2 * 2.1 SD

[Dieselman]

Checked the welding and re-fettled it, then another good scrub with acid and the subframe looked like this.

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A coat of anti-corrosion primer was applied to all upper side, and lower side inaccessible when re-mounted, bare metal.

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For better access and to make this job quicker, it might have been quicker to remove the subframe completely, but I didn't disconnect the hydraulics, so am doing this in situ.

[Dieselman]

A coat of red oxide primer to the upper side and underneath the mounting points.

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Although there is no corrosion there, I brushed a bit onto the body side mounts and will overcoat with top coat.

A look at the inner rear sills and rear dog-legs shows them to be in good condition. I welded the left rear inner sill as part of putting the car on the road in 2011 and have subsequently rust-proofed the sills and box sections.

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[Dieselman]

I cleaned up some of the loose parts, in particular the subframe mounting bushes, which appear to be perfectly serviceable, so a first primer coat has been applied.
The rubber doesn't seem to deteriorate much, normally failure is delamination due to the surface of the steel corroding.

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Two coats of machinery enamel to the subframe.

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[Dieselman]

I scraped, wire wheeled, brushed and acid scrubbed the underside of the body and lose parts and painted with red oxide primer.
The very lead edges of the brake backing disks were holed and thin so I added a small plate to one and wire to both disk corners and welded them up.

There is no need for a complete repaint, so I am only doing areas where the paint is worn out, or areas I know to be susceptible to paint cracking and lifting, such as the seams.

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I welded the spare wheel carrier years ago, but the bitumastic paint has worn off, so I am re-painting.

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[Dieselman]

A second coat of anti-corrosion primer and then the first coat of machine enamel applied.

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I still have the rear panel corrosion to deal with but, in an effort to avoid mission creep, want to mount the subframe back into the body before dealing with that.

[Dieselman]

Second coat of black machine paint and two coats of silver for the brake back-plates.

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[Dieselman]

After cleaning out the paint from the threads of the subframe mountings I installed them to the chassis rail and installed the subframe.

I had already checked the underside of the subframe and identified a couple of small areas on the right side where I the outer layer of steel was bulging, so intended to investigate.
I cut the outer layer off, de-rusted and acid cleaned the inner layers, of which these two small areas came up very well.

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on the left side there was a third area, which I hadn't noticed originally, but had more internal rust packing and after chipping away at it showed a small hole in the upper layer.
This was really awkward to deal with as access with the trailing arm still fitted was very tight.
Using a tungsten burr via the outer pocket, I cleaned the inner layer, cut a piece of steel and managed to weld it in. The welding is far from neat, as I couldn't see past the welding torch, but I did manage to weld the patch in from both sides.
I should probably have cut a larger pocket in the outer layer to give better access to the internal layer.

The outer layer cut off, showing the rust packing, and after welding and a coat of primer.

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I considered removing the suspension ram and trailing arm, but due quite a bit more dismantling and the risk of the Arb bolt threads stripping, decided I could just gain enough access without.
I had pulled the R clip out of the arm and thought it was a good time to add copper-slip to prevent seizure at a later date. These clips are often seized into the arm so much they snap off when removal is attempted, preventing the suspension leg connection being removed from the arm.

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