Hello, I am looking to purchase my first land rover! I had a jeep wrangler before and was a jeep enthusiast, but I've decided it is time to move on to better things. I was looking at a land rover discovery 2 and was greeted with pictures of a rusty frame. The rover has 124,000 miles and looks to have a fairly nice interior and body, which is still fully undercoated. I'm no stranger to rust having had to repair rust on a couple jeeps, but I'm not familiar with land rovers. I was wondering if you guys could give these pictures of the frame a look and tell me if they are good candidates for a sand blasting and painting or if they are too far gone. Thanks!!

 

The section of frame in the last pic would cause concern.

I would look in person but I bet that spot is gone

 

The left side last pic = about as bad as it can get . A fix or new frame is required if you were going to keep this long term. They rust badly in the rear. I think in this photo that the frame is cracking / perforated... it's usually quite severe in this one area because of the exhaust heat.

I would never tow anything with this Disco.

I'd find another one. Sadly.

I was under my 2000 today changing oil and not one speck of rust on even a fastener. Granted that's unusual and never been in a rust/salt state ... but they are out there.

Frames repairs and complete replacement frames are actually available...

 

Run away far away fast

 

Actually, this is how my Rover looks under the tail. I'm in Oregon where road salt is used only very rarely. However, my Disco lived most of its life in New Jersey and Ohio, and was only wholesaled out west two years ago. It tows just fine, but my rear subframe is starting to split from the rust. Also, the ice deflectors ahead of the rear wheels under the rear seat area are lacy with rust, so the tinworm has been busy on my rig. Like folks in the UK, I'll have to weld in a replacement rear frame sometime, perhaps even next summer.

There are tools available to sense metal thickness using electrical resistance, although they aren't cheap. I've just relied on my eyes to spot rust, looking for bumps under the paint, or perforation, or places where iron or steel starts to flake apart, or to open up welded joints. Even a scratch awl can be used to test how solid the metal still is... if you can poke the point through the metal then it's too thin and weak. Check out some YouTube videos on the subject, and google up some articles.

Oh, and if you're wondering, like NashVegas from Portland said, rust is unusual in Oregon because our government responded to voters, who didn't like how road salt killed fish in the rivers and creeks, and then almost completely eliminated road salt in the 1950's. I've only ever had two rusty cars, and they both had rust under the rear windows... not rusty undercarriages. Oh, and a Triumph Spitfire with a rust perforation through the top of the trunklid where the car had been left unwashed in a backyard with pine needles on it that rusted through a hole on a horizontal surface. I never fixed the Spit, but I did lots of careful cutting, bending, and brazing to rebuild the lower window edges on the Continental's and the Toronado's rear windows. Rust repair is just work, and takes some special tools, but it isn't particularly difficult. It's just time consuming.

I digress, so I'll end it here. Merry Christmas.

Scott

 

Thanks for you guys' input!! I'll go and look at the rover in person on Monday. I'm also concerned that the guy says that there is a vibration while accelerating. The guy says he replaced the front and rear driveshaft and the rotoflex's. He als says he replaced the wheel bearings and front shocks. I have a hard time believing there is still a vibration after all that, but we will see.