Alexj wrote:

Hi Eric,

Your Defender is looking superb after all the work.

If it's not too personal a question, how do you keep the rear crossmember so lustrous? Most others that I see, if they are more than six months old, always look very faded.

Regards

Alex

Alex, rear crossmember from the inside is thoroughly treated with soft Dinitrol wax.
The quality of the outside paint when it comes from the factory is appalling as we all know. I think on top of the well known standard 3 appearances of paint, being matt, satin and high gloss, Land Rover have developed a 4th paint quality, called "fade away"....
My dealers on their own initiative after a few years when also my rear cross member started to dull, but well before there would be any rust appearing, had their body shop spray it satin black. Stays perfect that way, but quite possible that after 5 years of satin black by late this summer, the truck will go back to LEU Carrosserie & Spritzwerk near Basel, where our friend kitoper and myself a few weeks ago left the truck for 10 days to redo our Dinitrol treatment, and who on this occasion also spray painted kitoper's rear cross member black, and that is about the best possible job I have ever seen. So after 5 years, I probably am going to let them do mine once again.
The rest of the secret is to be very selective how and when to use the truck. I know, that's a luxury, but we are fortunate here in this city to have an excellent public transport system.
Eric You never actually own a Defender. You merely look after it for the next generation.
http://youtu.be/yVRlSsJwD0o
https://youtu.be/vmPr3oTHndg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GtzTT9Pdl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqKPz28e6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZ49Jce_n0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvAsz_ilQYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tMHiX9lSw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwjPuHIV7I
https://vimeo.com/201482507
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSixqL0iyHw

Pickles wrote:

EXCELLENT work & images of your very special Defender, Eric.
VERY interesting comment re the S.S. Bolts. Have you replaced them yet?
Pickles.

Pickles, truth of the matter is that when my truck was only a few months old, one of the factory mild steel door bolts showed a tiny bit of rust. Which obviously did not please me, and at that time not really knowing def2.net yet, but having been on aulro.com well before I bought the SVX, I read something about SS bolts replacement kits. Canvassed the web, and bought a full set from a well known UK supplier. My dealer replaced the whole hoola of standard bolts by these SS, but did not use much, if any anti-corrosion paste back then.
So now at Entreq, Olaf took out the SS bolts in the rear, those connecting the rear tub to the crossmember, and there was some mild contamination with white powder visible, meaning first stage of aluminium corrosion. Olaf cleaned it out, covered the bolts thoroughly with Weicon anti-corrosion paste and put them back, also using an extra plastic washer to make sure that no water can creep between any irregularities of the SS washer and the paint on the back of the truck. With me, there was no damage here (yet), the paint job on the SVX has been very good, not too thin as you often read here, but apparently it happens that due to irregularities on the surface of some of the SS washers, direct contact between these washers and the painted body lets tiny amounts of water creep in, followed by damage to the paint from the SS washers, and there the ball starts rolling.... The plastic washers should eliminate that risk further.
Obviously it raised suspicion with me about what the SS bolts in my 5 doors have been doing... I could do two things, take one bolt at the time out and check it, eventually if no corrosion at all use the Weicon paste, and put them back in. Or, I could go a step further, even if there would be no corrosion yet, the better option would be to just buy mild steel original bolts again, treat those also with the Weicon paste, and put those back in. It just would mean that if it ever happens again that one of those bolts will start to corrode, I would take it out, and replace by a new like for like.
Fair chance that I will decide to take this approach. But I have not done it yet, no. Something for this summer to tackle piece by piece. Probably I will also replace the now treated ss bolts in the rear tub by standard again then. Still using the plastic washers and paste of course.
In any case, for those interested in a real good quality anti-corrosion paste, here is the one which I intend to use.
Eric

P.S. why did Olaf take the rear bolts out in the first place? Well, to check another inherent weakness of the Defender assembly. This is that 2 cm high left to right black metallic strip running between the bottom of the rear body and the top of the rear cross member. Most of the time this rear strip is very poorly painted, check it, and best is to push into any gaps possible here as much extra Dinitrol as possible. Taking the rear lower body screws out allows to create just enough extra room to add some Dinitrol into the little gap thus created. In my case the paint job of this little strip is also not very uniform, but Dinitrol has kept any rust away sofar. Most likely I am going to see with LEU if they also can redo the paint on this rear strip when they will redo the paint of my rear crossmember later this year.


Click image to enlarge You never actually own a Defender. You merely look after it for the next generation.
http://youtu.be/yVRlSsJwD0o
https://youtu.be/vmPr3oTHndg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GtzTT9Pdl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqKPz28e6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZ49Jce_n0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvAsz_ilQYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tMHiX9lSw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwjPuHIV7I
https://vimeo.com/201482507
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSixqL0iyHw

ericvv wrote:

Pickles wrote:

EXCELLENT work & images of your very special Defender, Eric.
VERY interesting comment re the S.S. Bolts. Have you replaced them yet?
Pickles.

Pickles, truth of the matter is that when my truck was only a few months old, one of the factory mild steel door bolts showed a tiny bit of rust. Which obviously did not please me, and at that time not really knowing def2.net yet, but having been on aulro.com well before I bought the SVX, I read something about SS bolts replacement kits. Canvassed the web, and bought a full set from a well known UK supplier. My dealer replaced the whole hoola of standard bolts by these SS, but did not use much, if any anti-corrosion paste back then.
So now at Entreq, Olaf took out the SS bolts in the rear, those connecting the rear tub to the crossmember, and there was some mild contamination with white powder visible, meaning first stage of aluminium corrosion. Olaf cleaned it out, covered the bolts thoroughly with Weicon anti-corrosion paste and put them back, also using an extra plastic washer to make sure that no water can creep between any irregularities of the SS washer and the paint on the back of the truck. With me, there was no damage here (yet), the paint job on the SVX has been very good, not too thin as you often read here, but apparently it happens that due to irregularities on the surface of some of the SS washers, direct contact between these washers and the painted body lets tiny amounts of water creep in, followed by damage to the paint from the SS washers, and there the ball starts rolling.... The plastic washers should eliminate that risk further.
Obviously it raised suspicion with me about what the SS bolts in my 5 doors have been doing... I could do two things, take one bolt at the time out and check it, eventually if no corrosion at all use the Weicon paste, and put them back in. Or, I could go a step further, even if there would be no corrosion yet, the better option would be to just buy mild steel original bolts again, treat those also with the Weicon paste, and put those back in. It just would mean that if it ever happens again that one of those bolts will start to corrode, I would take it out, and replace by a new like for like.
Fair chance that I will decide to take this approach. But I have not done it yet, no. Something for this summer to tackle piece by piece. Probably I will also replace the now treated ss bolts in the rear tub by standard again then. Still using the plastic washers and paste of course.
In any case, for those interested in a real good quality anti-corrosion paste, here is the one which I intend to use.
Eric

P.S. why did Olaf take the rear bolts out in the first place? Well, to check another inherent weakness of the Defender assembly. This is that 2 cm high left to right black metallic strip running between the bottom of the rear body and the top of the rear cross member. Most of the time this rear strip is very poorly painted, check it, and best is to push into any gaps possible here as much extra Dinitrol as possible. Taking the rear lower body screws out allows to create just enough extra room to add some Dinitrol into the little gap thus created. In my case the paint job of this little strip is also not very uniform, but Dinitrol has kept any rust away sofar. Most likely I am going to see with LEU if they also can redo the paint on this rear strip when they will redo the paint of my rear crossmember later this year.

Well this is just swell, I just replaced my door bolts with stainless steel ones. Had I read this before, I may have reconsidered. And here I thought Inhad upgraded for the better.

This being the case, would slathering or totally cover the stainless steel bolts with the stuff you posted help prevent. Such dissimilar metal issues? Also, where can we get the plastic washers? It would be a nice safe guard as well.

Nice clean trucks, I hope to be able to get mine back into such conditions. Mine is a daily driver though so good luck with that, right?