The axles are painted! And looking superb! Love the Frost Chassis paint, it's almost spot on for a Land Rover OEM look.

Also, purchased a printed TD5 Defender manual with the 300TDi and Electrical supplements, pricey but worth it for a job like this.

Picked up a new A frame Fulcrum bracket with the ball joint pressed in, saves me the hassle as I don't have a press and these aren't too pricey to buy pre-done.

That was all bolted together, using genuine bolts just to be safe.

I applied copper slip liberally - I don't want any trouble if whenever I need to disassemble these parts.

I then bolted the brackets into place, the manual says to not torque everything down till it's in place

The A Frame was then lifted into place and nipped up, but not fully, I'll do that when the axle is in place.

Also bolted on the damper brackets, these ones are not handed, but the manual appears to show them as though they are.

I took the chance this week to set-up the shot blasting cabinet. This one came from Frost.co.uk, they are a good company to work with and have a lot of stuff that's of interest to vehicle restorers. I'm running the cabinet with recycled (crushed) glass - it's cheap at around £5 per 25kg bag.

The cabinet has been completely indispensable. Rather than having to replace all those little brackets that quickly add-up the costs - I've been able to blast them, restoring them to 'as new' condition. It's brilliant. I'm going to refurb the callipers using this cabinet.

Here's a before and after (needs a little more blasting, but this was about 1 minutes work)

Related items for sale on eBay