Before applying makeup

Remember to take a photo... DUH !!

The last blog below shows the rear axle after 4x4LRS had refurbished it. Obviously something is missing - the before picture, well due to my incompetence we dont actually have one.

Ensuring the same heinous misdeameanour doesnt happen with the front axle Richie has sent me this shot of the front axle which he has started to strip down

The rear axle was in a similar condition to this and as as can be seen below scrubbed up quite well, hopefully this front one will look as good when completed

One down One to go (well nearly)

The first steps of the refurbishment are under way, first to get the wire brush and paint treament was the rear axle


The differential has been cleaned out and throughly checked, Luckily it is in good condition with very little wear or play in it. The springs are rock solid, (And I mean that in every way :) ) New brake shoes and new brake cylinders have been added




Unfortunatly one of the drums was cracked, so a new one was sourced. However coming to rebuild the hub a small teeny problem was spotted, The stud holes were very slightly the wrong size.. so the drum is off to get a miniscule bit drilled out .. such is life.


The Land Rover purists among the viewers may notice that the colour scheme isnt exactly the correct shade of Landrover axle colour.. After being derusted it was painted with another great British tradition in mind.. If in doubt cover it with ... ???? can you guess what it is yet? answers in the comment box below

The other major problem is the whirly bits for the gearbox that we sourced, then the supplier went bust. We still havent found any supplier for them... the search continues

The next stage in our exciting adventure, is to bring the front axle up to the standard of the rear one, Prep, coat and paint the chassis and get the axles back on her.. then she should at least start to look like a vehicle again rather than a pile of parts

You cannot miss what you never truly owned

What a load of old tosh, of course you can..

While we may never have owned the round whirly bits we found, (see blog post 17th April below for more accurate technical description) they were much prized and the whole team were dancing the happy dance that the gearbox could be rebuilt with bits roughly the right shape and size.

However after the initial contact with the whirly bits supplier, he went all quiet on us, phone calls went unanswered, then the phone was cut of.

The gearbox whirly bits supplier the team at 4x4LRS had spent so long finding had gone out of business.
Luckily no beer tokens had exchanged hands, but it is still frustrating that the search has to start all over again.

But these things happen and are part and parcel of trying to use as many original parts as possible. The whole project evolves and changes almost daily.

For example: a few days ago after a discussion about the budget it was decided it was sensible to save a bit of cash and forget fitting an overdrive. A decent one, ready to go, was hard to find and those few that are around are by no means cheap. fast forward a few days and the rumours of a decent example at a fair price filters through the network, and it may be that we will have one after all.

Will we or wont we?
to be honest not even we know the answer to that until it actually appears in the workshop. such is the way of these things.

The bare bones

I freely admit I dont know much about mechanics, It is an art that simply leaves me bewildered and befuddled. I do have to say though even with my limited knowledge that something doesnt look right with the rolling chassis , I simply dont remember Bertha's wheels being set that far back !!!

Joking aside - a great step forward in Bertha's restoration, The new chassis has arrived from Richards Chassis , as you can see he has an innovative way of transporting them.

Lining it up against Bertha's original it matches perfectly.

With this now on hand the work to rebuild can start. With most of the major components now at hand the project feels like it has turned a corner.