Rear Cross Member

Typically the first part of the frame on a Land Rover Defender to suffer from rust is the rear cross member. This portion of the frame is highly visible from the rear of the vehicle; it also serves as the attachment point for recover points and receiver hitch. In the UK it is common for a Defender to have its Rear Cross Member replaced once or twice before the entire frame is replaced. We offer this service to our customers with vehicles that don’t need an entire frame or to reduce repair costs. If the rust is just surface rust, sandblasting and painting can save the cross member for a considerable amount of time.

Here you can see a cross member that is at the stage of needing replacement. Firstly the rest of the chasis is checked to make sure the repair is not a waste of resources.

This cross member needs to replaced with chassis extensions to the rear spring perches & the fuel tank cradle.

The frame is cut back to solid metal.

We purchase a rear cross member and manufacture our own chasis extensions and fuel tank cradle.

We use a galvanized heavy duty single piece fuel tank skid plate because the stock fuel tank skid plate has many seams and different layers of steel that it is corrosion problem.

Once welded in the paint and undercoating is applied to the cross member and fuel tank cradle.