Series Land Rovers

Swivel Ball Repair by Steve Bradke

Rusted swivel balls? Loath to spend a hundred and fifty dollars plus on a new one? Here is one method to refurbish your swivel balls for a few more years of operation.

First remove as much of the rust from the pits as you can, clean the balls WELL. Wait until the wife goes to the mall...then place the balls into a warm oven (low heat) until they warm up real good. Remove them and carefully apply JB Weld epoxy as smooth and as even as you can get it over the pits. (Use one of the wife's spatulas. Then discard it to get rid of the evidence) The spatula will help maintain the contour of the swivel ball. Pop the balls back into a LOW heat oven a couple hours to cure. Remove and let cure 24 hrs. Next take a file and carefully smooth any high edges. Take your time and get it right. Next wet-sand the balls with fine sandpaper being very careful to maintain the curvature of the balls.

Ideally what you should end up with will be JB Weld in the pits only and the rest smooth.

Next use POR-15 paint. As POR 15 is self-leveling hold the ball by the small end open end towards the floor (Over paper if this stuff drips you will never be able to remove it). Paint around the small end working your way down and let it run don the OUTSIDE, not inside of the ball. Find a place to suspend it from a wire and let it dry a couple days. That's what I did and it worked. Someone else used this method and reported similar success. If you have any further questions get in touch and we'll talk by phone. Hope this helps