Got the frame today...

Here's a picture of the Rover it's going under...

 

Should be a fun project. Be sure to start a thread on it in the build section

 

I wish I was closer to you. Could use my lift ah haha. I'd love to do this personally. Love Discos. A great opportunity to go through everything and basically have a new one that's put together right.

Best of luck!

 

Wish this project was near Maryland, I would love to help. Going through the same dilemma right now with my 2004 Discovery 2. I love the 48 hour time lapse on You Tube doing a frame replacement - if only there was a team leader that had done this and we could all participate in events to learn.

 

If this was 10 years ago it would have been in MD, I went to school at UMD. When this project gets going, I'll be supplying pizza and beer to anyone that wants to help!
My wife actually connected me with a coworkers' husband who works at a body shop and is a custom fab guy and he offered to let me do this project in his back yard and help me as much as he can throughout the process so I think I am going to take him up on the offer. My brother-in-law is also a heavy truck mechanic so I'm hoping I can get him involved as well. I'm pretty friendly with the guy at my local independent LR shop so maybe I can even get him to help out for a weekend. All in all, I hope to have me (a Mech. E. who has become very familiar with the underside of a Dico), a custom fab and body guy, a truck mechanic, and possibly a land rover pro on the project. I think we can get it done in 2-3 weekends.

 

Hi SD

Hopefully with all the help the project should go smoothly. If you can access a 2 or 4 post vehicle lift to raise the body shell it will speed up and help enormously.

 

I'd be heading underneath your rig with three or four cans of Blaster or WD40 for the next few days...hitting every bolt, nut, clip, etc, etc in sight.

Me, I'd disconnect all wiring harnesses, steering shaft, radiator, bumpers and body bolts (and anything else that gets in my way) and lift the body off the frame, then pull the engine/trans/transfer-case all as one assembly, once that is out of the way, I'd go after the axles, brakes, steering, fuel system and suspension.

Good luck.

Brian.

 

So I have run into a couple of guys that are telling me that galvanizing the old chassis is impossible and would require cutting off the entire top of the frame box channel, removing all interior stiffeners, and re-welding new stiffeners in place that have holes for galvanizing material to properly flow through. Basically they are saying it is impossible to galvanize an old chassis. They also claim that there's a good chance my frame will bend due to the hot dip temperature. Anyone know is any of this is true???

When I spoke to Duncan Galvanizing, they basically said "sure, no problem, $500." They made no mention of any of these issues.

 

I believe Will Tillery, or someone like him, is offering galvy d2 chassis. So yeah, it's definitely possible

 

The guy I talked to was claiming that the galvanized D2 chassis that are available are built differently than the original ones, and have different internal bracing that allows for flow through the frame while galvanizing. That sounds incorrect to me. I always assumed the galvanized chassis were just factory chassis that had been galvanized. Do you know if the people offering them are building them themselves or if they are just galvanizing factory LR frames?

They also seemed to be claiming that acid dipping the frame would not be able to remove the interior paint that is original from the factory, therefore not allowing for complete adhesion of the galvanizing material. I always thought acid dipping would strip basically anything back to clean metal. I thought I had this figured out but now I don't know what to believe.