As mentioned a few weeks ago I had removed the remains of the mudshield from under the wing of the driver’s side. I had painted the replacement part and it had been hanging from a hook in the shed. As I banged my head on this sharp panel yet again I decided to fit it. This might allow my bald shiny head to heal a bit. I had noticed that the drummer hadn’t done his normal ‘polish the bass player’s head’ visual-joke for a couple of weeks. I guess he didn’t fancy touching it, what with being covered in scabs.
It was a lovely day for a late September Sunday and I knew this was a five minute job…
I laid on the lawn, rolled over and dropped into the gulley and offered the panel up. I then noticed that although I’d repaired the inner wing to accept the fixing bolts I had completely overlooked the bracket inside the top of the outer wing. This had almost disappeared.
So after an expletive or two I went to the shed and found an old sill from which I hastily snipped out a repair panel and pop-riveted it rather crudely in place. I managed to get two rivets into what was left of the old bracket, and one into the inner wing section. This wasn’t quite sturdy enough so I had to put one through the top of the wing, but ensured that it would be covered by the bonnet when closed:
I bolted the panel in and fitted some thick rubber squares between it and the footwell to allow rainwater to get away.
Laying in this small gap between the lawn and the wheel is not pleasant so I was just glad to get out. If this panel is upside-down or inside-out I don’t care. The bolts are rather long as they are compressing the rubber. I will do a better job once I can move the vehicle again. The drive is too narrow to enjoy access to both sides.
Bonnet rest strip
I ordered a new strip to complete the front panel job a while back. When I removed it from its blue plastic bag today I could only laugh. It looked nothing like the manly canvas-coloured one pictured on the web site, and reminded me of sewing component in a PE bag that my mother made for me when I was 6 or 7. This in turn reminded me of the black plimsolls inside that bore the ‘Empire Made’ rubber diamond label on the sole. That was as ‘designer’ as it got in those days. This reminded me of how crap I was at PE. Funny how my head works now, remembering useless moments from 50 years ago. Maybe it’s caused by the repeated blows of panels hanging in the shed?
So I decided to use a length of sealing rubber that had been intended for the windscreen. I fixed this in place with some rubbery-plastic push-in rivets and contact adhesive. When I get to the windscreen I will doubtless be looking everywhere for this seal.
This seems to work OK and may even quieten rattles. The increased thickness meant that the striker didn’t engage in the catch so I set about adjusting the striker depth. Someone had obviously had problems here before as it was shimmed out with many washers:
I removed these and after soaking with Plus Gas I was able to adjust the depth of the striker so that the bonnet (or what’s left of it) closes perfectly.
There was then a lengthy interlude for dinner, a trip to B&Q and some gardening jobs, but I did return early evening to start on rewiring the front of the vehicle. I will write that up in a day or two. In spite of not getting much done, it was a lovely day to get some fresh air and catch up with passing neighbours.
Thanks for reading my meagre post!
Series 3 Land Rover Ramblings 
Last Sunday was a lovely day for lying on the lawn Nige – but I am impressed that you pressed on with the Landy fixes rather than dozing off 🙂
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Thanks Mog 🙂
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Well, interested to know what you think of the 200Di?
I am thinking of putting one into my S2a. I want a tidy looking engine bay and definitely don’t want a fat exhaust system so the Tdi is probably not an option.
Thank you
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I don’t know yet as it’s not been on the road like that due to work eating into my Landy time this year 😦 The engine bay is certainly tidy and there are many less complications without the turbo. I have no doubts in theory that it will work very well having consulted others who’ve been running the 200di for years. Hopefully things will improve and I’ll be able to report back in the spring. Thanks for your interest, sorry for the delay, and good luck with your 2A.
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Thanks, all the best.
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Hello, I have only just found your posts, which is the best posts I have found on here. Well Best because you have made it very understandable and easy look photos. My question is, can you post picture and writing of how you repaired the bracket inside the top outer wing. To hold the mudshield in place. You say that you “pop-riveted it rather crudely in place”. Both my front wings the bracket has corroded away to nothing. I can only rivet from top of the wing, I don’t really want to do that. That’s why I’m asking how you done yours? Cheers mark
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Hi Mark, thanks for your comments, I’m afraid my technical knowledge isn’t much but I have people to ask if I get stuck. I have added an extra photo to the post above, and some more text for you about this so you can see the rivets. One does go through the wing top but it’s covered by the bonnet. It doesn’t look very good underneath (probably why I didn’t show it to start with!) but it is stronger than it looks.
It sounds as though this won’t help you though if there’s no bracket left. I’m just wondering if you could use some kind of epoxy adhesive to fix a new one? You can definitely rivet the inside end to add strength. I hope you get it sorted, let me know how it goes.
Best from Nigel
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Nigel thank you very much. Now I know what you did. I didn’t think of rivet through inner wing. I was wondering about using Epoxy adhesive, I’m glad you have mentioned it as well. Now I know it isn’t a stupid idea lol. Cheers Nigel I will let you know how it goes. Can I ask you a cheeky question on my engine? I want to paint the engine with the original blue colour. The front of the engine has rust all over the water pump thermostat housing, do I need to remove all the rust or can I use metalmorphosis rust converter? Cheers mark
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Hi Mark, if it were me I’d just wire brush the loose stuff off and as you say, use a rust converter. It won’t last forever but that engine enamel is very good and the rust converter will bite into the metal to give good adhesion.
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Cheers Nigel appreciate the info.
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