I’m definitely no expert on this but I’ll throw in my 2 bits. I would be leery of the stainless steel option. They’re not truly dissimilar metals but I suspect that the stainless would cause the base metal to continue to corrode. Of the 2 options I would get the steel kit from the UK. But with such a minimal amount of rust, why not just get a couple of pieces of plate steel cut locally?

 

@Harvlr Everyone I talked to wants to do a big fix, I have not really had time to fully investigate. My problem is the welding I need someone to do it, It may be a case of doing a full prep less cutting, and then getting a shop to place the welds.

One thing that was recommended is a zinc treatment to the patch and frame prior to patching.

This is new to me so learning as I go.

 

I’m pretty sure most welders won’t weld the galvanized (zinc) steel as the fumes are toxic.

 

Proceed with caution. My son who is the manager of a steel manufacturing company and experience with automotive rust work (mainly for his cars and mine) says a lot of the Chinese steel is not the best of quality, susceptible to early rust and generally of poor quality. Hate to have you do all the work and then not have it last due to substandard steel.
Have you checked any UK suppliers? Will be a bit more but as replacement panels are used there a great deal, they may have a better track record.

Good luck no matter what and keep us posted as to progress, process and results!!

 

@H Hill The Amazon (chinese knock off) was just logistically simpler. I tend to go to worse case and work back so it appears patching may do the job just fine.

@Harvlr Sorry about the confusion it is a zinc paint rather than a zinc treatment - but I still need to talk to welder about that

 

Hi again Ok I was 70 when I did mine, it took 2 days to empty my full tank, I tilted the Disco on one sire took off the filler hose drops in a plastic tube with a heavy nut on the end to make sure it was on the bottom then siphoned all the fuel out and put in a new empty 200 ltr oil drum, then remove the 3 hoses, the smallest hose that had a plastic clipped end being the most difficult but finely did it with a pair of adjustable pipe grips, level the car, remove the road wheels ,jack up as high as you can and put in stands, 4 bolt to remove the tank strap, the just pull the tank down

Next undo the 2 last body bolts, I the cut off the back cross member, before pre-cutting off the side member leaving them long for a finale trim to size, so I did it in 3 bits

When the new section arrives I test fitted it, marked the weld point on the old legs, the trimmed the old legs so I had 4in/100mm to go inside the new legs, I drilled 3 large on both sides of the new legs on the slip over bits, i

Fitted the new bit, refitted both the rear body bolt, once they were tight I clamped the new legs in place, top / both and side to side

I did need to do a small repair before I got to this point, but the actual main welding took about 1-1.5 hours a side



So it you can remove the tank prep the old legs do the drilling just leaving the welding to be done by a welder you will make a big saving, then again if you own a Discovery, it in your interest to learn how to weld and get a cheap mig welder and safe a lot of cash

 

@frostythor thanks for that I expected 300 to 400 for welding if I did the prep 1500 to 2000 is absurd.

 

yes but people who weld can charge as the see how much the can getr out of a customer, as I said best advice buy or hire a small mig and practice, most car welding is not 6 inch welded runs, it 2-4 mm spot until you have done it all and the best friend is you grinder, if you not happy with it grind it down and do it again, so a cheap auto welding screen hat, then practice until you can identify the molten pool at the tip of the wire

 

I want to stress that this is very very temporary and not a repair - it is a SHORT term stabilization nothing more.

So a wee update, after conferring with a classic car group, it is nice having a local race track. They recommend getting the rear quarter frame down to metal to get a full diagnoses of the rust issue, to determine patch, patch kit or 1/4 frame . As they pointed out it is better to do that than hope that is the only really bad spot,and they have a lot of experience as a group.
As I can not do that until spring, there are no garage space space rentals anywhere here, I decided to stabilize the damage. The biggest issue is prevent a lot of brine water getting in the frame over winter, they go a little nuts here with the brine when snow is forecast after screwing the pooch 3 years in a row.

I started with a liquid rust stabilizer and spray bottle very liberally coated the outside 3 coats and got as much inside via the various holes in the frame as I could.

Then steel stick epoxy to fill the lower gap and 2 part JB steel for the side portion that was bad, they need to be cut out prior to patching anyway followed by:

2 coats of rust paint
2 coats of black metallic I had floating around
1 coat of smooth undercoat

Yeah it will be more work in the spring but everything should stay stable until then with luck.





Got the axle cleaned up too