REAR CROSS MEMBER
I knew this was rotten when I bought it, as I was a welder for a while though I wasn't too concerned.
It looked like this, but when I removed the tow gear it started to show how bad it was (and it had passed an MOT 6 month earlier!!!!)
You could put your fingers up through some of the holes... So I ordered one of these on the left with extensions and painted it in black Hammerite (use what you prefer, I just had it in the shed) before fitting.
I waited for a day without snow to tackle the job, optimistically I guessed it to be a days work. The problem with this was 1. I hadn't bargained for any other problems, 2. I assumed the repair section would actually fit and 3. my tools were spread between two houses 20 mile apart (don't ask...)
First Job was to un-wire the lights and the tow hitch sockets behind the plate either side of the rear door inside. Once you have done this you can push the wires down a hole the size of a two-pence piece and they'll dangle at the back of the chassis.
Put the rear end up on axle stands and remove the wheels, I also removed the rear wheel carrier from the rear door at this point. Then undo the 10 m8 bolts that hold the rear of the tub to the cross member. They have captive nuts behind them so you only need to work from one side.
Remove
the Cross member by cutting it where your repair section will fit. If in doubt
DON'T CUT OFF TOO MUCH! Your bets off leaving too much on so you can trim it
back an inch or so at a time. Personally, I'm reasonably used to fabricating so
I just tore off what was rusty. I'm cutting into the middle of the cross section
here on the left because the two bolt mounting the fuel tank had been messed
with before and I couldn't get to them. Note: Take off your fuel tank, it
will make it much easier (mines totally empty here, but don't do it like I
have!). Considering the thickness of the steel I think it's rather alarming that
I did this without too much effort using a wood chisel! It was well rotten, and
full of sand.
Eventually you get the rear rail off
Note the hole on the o/s that I wasn't expecting!, the sections of box hanging down are what the rear tub sits on for support at the back. Removing the rear cross member with extensions and leaving these in place is a bit of a fiddle to be honest. But you need to weld them back to the new section so don't cut them off. You can also see the whole back end of the fuel tank here, it's not a bad as I was expecting it to be ! Also note the wiring hanging out of each chassis leg that I cut in half. Be careful not to damage this. A tip I was given (cheers Dexta!) was to attach some old wire to the wiring harness and shove the whole lot up the chassis leg towards the front leaving the old wire hanging out. When you put the new section up to fit it, feed the old piece of wire through the holes and when you weld it up you won't melt your harness. when it's cooled you can pull the old wire out and the harness will be pulled through behind it.
The o/s was way worse than the n/s. The leg was rotten a good 9 inches past where the extension piece met so it was plated on the outside and underneath with some 2mm mild steel plate I had. The anti-roll bar mounting was cut off and welded back on when this repair was completed underneath also. Then when you think the legs are ready to receive the repair section (which is designed to slide over the existing chassis leg like a sleeve for about 5 inches), feed the wire through as mentioned before and try to make it fit !!!!!!!!!!!! If you fasten one side then the other side may well look like this one below. Expect to fiddle a little to get them to fit all the holes. (leave it on axle stands for this, I only put the wheels back on as I had to move the Landy to close the garage door!)
When it all fits start welding, n/s was fine as you can see, you can also see clearly where the rear tub supports need welding back on. The o/s shows where the large repair section was plated before I could offer the new cross member to fit.
The above two pics show the underside repair that was needed on the o/s leg, the other shows the support rail that was replaced on the far right of the picture. This piece of angle iron was missing from my Landy and the whole lower end of the rear side panel would vibrate when driving. You can also see the still shiny 3 year old SS exhaust system.
When all the welding is complete You can re-wire and check that the electrics all work, I also refitted the tow gear.
When everything is working fine, I then painted the new cassis sections, then applied waxoyle. The rest of the chassis was waxoyled earlier in the year but I left the rear section undone as I knew I would be cutting it out. Note the ground sheet on the floor to protect the drive. I get waxoyle everywhere......
The whole job took two days from 9am to 5pm. I took my time, worked alone, and fixed any other niggles as I met them. In a garage with a helper to lift the cassis you can do this in a long day if all else is fine and you don't need to run off for tools every two hours. But play it safe and expect two days......
