or
Why bad things happen even when you've evaluated every risk...
Cutting the radius arm bolts (wonder why people don't coat them with anti seize when installing polybushes?) with a disc cutter (guard removed for access) , so-
Visor? check
Glasses? check
Ear defenders? check
Welding gloves? check
Air bag, lines etc protected from flying hot metal in cutting arc? check

Using a 1mm stainless cutting disc for speed and accuracy. Must have twisted grinder slightly, disc explodes in face. Feeling smug that Mr Health and Safety had all the PPE on to prevent injury. Pop out to change disc. Scoot back under car to continue mission. Steady drip of coolant onto visor.
Bit of disc gone straight through middle of rad, which wasn't anywhere near cutting arc.
Bugger...

hell fire!

As long as you're still in one piece though.

Rad weld required or is it beyond that point?

Rad weld?!
Never in my engine- unless I'm stranded miles from civilisation with no supply of fresh eggs :)
New rad required, unfortunately

Shame they don't do one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIRENZA-TWIN-CORE-ALUMINIUM-RADIATOR-RAD-FOR-LAND-RANGE-ROVER-P38-V8-4-0-4-6-94/350591602189 for the Thor, only GEMS and diesel......

Very glad you had all the right kit on and you're OK!

Thanks for the good wishes on my survival guys.
I do get a fair amount off p!ss taking from friends and family about my attitude to PPE, suspended loads, cutting and welding and the like, but I still have the scars from the years in my youth when I didn't. In addition I work on my own in my remote workshop so if car drops onto me or similar calamity, there's no-one around to hear my screams for help :)
I'd like to take the opportunity to go all aluminium with the rad, but (apart from the Doctor in the USA) there's nothing available off the shelf over here. The Direnza one you mention Gilbertd could probably be made to fit with some creative plumbing. Could even combine that with a Sloth fan setup, but for expediency it'll just be a new Nissens 64319A for now. For £117 off Amazon it's not too bad. The Allmakes PR2 one on there has been on there since 2012 anyway.

Orangebean wrote:

The Direnza one you mention Gilbertd could probably be made to fit with some creative plumbing.

Or creative alloy welding maybe? The only difference between a GEMS and Thor rad is the position of the top hose outlet. My car had a Thor rad fitted when I got it and a two piece, home made, top hose. There's an Allmakes on mine which has been there for 7 years and something like 130,000 miles and I've noticed over the last few days that the gauge has been climbing slightly while slogging the 1,500m to the top of the mountain. Nano showed that it was hitting 99 degrees by the time I'd got to the top. There'll be a Direnza going on mine very shortly.

New Nissens rad arrived from Amazon yesterday.
Just for fun, when I get the old one out (P38 work on hold for a few days) will pop the top off it and see what state the cores are in.

I've just ( yesterday) popped the top off one I had laying around, I'm looking at repairing the broken spout with a metal nozzle bolted through,, rad was surprisingly clean.
Was given the number of a guy who builds rads, gonna see how much for a complete Ali one and maybe mention the gap in the market..

Chris- once I've popped the top off mine to have a look at the cores, it's going in the bin.
Do you want me to drop the top in the post to you? It's no good to me, but is in good nick, with an intact nipple.

That would be handy, let me know how much ect,,

I'll just drop it in the post when I've got around to taking it off Chris!
Be a few days as I'm dealing with radius arms etc at the moment. Took them to my localish Indy to get bushes pressed in- they have the press and tooling- get a call from them saying it's too much for their press, they can't get bushes in without damaging them!
Allowed them to have a bit of a rant about how they always have this problem with P38s and genuine bushes and generally how crap the P38 is compared to the ruffty tufty off road Defenders and Discos that they specialise in building. Rant over they took arms to an engineering works up country somewhere who have an even more manly press, and the bushes are now in.
Once I get back on my feet again I can get on with polishing everything and throwing it back together- and you'll get your rad top...

My 20T press was just fine for radius arm bushes.... with the proper tool to press the bush into first to squeeze it down to size.

They're probably more likely to have damaged the casing of the bush trying to just ran it into the radius arm without the tool and just a bigger press...

I'd doubt a shop who ranted that much about the p38 would have spent £80 on the right tool for the job.

I had all mine pressed out and new ones back in the radius arms in about an hour... I was going slow though to make sure I was happy I wasnt going too break anything!

Interestingly they did have the correct genuine Churchill LR tool- I saw it when I dropped the arms in to them in the first place. They're quite well kitted out for a small shop- even have an up-to-date version of Testbook.
Hopefully the bushes aren't damaged, but I won't know that until I can get someone to pick the arms up. The reason they gave up and passed the job on (or so they said) was because they didn't want to damage the bushes.
After a good anti-P38 moan, the owner admitted to having a P38 of his own which was waiting to have a radical off road conversion (it's what they specialise in on Defenders and Discos). He's actually going to keep it on air as well, so he gets at least one tick in the box!

The bushes make a decent cracking sound as you press them into the tool, as they are being squeezed down to size, but don't think it is likely to damage them, so you should be fine.

I'd be more worried if they didn't have the tool and just used a massive press to jam it in and hope for the best!

It'll be ironic if the end result is no better than the old Polybushes (orange) that I took out.
Ah well, I should get to see the finished arms later today. Persuaded a friend to go over and pick them up for me

I'd be interested on what sort of a difference you notice as I've got orange poly bushes in mine too.

Persuaded other half to swing by the workshop on way back from hospital, to have a look at the revamped radius arms. They look the part anyway. No visible damage.
More than I can say for the radio, but that's another story in Electrickery...
Not sure I'll be able to tell what the effect of just replacing the polys in the radius arms is, as I'm replacing pretty much all of the front suspension (not bags and box) at the same time, but I'm hoping to be able to tell the before and after generally. Wasted a few quid otherwise!
I'm banned from doing anything in the workshop for the next few days at least, much as I'm itching to crack on with the cars. Going to try to sneak up there later to at least sort out getting the battery charging. Don't tell the other half :)

I can't tell you what the difference is like between poly bushes and original - but between doing the ball joints, anti roll bar bushes and the radius arm bushes, mine feels a LOT sturdier on the road - especially over potholes etc.

Previously it felt like it was going to throw you off the road into a hedge everytime you hit a pothole. Now it just feels like there's a bit of play in the steering (I'm thinking steering column in my case as pretty much everything else has been replaced) - but it feels like it's sticking to the road, rather than trying to launch off.

That's the exact effect I'm looking for (minus the steering play) Marty!