I also recieved the spare wheel mounting reinforcers from Craddocks and colected couple of associated bits from Rogers. I fitted the wheel buffers in order to hold the frame reinforcing stri[ps (black sections). This is just temporary so that I can drill the rivet holes to secure the stips in place. The factory fitted strips are spot welded to the frame, but unfortunately there is no way I can weld my strips in, and so there wil be a handful of extra rivet heads on the bonnet. These will be hidden whenever the wheel is mounted, but in order to minimise their visual impact whenever the spare is not carried, I will ensure the rivets are identical to those along the rear of the bonnet and that they are painted.
Tomorrow I will fabricate the central reinforcing plate. Land Rover use a thin steel plate which overlaps the inbard frame edges, but it isn’t very rigid and is not secured where the frame is notched (upper left corner of plate area as shown in photo). I will use a square of my 3mm marine alloy, which will be much stronger and firmer, and will attach to a greater extent of the frame. I’ll use Tiger seal to secure the plate as it operates in compression to pull the spare down onto the bonnet – there are no shear or tensile forces to worry about – and so I can avoid any rivet heads there.
The wheel securing ring is one of the very clean s/h parts that I got from Rogers. It seems a little unusual in that it sits beneathe the wheel core and has short studs and wheel nuts to hold the wheel in place – I think the ring is normally plain and sits over the wheel core.
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