. Okierover who got diagnosed with Covid today. My son is on the downhill slope of Flu A. I’ll be lucky to survive the week without catching SOMETHING!

Wash your hands, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering

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January 1, 2024January 2, 2024

Prep for Welding, Part 2(Post #637) 1/1/2024

Happy New Year everyone!!!

The plan this weekend was to do some welding. Unfortunately the welding supply store was closed. So I was unable to source the shielding gas I needed. That…was frustrating. I instead knocked out a project my wife has asked for “she claims” for 18 months. I’ll admit it was a while…but maybe only a year. In any event, the pantry portion of the former laundry room now has fancy shelves.

So today I did some more investigating of the rust, primarily on the A and B pillars at the sill. The B pillar is mostly rusted out. It is as bad as it looks and I’ll need to source the ready made B pillar lower portion. I’ve seen them online…but don’t remember if they are available in the US of A. I’ve found at least three businesses in the UK. Part is only about $33.00(US) the shipping to the US is the same amount. More research is needed, or I weld up my own version.

YRM B Pillar Replacement Part — YRM B Pillar for Range Rover Classics and Disco 1

The A pillar has a hole next to it in the sill. I think it would be an easy patch to fix.

So this week I’ll get some more shielding gas and I’ll be ready to do some repairing next weekend.

Once again thanks for stopping by and for watching the videos.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering….

https://youtu.be/WX3yTOSc6zo

December 23, 2023January 1, 2024

Prep for Welding (Post #636) 12/23/2023

In this post I explore the rust under the passenger side fender well. It was my intension to WELD this weekend. Unfortunately I absent-mindedly did not turn off the shielding gas and the tank was empty. Major bummer.

So I took time to get the fender ready. I also cut my patches. I also installed the new gas tank filler hoses and my new gas cap. How exciting! It wasn’t.

I cut the fender rust out of the part where the body mount is. Turned out it was just the outer skin that had rust. I cleaned up the rusty metal underneath and will paint it with the magic rust-encapsulating-paint before I weld the patch for the fender back in place. Why Land Rover didn’t bother to try and keep rust out of there is still a mystery to me. It’s like they WANT their vehicles to rust out. What kind of a sales strategy is that?

I’ll need to get more shielding gas this week. However there is really NO RUSH because Christmas is this week and the house will be filled with people and very little in the way of rust repair will get done.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering and Merry Christmas from the Okierover family.

https://youtu.be/M5tumlZPZls

December 18, 2023December 18, 2023

Surface Rust Under the Passenger Side Fender (Post #635) 12/18/2023

In this short video I take care of the surface rust I found under the passenger side fender. There were some unpainted surfaces notably under the rubber washers at the top of the quarter panel. There were also some pin hole spots of rust.

They look like dirty spots until you put the wire wheel on them. Is that primer? this stuff Land Rover used under the panel just flaked off in spots. In the video there is a segment that has some leopard spots…that’s where the paint just came off.

The two rust spots in the arch will be ground down again. I don’t think I need to fix them, just stop the rust. The holes are on the outside of the vehicle so water getting in won’t be from these two spots.

I wire wheel all the rust I could see. Then I washed the panel with acetone. This was to remove any lingering dust, dirt, oil, whatever.

I then coated the panel with primer in a green color I really like. I could see myself driving a vehicle painted like that. I’ll watch the weather and give it all a second coat when it warms up a bit. The temp in the shoppe was 54F when I started the work and 52F when I started painting. That’s just barely above the paint range listed on the side of the can.

A big shout out to my fans in Norway. 31 views from that country on 12/12! Tusen takk!

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023

Fixing the D Pillar Rust (Post #634) 12/11/2023

If you follow the blog you have seen the rust damage from open cell foam in the upper D Pillar. The foam got wet and over time ate through the pillar and caused a hole that allowed water into the rear. It wasn’t likely a “stream” of water as the pillar had a cover and the foam also blocked the hole.

In any event, it had to be repaired. I went to some effort to research the removal of the rear quarter panel windows. Damaging the seal is a non-starter. Replacement seals cost in the neighborhood of $500.00(US). And there is also a chance of breaking a window.

I had the Evil German Dude over for Thanksgiving and showed him the damage. He was pretty certain that I could weld a patch there WITHOUT removing the seal and window. Using caution and allowing time for the welds to cool, he was sure that the welding would not be a problem.

Trusting he was right, I proceeded to build a patch and weld it in. The patch was pretty easy to make. You’ll need a bench vise or a metal brake to bend the steel. Well…if you have to bend steel for your patch. I got the patch in place, wire wheeled the paint and primer away and started welding.

My first welds didn’t stick. I had to work through that. Some of the issue was a crappy ground point. The other could be paint I hadn’t removed. I finally sorted that out and made the weld around the piece. I will come back with some seam sealer and make sure there are no holes by sealing them with a bead of sealant.

I was a bit surprised at how well this went. I was expecting a much more complicated repair. I’m not in love with the welds. But such is the way you have to weld thin steel. They also are not in sight so they didn’t have to be pretty…and they aren’t pretty.

The temp cooled off this week. It was 40F degrees when I finished up. Funny how two and a half months ago the temp was three times that in the shop. We got a little reprieve on Sunday and it got above 50F degrees.

I’ve been kicking around an idea if the window had broken. Building in wing window storage boxes. I could use them to pass through power to solar panels, shore power, a heating tube for a propane heater, and the most exciting, water for showers and cooking/washing hands and such. I’ve got the bug so I may build a mockup with cardboard to see if it would work the way I’m thinking. It’s maybe a project for another day. You can check out this video which served as a good portion of the inspiration. Dirt Lifestyle has two videos on gullwing windows for his Discovery II. This is the latest [YouTube], and is an improvement of the original, enjoy.

I hope you enjoy the video of my work. Like and subscribe and if you want to help through a recurring contribution, Patreon is helpful way to do that.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.