Galvanised chassis

It took 4 months to get the galvanised chassis and a further three and a bit weeks for it to be fitted. So many people are having chassis fitted to Defenders at the moment that production has reached a limit and I was in a queue waiting for my D2 chassis to be made. Unfortunately I then missed my allocated slot at Stock 4x4 and that added a few days extra delay.

The end result is worth the wait. A car that will last many more years.

I added to the delay because part way through I decided I would like it painted. Galvanising is a sacrificial coating. Over time the zinc gets eroded instead of the steel. An additional coating makes it last longer.

Having spoken to Craig at Buzzweld I decided to use their coating. Buzzweld chassis black satin chassis in one 2500ML. Being galvanised it needed a coating of T-Wash first to get anything to stick.

Brendan at Stock 4x4 fitted the chassis and painted it for me. He said the Buzzweld took longer to dry than he expected but it covered much better than other stuff he had tried. He said he'd use it again.

It was a rush to get it back before Christmas and needed a few bits done after it returned. The power steering fluid drained out, just as I arrived home and Brendan came out to fix that. A pipe needed nipping up.

I had to adjust the suspension height with my Nanocom and I took it to get the tracking done which also stopped a tyre rubbing on full left lock.

I also fitted a top hose because the bleed screw came loose on the original as it was being refitted.

Build photos courtesy of Brendan from Stock 4x4

'Fender' the Defender

It's been a long time since we've had a second car.

Shelley needed one for her gardening business. We were only looking for just under two weeks. There were very few that ticked enough boxes to consider and only one of those close enough to visit easily.

It came as a surprise to us that the first one we saw was in acceptable condition and we liked it.

There will be lots to do over the next few years to make it the Defender of Shelley's dreams. For the time being the immediate maintenance work is very minor.

It's a Defender 90 Hard Top 300TDi 1998. Most of the little jobs are done, the spare wheel is now removed from the bonnet, making it much easier to drive and it has a name, 'Fender.'

Solder tiny brass roll cage

It's probably been 30 years since I last did anything similar to this. I solder electrical wires and components fairly frequently but soldering 1mm solid brass wire to make a frame is a different skill.

I had forgotten the techniques for using a gas torch and had to experiment. After a few failures I watched some YouTube videos.

The bit of information I needed was the flux. As far as I could see, everyone uses a sticky paste flux.

The solder only flows and sticks where the flux is applied. That little bit of knowledge made all the difference. I bought a choice of flux but started with the one that claimed to be less poisonous. I got a near perfect joint first time using that flux.

I used the same flux cored solder I use for electrical work.

I also had to buy a new torch because the pen style torch I was originally using started to leak. I ordered a posh looking but very low cost butane torch. Easy to use but a bit messy to fill. I like the piezo self igniter and the push and hold button to use.

It has a lock to hold on the flame, if necessary but for soldering small joints you only need the flame for a few seconds so I didn't use the lock. There are separate gas and air flow adjusters so I could get the flame exactly as I wanted, about 10mm to 15mm (0.5") long to the centre blue flame point but it would reach over 50mm (2") if necessary.

While looking at the YouTube videos I came across other tips. Cleaning the joint area with sand paper, I already knew. One suggestion I tried was cutting a small bit of solder and laying it on the joint, stuck in the flux. That was handy on a few joints but with some practice I found it unnecessary.

My end technique was to apply the heat to the joint. Move the flame away momentarily to add the solder, move the flame back to melt the solder, wait until it flows then remove the heat. Ideally the heat should be applied on the opposite side to where the solder is to be put on but sometimes that was not possible.

The next issue was supporting the joints while soldering. That can be tricky but pretty much anything that won't catch fire can be used to keep the bits of metal together prior to applying the solder.

Being so tiny I also had a few cases where heating up one joint melted the solder on a previously finished joint. Frustrating but using a pair of tweezers as a heat sink usually solved that problem.

The model, shown in the photos for the roll cage, is a failed 3D print I had used for practising smoothing the surface. As you can see, that was handy to offer up the metalwork without worrying about damaging the paint on the work in progress.

The last job was to tidy up the joints. That was done by filing and sanding away the excess solder.

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Thick decals

I've done a little more on the two Defender slot cars I have been working on.

I've created a decal sheet but instead of using the water slide paper, I have deliberately used normal paper.

Number plates and the aluminium checker plate used on Andy's Defender 'Joe' 90 have a visible thickness. The idea is that the slightly heavier paper will look like the thin sheets that are attached to the surface of the car bodywork.

I've fixed the paper to the model using PVA type white wood glue.