It's never simple, is it?

[mr_magicfingers]

Last week I discovered that one of the bumper light units wasn't working. Investigating found it was rusted, rotten and falling apart. The other wasn't far behind. Reading on here showed it to be a normal problem that required replacing the light units and I've also discovered threads on retrofitting lamp units into the higher light fittings in the body which I intend to do too.


So, I ordered a pair of light fittings for a very reasonable £42 shipped from and ebay seller in Lithuania of all places which arrived and look as good as the originals probably were when new. Two nuts are all that hold them on and I envisaged a quick half hour under the truck replacing them. Of course, as we all know, it's never that easy is it.


Under the truck and the nuts are rusted solid. They're so rusted that they're collapsing and not a chance of undoing them, nor could my dremel reach in their to cut them off. Oh well, have to take the bumper off. Out with the socket set and, oh bugger, those bolts are rusted solid too, completely banjaxed. Tried plus-gas and time and force, nothing worked except that the brackets they mount too sheared straight off, the steel was that rotten. Hmmm, ok, I'll just undo the scrivets. Nope, they're not coming out easily so a screwdriver and needle nose pliers to the rescue and then the bumper slides straight off and I can properly survey the carnage.

So tomorrow morning I'll be sitting down with my dremel to remove the old lamp units and fix the new ones in. There are two remaining bolts that did work ok which will be going back in covered in copaslip and the remaining working scrivets, though I plan to replace them once I've measured them and ebay have provided me with some new ones.

Which leaves me with fabricating some new brackets when I have cleared the barn out and found my welder and taught myself to use it to a point I can attack the truck. In the meantime, I have to decide how best to proceed with the rust that's left in place. The main chassis members look ok but the bits around it are flaky and need some treatment.

I figured I'd give it a good wire brush and then either treat with some rust treatment ( no idea which so recommendations gratefully received ) or just bung a load of metal paint (generic smoothrite copy) that I have a couple of cans of and then, eventually, some waxoyl.

However, some of the members are open and I can't get a wirebrush or paint in there. Would you just spray waxoyl in and hope for the best?

I need to either buy some ramps or axel stands and get the truck up a bit higher to get underneath. A lot of the work will have to wait until the summer but my plan is to work through the undersides of the truck and treat the rust that's already there as much as I can as I plan to keep the truck for several years to come. The engine only has 115k on it (dvd diesel) so it's a case of going over the mechanicals to keep it in shape.


Any suggestions on how best to tackle the rust would be much appreciated.


Cheers.

PS. this would have been full of photos but apparently I don't have enough posts to add referred urls, I'll add them when I'm able.

 

[Shayne]

I got my lights from Roughtrax i just snapped off most of the nuts with a socket wrench from what i vaguely recall . The upper light came from RT to i think and arrived with a full set of bulbs but i spent a day messing about with the trucks wiring to get them all to work , it was a good while ago and the only part that sticks in my mind was running a wire from one light to the other so i could have 2 reverse lights which helps when you have black tinted rear windows .

I'm sorting the rust one bit at a time and i find Fertan rust converter perfect for the job . I filled a bathroom squirty bottle with it for easy application into all the tight spots . Just spray it on and walk away , after about an hour the rust will turn silver white and can be blasted away with a jetwash , it also seals the metal for up to 6 months even without paint which allows you to put of painting until next weekend or whatever .

I can't remember the recommended instructions but obviously you can read them if you get it but i do recall Fertan reacts to damp so while doing mine on a hot day i used the pressure washer to ensure it was damp in the general area of the truck .

Hope this helps .

 

[Trevor]

Looking at the photos on the other forum, I'm not convinced the chassis rust can be saved on the rear crossmember. This isn't my area of expertise but my first thoughts would be to try and find a scrapper with the back end in better nick and gas axe further down the chassis legs to get a good rear section.

Then get a professional welder to graft that into yours, alternatively get a new rear chassis section fabricated. You will probably spend as much time and money trying to patch what you currently have. At the same time grind out the floor rot on the edge and have that plated up?

 

[mr_magicfingers]

So today I got to work on the bumper lights now the bumper was off. The angle grinder made short work of the bolts holding the lights on which allowed me to throw them away but revealed the state of the metal support plates on the inside of the bumper.

I couldn't find these listed anywhere online so I gave them a going over with a wire brush and some hammerite clone paint to at least stop them getting any worse.

Once the paint was mostly dry I installed them and the lights back in the bumper.

Then it was back on with the bumper, plug them in and test.


Like I said, it's never that easy, is it.


The left hand unit worked fine, but the right hand one just had all the bulbs lit up continuously. Either there's a short or the wiring in the plug is incorrect. So I removed the bumper and plugged the good lamp in to the other side's loom and it all worked correctly. Looking at the plug, this wiring is different to the working one.

So, out with the sharp pointy thing and carefully remove the pins from the socket and replace them with the same colour coding as the working lamp unit.


TADA!!

Everything now works as it should. Fixed the bumper back into place, replaced the various scrivets for now, and have ordered some almost similarly sized ones from ebay. At some point I'll take it all off and repair the brackets and start treating the rust but for now I can take it for its MOT next week with a hope that it'll pass.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

And thanks for the advice about Fertan and also for the state of the crossmember. I plan to spend a more thorough going over done next summer and will investigate replacing it then.