I am man! Defender! Provider! Mechanic!

I miss my Landrover –

Of course with a 200 you can run veg oil!
Round here it’s a quid a litre. Both my old n/a 90 and the 300tdi 90 loved the stuff. The current 110 has a 2.8 Isuzu lump that runs equally well.

I ran various Landys for over 20 years starting with a very early 1984 90″ upto a TD5 90″ and loved them all and i would still have one if the goverment didn’t tax fuel as much, rant over. I still wouldn’t mind a Series one though.

It may not be a ‘proper’ Land Rover, but it still gets us to places very few others go to, and behaves just like a car when it’s not growling at sand dunes 🙂

[/url]
Goog’s Track[/url] by Mark-Farrell[/url], on Flickr

I wonder what spam resurrected this?

Anyway, my CSW is currently in the operating theatre and just a few bolts away from me being able to lift the bulkhead off.

Going to treat it to a galv bulkhead to go with the galv chassis:

Probably take me a few months to finish but if the weather breaks I can get in to the workshop again without melting.

Shoot!

Someone call a Doctor, Stoner has the worst case yet seen of LandRoveritis.

BurnBob, full marks for observation. The pic was taken at Warbeth. I bought the Land Rover in Orkney when I stayed there. It was an ex civil defence soft top wheni got it. I found the hard top in the Orcadian. It used to be on the airport Land Rover either on Eday or Westray. Certainly when I wnt to Westray everyone recognized the roof.

The Land Rover is still up near Dounby, I kept the number.

I saw another at the supermarket the other day.

Zokes – Looks like a good adventure. Would you have been ‘brave’ enough to have tried it in the Freelander without the support of the second truck ?

Stoner – Beware, its a slippery slope.

good luck

Zokes – Looks like a good adventure. Would you have been ‘brave’ enough to have tried it in the Freelander without the support of the second truck ?

Out there? No! But we wouldn’t in any other vehicle out there alone either. We didn’t see anyone travelling alone, be they in a Cruiser, Patrol or anything else. Properly remote country, and had it not been a public holiday weekend, it’s very likely that we wouldn’t have seen anyone else out there. Any car can break down, and there’s only so much water you can carry…

We have been down to the bottom of the EP, and over and back across the Vic Alps and Kosuiszko on our own though, rarely touching tarmac. It’s surprised a lot of people at camp sites who couldn’t quite fathom how we got there. Sure, I’d rather have a Disco (or a Defender, if someone would drive it the 1000 km to the start of the dirt for me). But, for the cost, the Freelander’s an amazingly capable vehicle, whilst being ‘just’ a comfy car when it’s not getting muddy. A guy from another group in a lifted Patrol followed us over the last bit of the Goog’s track and he said he couldn’t work out why we weren’t getting stuck – he’d see three wheels spin then stop, yet we just carried on up the dune as if we were on tarmac. Very clever traction control.

I can well imagine that a lightly loaded freelander 2 is ace in the sand. – Drop the tyre pressures, turn the dial and away you go !! I’ve just got back from Morocco in a fully loaded defender (4 people and probably 100 litres of water as we were on our own !)and it was a handful in even small dunes. I took a good few spares but its a bit scary knowing youre a long way from help and there’s a lot of stuff you may not be able to mend with a hammer, gaffer tape, and cable ties.

Lightly loaded it’s a hoot I agree – very perky engine and pretty light compared to most 4wds

Lightly loaded it is not on most of our trips though – 80 L water, 40 L fuel in Jerry cans, second spare wheel, tools, food, beer (lots of this), firewood. The only reason we got stuck was because we bottomed out in the ruts thanks to all the weight sacrificing us about four inches of clearance. Nothing a bit of digging and a bit more right foot on the second attempt didn’t solve though. But, despite that, the only thing we used to get us out that wasn’t carried by us was a second spade and some muscles to use it. So I guess it’s self-sufficiency with a safety net, which really, in properly remote conditions you need. I have no intention of dying a horrendous death from dehydration due to bravado and travelling alone in places like that.

You got any pics from the Morocco trip? I do like Defenders, but possibly one too many compromises as a day-to-day car for me, and definitely too many compromises for my wife! They’re considerably cheaper than a disco though, so I may well come round to one. Pity they don’t have a bit more oomph under the bonnet though – it’s a de-tuned Freelander engine is it not these days?

More fun around the camp fire if you’re with a mate anyway. I’ve got a few photo’s from Morocco, but as always not from the real interesting stuff as I was too busy not getting stuck / lost to take pics. – I’ll try and learn how to post them when I get chance. There may even be 1 in next months LRO. My defender’s a 2010 with a ‘transit van engine’ and is pretty comfy for distance. I’m about 5’11 and routinely drive 500 – 600 miles in the day either with work or sometimes pleasure without feeling too frazzled at the end. Wife and 2 kids dont complain either. The only time its felt ‘underpowered’ is when laden and with 3 tonne on the back, which I can live with for the better mpg than a disco. The latter is probably not a issue for you in Aus where they virtually give the fuel away.

Stoner, we need pics of the ongoing bulkhead project.

has come to a halt for a few days. The Bulkhead is free, but it appears I need to remove the sills as well to be able to lift it clear, so I’ll climb back under one morning soon. Of course all thaty will happen then is I’ll look at the sills and reckon they’ll need replacing too 🙄

Just take the sills off.

6 brackets either side I think.

Only decorative, throw them away and put some tree sliders on.
(not for tree sliding but to add some side impact protection)

not that simple, the sills hold the b pillar up too dont they?

Those little sill like things are decorative at best. Bloody bolts will be solid though.

we’re not talking about the sill capping, its the box section rail. I thought that held up the rear door hinge pillar. Im expecting the bolts to be siezed though 🙂

Im going to pop out and have a crack at it now.

doh, Im a div, of course the sills dont hold the door. the second bulkhead does

…but the sills are joined to the B pillars 👿

Ah well, out it all comes, and just as well, because they’re shot too…
2 steps forward, 3 steps back.

Save this link

http://www.yrmlandrover.com/epages/BT3575.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3575/Categories/Defender_parts/Land_Rover_Defender_110

Great company!

cheers.

Im going to be getting the bulkhead from these guys so will be talking to them about other parts too like outriggers and those sills.

http://www.ashtreelandrover.com/About_Us.html

Why not repair the one you’ve got and get it dipped yourself?

Is it that shot?

Save £800

http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic22028.html

Ill take a pic of it when it’s out, but “shot” would be kind. “Absolutely rotten away” is closer 🙂

And Im not too shy of spending a little bit of cash on this thing (just got paid for last year too). I’m hoping to keep it for many, many years so want to makesure I have the key parts in very good nick before I start gluing it all back together again as I wont want to be doing this again.

Fair point, heard very good stuff about Ashtree and like you say it will last for years.

Impressive stuff 🙂 I want one of these.

[/url]
Welland Steam Fair[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

for a brief moment on Saturday morning you could have found my crawling underneath that exact same landy looking at the bulkhead fixings, Alex. 😳

🙂 I fancied it more for the machine guns. Would liven up the commute no end!

Slightly more modern version:

Tiger6791, I have taken both the sills off now and got help to lift the bulkhead out.

Not sure if this is rust or just a sticker?…

Needed a video to take in all the horror 🙂
I will get ashtree to weld the b pillars on to some new sills. Maybe see if they can hot dip them too.

I often see old landies & wonder about them, sort of fancy one myself, well I did, then I watched that video, all the cheap ones must be axactly the same… For that reason I am out.

Keep the thread up though its nice to see one getting a decent makeover.

Yikes!

When you get your new galvanized bulkhead pump it full of Waxoyl or Bodyline cavity wax.

It’s hard to believe Land Rover have ignored the corrosion issues that have plagued all their products. The costs of installing a galvanizing facility at Solihull would have repaid themselves in repeat custom many times over.

I saw some chassis rust on a Disco 3 the other day that would write off any economic repair. The car was five years old 😯

will do. Everything will be well coated/painted.

Since this has turned into a bit more of a full refurb Im going to take the seat box off the chassis mounts and treat those too before refitting all the floors and sills. It just seems a pity that when the chassis swap was done three years ago, they just moved everything else over locks stock. The chassis is obviously impeccable, but the 25yr old body is all shot where’ it’s steel . The Al stuff is pretty sound still though.

One day I shall treat it to 5 new doors though, but at £400 ish each that might have to wait a bit…

Sometimes after driving my 90 on wet salty roads I could actually smell the corrosion happening when I was working around it. It’s a distinct metallic/electric smell that you never forget.

Still, are Landies any worse than any other car? My Dad owned one of the first BMWs ever imported into the UK, an early 2002. It was an exciting car but the ventilation was dire and within two years the front wings had rusted right through in front of the A pillars.

globalti, a good point, all old cars rust, even early fully galvanised ars are now getting rusty.

Throw in the odd river crossing & dumping a boat into the sea into the mix & its no supprise Landies are getting a bit rusty, good job Stoner is there to fix em.. (well one at least)

she’s looking a little naked now…

Good work 🙂

Updates?

wings, bonnet and roof back from the painters. Looks ace.

I got a salvaged rear tub from a breakers yard off an ’01 TDI that had been rolled, so I can re use the rear floor and the cappings (thats £500 quids worth new! 😯 )

Ive stripped the donor tub, just got to break down my tub and then rivet panels together and get it to my painter.
This evening I have been working on fitting my eberspacher diesel heater into a new central cubby box. It looks sweet and it runs perfectly. Ive tapped into the diesel line under the drivers seat.

I have some pics on the phone, but the phone is downstairs and the missus is downstairs with some frump from the school governors so you’ll have to wait 🙂

Ive also had a delivery of all the wiring stuff I need to re-wire all the lighting systems so that all circuits are relay driven with dedicated earths.

It appears I have some crap photos. I need to do some good ones. Will do as soon as Ive rebuilt the wings and their looms.