29th and 30th Aug Land Rover Max

I visited a land rover show over the bank holiday, and they had an off road course! Which we visited a couple of times. Great fun, see the photo's below.

A short video clip of the course.

I should also mention that on my fourth and final run I did yet stuck near the end! Bad route up a hill and lack of speed. But luckily there was a young girl there to pull me out! I'm not joking, a very young girl under instruction from the marshal pulled me out in a Defender 90, however I wasn't too stuck and it didn't take much and I was off on my way.

This was the end result.

The optional extra foot well ventilation wasn't such a good idea. Note the awful speaker mounting! Wrong speakers + No space + no fixings = horrid looking bodge! Shameful.

Good weekend, and found a new job - fix the massive hole in the drivers foot well, this can be done with the bulkhead.

Water Proofing

Over the years previous owners have drilled holes in the body of the defender to allow for their various cables and mountings. These now unused holes allow water into the cabin, which isn't ideal. Today I will seal the holes within the load area.

The holes will be sealed with cut aluminum squares riveted to the body panel with lots of seam sealant between the two and all over the out side of the rivets and hole.

 Not the prettiest finish, but the load area will be fully covered in checker plate when its complete. This should keep the water and mud out of the rear load space!

Stripping the Diff

I have now stripped the diff of the brake callipers, half shafts, hubs, discs and shocks. I have also split the diff to check all is good inside; every thing seems like new and operates smoothly.

Next step is to clean off the diff and strip back to metal ready for the welding of the new brackets. Once that’s complete it will be reassembled with new gaskets and oil, painted with under body seal and it will then be ready for fitting.

Have a few more bits to buy before it all goes together, suspensions, brake components, nuts and bolts and a few other bits.

Quick Product review.

Hammerite Rust Remover Gel: Verdict - Shit!

Although it did work in some areas it’s a real faff, having to apply this gel every 15mins for 3 hours is a pain and the result is far from perfect. I think it will take at least double that time again to get all the rust off.

I wouldn’t recommend this product as it was £10 for a pot (I think to finish off the two brake callipers it would have taken more than one pot!), it took a life time and is pretty useless in comparison to paying someone to grit blast it! Or even better having your own grit blaster! Hmmmm wonder what my next purchase should be.

New rear axle acquired.

I have picked up a rear axle which has disk brakes, it will need new brackets welding on but seems in good order and for a 110 rear axle was cheap. The Defender 110 requires a Salisbury rear axle due to the extra weight, which i found out after buying an old Discovery axle, which was promptly returned.

Should have a product review to post soon. The product being Hammerite Rust Remover, let see how it works.

Also a quick mention to Ed, the second person to enter the Defender club in our group of friends (You may note that I didn't include Glynn for obvious reasons (see previous post)), he also had the common sense to also get a V8, which are renowned for their reliability, fuel efficiency and generally being a sensible choice for daily use. Maybe Ed's Defender will feature on these pages some day soon.

Let’s Off Road! More Adventures.

Well after a full weekend of green laning and £75 worth of petrol she is still going strong and proved to be very capable off road, even with road tyres on! However the end of the first day saw us nearly get stuck, the ruts were slightly too deep for diff clearance.

However damage has been sustained; it’s now missing a side light, indicator and the bumper has been bent! These parts were due for upgrade at some point so I’m not too bothered.

The parts in the garage are building up and it’s nearly time to “quickly” swap the bulkhead for a fresh one.

Interesting occurrence at the weekend: I have discovered that there is a breed of person that will buy a Defender (one of the best off roaders going), strap a self recovery winch to the front of it and then…… Vow to never take it off road, in fear of scratching it! Also coming out with other excuses when pestered further such as “I have the wrong tyres” “my winch isn't fitted” (Granted I did use the last two, however I attempted 95% off the off road we drove, and left only the worst areas)

This breed of person was also the same that was giving me grief for not attempting a route in which I know I would get stuck, even though he hasn’t even been off road with his!

So next time you see Glynn Davis, please give him some stick as he is this breed of person. (Apparently the winch is for pulling out tree stumps, what a TW@)

Also spare a thought for his poor defender who will live out the rest of its life on the road as a glorified Chelsea Tractor, and not in the mud having fun where is belongs.

The Aim

Picture stolen from the company that made it! Sorry but it looks good!

Proberly should have done this first but...
The defender above is pretty much what I will be aiming for just on a 110 without the soft top:

• Same front grill
• Same bumper with winch
• Similar tyres - Mud terrain 20% road 80% off road
• Wide arches
• Similar suspension set up and height
• Full external roll cage
• under body protection for off road
• Snorkel

All in all pretty smart looking and very capable off roader.

Back in Action - New Started Motor

New starter is fitted! Starting is much better and faster. Back to running sweet once again.

Also gave the rust a lick of paint.

I imagine there are a lot of defenders that come in Hammerite Black!

Fitting new working locks!

Today the new lock barrels arrived, so i quickly installed them (quickly is a lie, it was a bit of a faff), you now need the actual key to open the doors rather than any flat shaped object, which is nice.

All apart from the fuel cap, which appears is a one way fitment and not designed to have the barrel changed. After very carefully drilling of the old barrel it was out and everything was still intact. However a very small but very import spring had disappeared rendering the whole cap useless ................... new one on order.

Temp fuel cap - Plastic bag and cable ties

While I have all the door covers off I will prep the doors with rust killer and a coat of Hammerite which should prevent any further rust building up until I fully strip and repaint the doors. 2nd row doors are worse than expected and have a very bodged repair job, I will have to review whether new ones are needed.

Stripping of the donor Bulkhead

I have stripped the bulkhead of all components, seals, fixings and sealant to allow for easy install, modification and spraying. I have also discovered a massive amount of fixings and gaskets that I now need to purchase. Back to ebay….

New Bulkhead - The Good and The Bad

This start of the weekend saw both good and bad news for the defender:

The Bad;

The defender has already broken down (Yeah yeah because it’s a Land Rover….), the starter motor has failed, not the end of the world but it means that it is currently static. The new part is on order, and should hopefully turn up before the weekend so I can have some fun.

The Good;

I have sourced a nearly new bulkhead! Taken from a 2006 Td5 so it will need some alterations to allow it to fit, but is in excellent condition unlike the current rotten one.

Vote Now - Colour Options.

I have been thinking about possible colours to have the Defender sprayed.

Narrowed it down to 4 and put up a vote to the right of the screen, any other ideas let me know.

Black

Metallic Silver

Tamar Blue

Zermatt Silver

Back at home - all seems good

After a short visit to Dorset all seems good with the defender, however there are a few problems which have arisen:

• Fuel indicator - put a full tank of petrol in it (poor wallet) and the fuel gauge went mental! 
• Oil leak - had a poke around underneath and found a minor leak which will need to be sorted
• Leak - as predicted the sun roof leaks, only slightly. However the bulk head repair does a fantastic job of directing water into the passenger side cabin.

Leaning more towards picking up a second hand bulkhead off ebay and fittign that.

Also picked up some wheels for £75 for all for 4! Bargin.

The current tyres are smaller than the ones fitted to the steels, but these will be taken off and replaced with some proper off road rubber.

I have also Modified and fitted a new security device for the Defender. (Green thing)

This I have been told is the first Ardcase lock box to be fitted to a V8 Defender, hence the modification that was needed.

Day two in the big bro...... With the V8 01-08-2010

Petrol is disappearing like there's a holed in the tank, I think this might be a running joke amongst friends.

I also managed to push my finger through a section of the bulkhead last night revealing yet more rust ....... bollocks! Will have to investigate some more and see if a new bulkhead is needed or some more patching will be best.

Another two trips to Halfords today, picking up audio equipment (couldn't bear any more of commercial radio), after much messing around new stereo and speakers are fitted. However the speakers are mounted in some what of a bodge. Combining large Rawl plugs and masonry screws. Looks awful but it will suffice for the trip to Dorset, the correct fitting gear has been ordered (thanks Phil) and will be fitted upon my return. Amusing conversation with the chap at Halfords who insisted that all Defenders came with an ISO stereo connection as standard, even though i tried to explain that the defender was made before ISO was about! However I'm sure he was right, as he was the professional.

Ed trying to sort the mess of cables behind the dash

This is how it looked after much tidying

 After the fitting of electrical equipment had been completed, it was off to Glynn's farm. After lengthy scientific testing we determined that the V8 is quicker than the 300Tdi (get in! I knew there was a reason for it!). We also discovered that racing around a field in defenders in really good fun! Probably more that it should be for two 25+ year old's! Glynn learnt a valuable lesson is physics: high speed + sharp turn aided by hand brake = two wheel sliding turn, nearly resulting in a roll. However it was good to watch from the outside!

After this a hunt for green lanes began, resulting in about half hour of finding nothing but foot paths and restricted byways (which should be called bridleways as that what they are!) we find and extremely narrow byway, up we go pushing through the trees, but soon enough it becomes too tight for the for us and the walkers to get by, so back down we go. Off looking or the next byway, which was found just up the road; this was quickly deemed to risky as we had no 2nd vehicle, off road tires, winch or off road driving skill. After passing through a ford and finding another irritating restricted byway (aka bridleway!) we find any actual byway; heading down the tracks in the ruts over the logs around fallen trees, through the over grown bushes and squeezing between tress - all good fun which must be repeated.

2nd day of the Defender ends well, off to Dorset for a week tomorrow, we shall see how she gets on then (signed up to the RAC just in case).

Thanks to Phil and Ed again for helping with the stereo.
Photos by PM Photography

Day One with the V8 31-07-2010

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My plan is to transform a tatty 110 defender into a new and off road ready machine.

Well, I picked her up today. a 19 year old Defender 110 3.5L V8 in beige! Nice

Very pleased with the overall condition, slight surface rust on the chassis, engine runs sweet. Most of the electrics work, seems the ideal platform to work from! But it being a a Defender there are the usual spots of rust; bulk head has had a repair, looks to be good so far but might need another patch. Rear cross member is showing signs of rusting but not to the point that a new one is required. Waxoly treatment should sort that out. But the doors are mint! can't believe it they are normally the first thing to go.

However i can't stand the LPG! massive tank taking up most the back, crappy performance and a nasty smell all for a couple of pennies? Good bye LPG. On the flip slide to that argument the V8 really likes to drink petrol/ LPG.

The journey back:
Filled up on the way £30 LPG is a full tank and £53 is just over a half tank of petrol. used half the LPG and an 1/8th of the petrol getting back from Bristol.
Quickly realised after shooting across multiple lanes on the motorway that the bushes on the steering set up could do with a change. I think i will make this the first major job! Quickly followed by the brakes, hate to think how an emergency stop would go currently - as least the bumper is box section steel!

Back at home decided to get a steering lock (after the disappearing act of my last Defender) and some belts as the current ones are on the way out. Fitting the belts ran in to a few issues; new alternator means longer belt is needed, back to Halfords. In the process we (I said we because I don't want to blame Ed completely even though it was his fault) moved the distributor cap, resulting in the engine being unable to ideal. Quick twist and its back to running sweet!

We also remove the stupid seized steps, couple bolts needed cutting but they were soon off and the defender looking much better.

Then a full clean was in order, removing some of the crappy carpet left in. There must have been 19 years of crap in there! Much better now. We also removed the very tasteful rear boxing and returned it the the boat it came from!

Big thanks to Ed and Phil for helping out with all of the above all day, good effort.

Photos by PM Photography