1983 Land Rover Series 3
Discussion
Greetings
I've wanted to own a Land Rover for over 20 years and on Friday I picked up a 1983 Land Rover Series 3 2.25 Diesel. Its got Fairy over drive and Disco 1 steel wheels, but thats it for the optional extras!
The body is a bit shabby, but underneath is perfect. Outriggers replaced along with rear 1/4 chassis and front spring hangers. Quality of welding is superb and its all been painted under there too, so I think there a good ten years in that chassis yet
I drove it back nearly 100 miles and it didn't skip a beat. Temp gauge stayed dead centre through out my entire journey including when I got lost in the centre of Cambridge in traffic!
Future Plans
- Ditch the Disco steel wheels and replace with standard series wheels which thankfully came with the car and fit them with Insa Turbo Dakar tyres.
- Replace both door tops
- Replace all three seats
- Fit inersia seat belts
- Fix Speedo cable
- Sort out door catches
- Refurb the brakes (New shoes, pistons & springs)
- Service and replace steering components
If I keep it long term, I'm planning on putting a 200tdi lump in. The diesel engine seems ok mechanically, but its very slow and loud. May look at the petrol engine too, but the 200tdi offers much more benefits.
I'd also like a delux model bonnet, so I can mount the spare on there. I test drove a couple that had the spare mounted on the bonneta nd I loved the view!
I'm pretty excited to finally own a Land Rover. I love the look of the series and it was incredibly cheap to insure at £120 from Adrian Flux. I originally wanted a Disco, but I got fed up at looking at failed electrics, shot bodywork and numouerous warning lights.
I'm hoping to make it to some of the trips on the PH trips on the plains.
Will probably post in Land Rover sub forum too
I've wanted to own a Land Rover for over 20 years and on Friday I picked up a 1983 Land Rover Series 3 2.25 Diesel. Its got Fairy over drive and Disco 1 steel wheels, but thats it for the optional extras!
The body is a bit shabby, but underneath is perfect. Outriggers replaced along with rear 1/4 chassis and front spring hangers. Quality of welding is superb and its all been painted under there too, so I think there a good ten years in that chassis yet
I drove it back nearly 100 miles and it didn't skip a beat. Temp gauge stayed dead centre through out my entire journey including when I got lost in the centre of Cambridge in traffic!
Future Plans
- Ditch the Disco steel wheels and replace with standard series wheels which thankfully came with the car and fit them with Insa Turbo Dakar tyres.
- Replace both door tops
- Replace all three seats
- Fit inersia seat belts
- Fix Speedo cable
- Sort out door catches
- Refurb the brakes (New shoes, pistons & springs)
- Service and replace steering components
If I keep it long term, I'm planning on putting a 200tdi lump in. The diesel engine seems ok mechanically, but its very slow and loud. May look at the petrol engine too, but the 200tdi offers much more benefits.
I'd also like a delux model bonnet, so I can mount the spare on there. I test drove a couple that had the spare mounted on the bonneta nd I loved the view!
I'm pretty excited to finally own a Land Rover. I love the look of the series and it was incredibly cheap to insure at £120 from Adrian Flux. I originally wanted a Disco, but I got fed up at looking at failed electrics, shot bodywork and numouerous warning lights.
I'm hoping to make it to some of the trips on the PH trips on the plains.
Will probably post in Land Rover sub forum too
hidetheelephants said:
Seriously, don't put the spare on the bonnet unless you're a PH standard-issue 6'4" well-built director of multiple companies. They're f
king heavy to open with it on, and the bonnet prop is rubbish and flimsy; if you must have the safari look, take the bloody thing off before delving under the bonnet to avoid it closing itself onto your head.
I've been thinking about that. I have to admit I popped the bonnet on one with the wheel fitted to the bonnet the other day and yikes it was heavy! king heavy to open with it on, and the bonnet prop is rubbish and flimsy; if you must have the safari look, take the bloody thing off before delving under the bonnet to avoid it closing itself onto your head.Its on the last of my things to do as the delux bonnet doesn't come up very often and I want to fix everything else first
6fire said:
Glad you finally got one. I did wonder if you ever would. We've talked about L/R's before on a different forum (where I had a different user name). I used to own a Series 2a LWB. Brilliant things. Mine is still going strong - not with me owning it though unfortunately.
I always found the 2.25 diesel to be not very good. Enough power to pull the skin off a rice pudding. Just. And they always seemed to smoke a lot. A Tdi motor will be a good upgrade - everyone will probably tell you that the halfshafts will snap. They won't so long as you drive it with some sympathy. And even if they do, take the half shafts out, pop it in 4WD and drive it home on the front wheels.
If you do upgrade the engine it might be worth considering uprated brakes as well - bigger drums on the front aren't difficult to retrofit. Something I found useful as an upgrade was a hand throttle. Very useful as a crude cruise control!
If it hasn't been done, it's also worth carpeting the interior with a sound deadening kit. It'll never be quiet, but it will make a huge difference.
Worth also looking for a set of free wheeling hubs. Makes a noticeable difference to the fuel economy. Speaking of which, putting the spare on the bonnet will make a difference to the fuel economy as well - they're noticeably worse with the spare wheel on the bonnet.
Should be a good wagon for all of the dive gear.
Edit:- regarding the inertia reel seat belts, take a look at what the seat belts are mounted to. I've never looked closely at the cab bulkhead on a series 3, but I had no faith that the bulkhead in a series 2 would withstand any form of strain from a seat belt, and anyway it doesn't come up to the top of your back, so the best case would be a compression injury. Easier to do with a Series 2 because of the age and when seatbelts were introduced, but I never bothered with seat belts and made sure I avoided crashing.
Did you used to have a Impreza Station wagon? If yes, great to hear from you I always found the 2.25 diesel to be not very good. Enough power to pull the skin off a rice pudding. Just. And they always seemed to smoke a lot. A Tdi motor will be a good upgrade - everyone will probably tell you that the halfshafts will snap. They won't so long as you drive it with some sympathy. And even if they do, take the half shafts out, pop it in 4WD and drive it home on the front wheels.
If you do upgrade the engine it might be worth considering uprated brakes as well - bigger drums on the front aren't difficult to retrofit. Something I found useful as an upgrade was a hand throttle. Very useful as a crude cruise control!
If it hasn't been done, it's also worth carpeting the interior with a sound deadening kit. It'll never be quiet, but it will make a huge difference.
Worth also looking for a set of free wheeling hubs. Makes a noticeable difference to the fuel economy. Speaking of which, putting the spare on the bonnet will make a difference to the fuel economy as well - they're noticeably worse with the spare wheel on the bonnet.
Should be a good wagon for all of the dive gear.
Edit:- regarding the inertia reel seat belts, take a look at what the seat belts are mounted to. I've never looked closely at the cab bulkhead on a series 3, but I had no faith that the bulkhead in a series 2 would withstand any form of strain from a seat belt, and anyway it doesn't come up to the top of your back, so the best case would be a compression injury. Easier to do with a Series 2 because of the age and when seatbelts were introduced, but I never bothered with seat belts and made sure I avoided crashing.
Edited by 6fire on Sunday 6th May 13:16
I'll be rebuilding the brakes in the summer as I'm not happy with them now. It will be new pistons, shoes and springs. If I have the desire to go for bigger brakes, I think I can just fit the br`ke assembly from the 109. If memory serves they have bigger brakes than the 88s.
I'll certainly be getting a carpet kit for the front and lining the back with heavy duty waterproof sound proofing material. I still want the back to be wipe clean.
When I've sorted the doors, I'll also be getting some sound proofing in there and I'll then put a piece of ply over the door and wrap in black vinyl. Should like nice after that.
If I do the engine upgrade, it would be the 200tdi with out the turbo. I've done a bit of reading and it makes it much easier if you don't use the turbo. You can use the standard radiator and you don't have to worry about intercoolers
Thought I'd do an update. The plans that I set out when I bought the vehicle kinda went a bit sideways...
One of the All Terrain tyres blew as I was entering my driveway, so I ended up replacing the wheels and tyres with the standard series steel wheels. I needed a spare, so I managed to buy 4 army 90 wheels on Ebay for a tenner. The wheels were rubbed down, primed and painted using Land Rover limestone paint. I used Halfords Laquer, That really didn't work too well.
I went for Insa Turbo Dakar 2 tyres. Yes they are remoulds, but this is a second car and they were great value for money.
A few photos of the wheel refurbishment.
I should have bought white primer instead of the usual red oxide stuff. I won’t make that mistake again. The wheel nuts rub through the laquer and top coat to reveal the red primer.
November came up, so I took it in for its MOT and that is where it went a bit wrong...
The MOT tester was actually a bit odd. He insisted that he couldn't give me a failure sheet as it was unsafe to finish the test due to the failed universal joint in the rear prop. I went away with no official failure sheet, but instead I got a scrap of paper that I scribbled the failure points on. It could have been a lot worse.
front spring bushes
rear shocks leaking
left and right track rod ends
headlight alignment
left indicator not working (worked on the journey there!!)
play in tractor joint
excessive smoke (It came out of the factory with excessive smoke!)
No seatbelt on the front centre seat.
Universal joint on rear prop.
The front spring bushes are notoriously difficult to get out of the springs, so I decided to buy a completely new set of parabolics from GB Springs along with four new heavy duty shocks from paddocks.
I thought this would be a relatively easy job and my Dad and I would have it done in a couple of days. Turned out to takle much longer than that. Thankfully none of the bolts were actually sized, which I was quite surprised by. Lining the springs up with the axel and the hangers took a lot of time and levering using things like plumbers wrenches.
The shocks are held on with a bolt at the top and a split pin on the bottom. The hole and the split pin had rusted solid, so they had to be drilled out. When re-assembling, I tried to use the LR split pins, but I couldn’t get the bushes to compress enough, so I had to resort to slightly smaller pins.
The track rod ends required a lot of heat to get them unstuck from the rod. Had to cut the ball joints off as the split pin has very badly corroded.
Tractor joint was quite easy. Just removed it and played about with different shims.
I also had some issues starting the vehicle. So much so, that it had to be pushed into the garage. Pushing a 1.5T Land Rover on a gravel driveway with new mud terrains was hard work and took four of us!
The battery is actually fine and was holding its charge, so I put in some brand new glowplugs bought from the local Landy specialist. Turned out they were knackered, so the specialist replaced them for new ones. The Landy now starts much better
Yes, I know there is an oil leak. I suspect its coming from the rocker gasket. Will probably sort that before the cold weather starts.
Whilst all this was going on, I drained the oil and fitted a new oil filter. All very cheap as the Landy uses mineral oil Oil filter design means oil dribbles down your arm 
New oil was put in the front and rear difs. Back one was quite easy, but the front one required my mate and his 500m 1/2in socket wrench to get undone. The oil really did smell bad. I'm not too concerned as I remember the dif oil smelling just as bad in my Pajero.
This weekend, I finally got round to fitting the front recovery eyes. These are genuine Land Rover items. I bought them on Ebay earlier in the year. I stripped the original paint and applied primer and silver paint. The bumper bolts were the originals and were very hard to get off. My friend of mine was round working on my wife's car and he lent me he Snap On Cordless Nut gun and that made quick work of the bolts. Mental note: Must buy Machine Mart cordless nut gun!
The rear of the recovery eyes are held on by new Land Rover bumper bolts and the fronts are held on by high tensile bolts complete with 6mm steel spreader plates, which I cut myself. These are designed to stop the bolts pulling through the bumper when you are being pulled out. One of the spreader plates had to be modified to fit. Drilling the 13mm holes for the front bolst was quite difficult. AT one point the drill locked up and spun into my man bits. QUite painful
When I bought the car there was nothing on the rear cross member at all and I thought it looked a bit dull. The first thing I fitted were lift handles form Paddocks. They are quite flimsy, but are useful for heaving your self out from underneath the car.
I bought a towbar kit for it from EBay, which had a spacer plate, which allowed it to be fit flat against the cross member. The towbar plate was sanded down primed and painted with what ever black hammerite I had in the garage. The forums and Land Rover recommend you have a spreader plate behind the cross member to stop the bolts pulling through the cross member. I did this using a large piece of 6mm plate. There is no chance those bolts will pull through now!!
I ended up having to angle grind parts of the cross member so I could fit the spreader plate into the gap. Unfortunately a bit of hot metal came off and dropped onto my fleece and promptly set light to it!
We fitted a new speedo cable, but the speedo still isn't working! More investigation required. New front indicators were fitted. Old ones were quite tough to get off and I had to grind the fixings off. Also replaced all the dash bulbs and the fuses, so I can now see the gauges at night
I bought a new center seat belt for the front, but I could never see anyone ever sitting in the centre seat, so I decided to fit a center cubby box instead. Makes the interior look much nicer and a useful place to store stuff.
Air filter cleaned and new oil added. There was a lot of sludge in the bottom of the original one.
The steering was quite bad, so I decided to see if I could adjust the steering. Was actually quite straight forward and the steering is now much better. I've spotted another ball joint with a bit of play in it, so I'm hoping if I replace that, that should make the steering as good as I can get it without resorting to trying to remove the dreaded relay unit
We also fitted new wing top mirrors as the current ones are woeful. Its made rear visibility a bit better, but I know I'm going to have to fit Defender type mirrors at some point.
The Landy was presented for its MOT at a different testing station a few weeks ago and I forgot to pout all five wheel nuts on, which I didn't spot until the tester told me!! I also forgot to do up the track rod end clamp. It also failed on my lack of battery clamp. I went back and fixed all those things and finally it passed. Only 9 months after its first failure in November of last year!!
I also fitted a new bump stop to the front driver side as it was missing.
I've still got the original to-do list to go through and a few others have been added to the list.
New door tops
front brake rebuild
gearbox and transfer box oil change
New locks fitted to all doors
I don't know how many hours I've had to put in to get to an MOT pass, but its a lot and its highlighted a few things that I need to buy to make working on the LR easier. The main thing is a compressor. Watching my mate undo bolts with ease really did cement that. I also want a compressor so I can re-paint it at some point.
So far I have spent approximately £1100 on it on top of the purchase price and I'd say, I've still got another £500 to £1000 to go to get it in a good state and £300 of that should go towards a rebuild of the gearbox. However, I'm aware that I could also put that money into buying a 90 which would have luxuries such as power steering and a 5th gear and will be much more comfortable. Even with new parabolics and shocks, the ride is still quite bad.
As for the near future, I am hoping to take it off road and sort the doors so they shut properly
if you stayed with me this long, thanks for reading
I’ll do another update when I've done more to the vehicle.
One of the All Terrain tyres blew as I was entering my driveway, so I ended up replacing the wheels and tyres with the standard series steel wheels. I needed a spare, so I managed to buy 4 army 90 wheels on Ebay for a tenner. The wheels were rubbed down, primed and painted using Land Rover limestone paint. I used Halfords Laquer, That really didn't work too well.
I went for Insa Turbo Dakar 2 tyres. Yes they are remoulds, but this is a second car and they were great value for money.
A few photos of the wheel refurbishment.
I should have bought white primer instead of the usual red oxide stuff. I won’t make that mistake again. The wheel nuts rub through the laquer and top coat to reveal the red primer.
November came up, so I took it in for its MOT and that is where it went a bit wrong...
The MOT tester was actually a bit odd. He insisted that he couldn't give me a failure sheet as it was unsafe to finish the test due to the failed universal joint in the rear prop. I went away with no official failure sheet, but instead I got a scrap of paper that I scribbled the failure points on. It could have been a lot worse.
front spring bushes
rear shocks leaking
left and right track rod ends
headlight alignment
left indicator not working (worked on the journey there!!)
play in tractor joint
excessive smoke (It came out of the factory with excessive smoke!)
No seatbelt on the front centre seat.
Universal joint on rear prop.
The front spring bushes are notoriously difficult to get out of the springs, so I decided to buy a completely new set of parabolics from GB Springs along with four new heavy duty shocks from paddocks.
I thought this would be a relatively easy job and my Dad and I would have it done in a couple of days. Turned out to takle much longer than that. Thankfully none of the bolts were actually sized, which I was quite surprised by. Lining the springs up with the axel and the hangers took a lot of time and levering using things like plumbers wrenches.
The shocks are held on with a bolt at the top and a split pin on the bottom. The hole and the split pin had rusted solid, so they had to be drilled out. When re-assembling, I tried to use the LR split pins, but I couldn’t get the bushes to compress enough, so I had to resort to slightly smaller pins.
The track rod ends required a lot of heat to get them unstuck from the rod. Had to cut the ball joints off as the split pin has very badly corroded.
Tractor joint was quite easy. Just removed it and played about with different shims.
I also had some issues starting the vehicle. So much so, that it had to be pushed into the garage. Pushing a 1.5T Land Rover on a gravel driveway with new mud terrains was hard work and took four of us!
The battery is actually fine and was holding its charge, so I put in some brand new glowplugs bought from the local Landy specialist. Turned out they were knackered, so the specialist replaced them for new ones. The Landy now starts much better
Yes, I know there is an oil leak. I suspect its coming from the rocker gasket. Will probably sort that before the cold weather starts.
Whilst all this was going on, I drained the oil and fitted a new oil filter. All very cheap as the Landy uses mineral oil
Oil filter design means oil dribbles down your arm New oil was put in the front and rear difs. Back one was quite easy, but the front one required my mate and his 500m 1/2in socket wrench to get undone. The oil really did smell bad. I'm not too concerned as I remember the dif oil smelling just as bad in my Pajero.
This weekend, I finally got round to fitting the front recovery eyes. These are genuine Land Rover items. I bought them on Ebay earlier in the year. I stripped the original paint and applied primer and silver paint. The bumper bolts were the originals and were very hard to get off. My friend of mine was round working on my wife's car and he lent me he Snap On Cordless Nut gun and that made quick work of the bolts. Mental note: Must buy Machine Mart cordless nut gun!
The rear of the recovery eyes are held on by new Land Rover bumper bolts and the fronts are held on by high tensile bolts complete with 6mm steel spreader plates, which I cut myself. These are designed to stop the bolts pulling through the bumper when you are being pulled out. One of the spreader plates had to be modified to fit. Drilling the 13mm holes for the front bolst was quite difficult. AT one point the drill locked up and spun into my man bits. QUite painful
When I bought the car there was nothing on the rear cross member at all and I thought it looked a bit dull. The first thing I fitted were lift handles form Paddocks. They are quite flimsy, but are useful for heaving your self out from underneath the car.
I bought a towbar kit for it from EBay, which had a spacer plate, which allowed it to be fit flat against the cross member. The towbar plate was sanded down primed and painted with what ever black hammerite I had in the garage. The forums and Land Rover recommend you have a spreader plate behind the cross member to stop the bolts pulling through the cross member. I did this using a large piece of 6mm plate. There is no chance those bolts will pull through now!!
I ended up having to angle grind parts of the cross member so I could fit the spreader plate into the gap. Unfortunately a bit of hot metal came off and dropped onto my fleece and promptly set light to it!
We fitted a new speedo cable, but the speedo still isn't working! More investigation required. New front indicators were fitted. Old ones were quite tough to get off and I had to grind the fixings off. Also replaced all the dash bulbs and the fuses, so I can now see the gauges at night
I bought a new center seat belt for the front, but I could never see anyone ever sitting in the centre seat, so I decided to fit a center cubby box instead. Makes the interior look much nicer and a useful place to store stuff.
Air filter cleaned and new oil added. There was a lot of sludge in the bottom of the original one.
The steering was quite bad, so I decided to see if I could adjust the steering. Was actually quite straight forward and the steering is now much better. I've spotted another ball joint with a bit of play in it, so I'm hoping if I replace that, that should make the steering as good as I can get it without resorting to trying to remove the dreaded relay unit
We also fitted new wing top mirrors as the current ones are woeful. Its made rear visibility a bit better, but I know I'm going to have to fit Defender type mirrors at some point.
The Landy was presented for its MOT at a different testing station a few weeks ago and I forgot to pout all five wheel nuts on, which I didn't spot until the tester told me!! I also forgot to do up the track rod end clamp. It also failed on my lack of battery clamp. I went back and fixed all those things and finally it passed. Only 9 months after its first failure in November of last year!!
I also fitted a new bump stop to the front driver side as it was missing.
I've still got the original to-do list to go through and a few others have been added to the list.
New door tops
front brake rebuild
gearbox and transfer box oil change
New locks fitted to all doors
I don't know how many hours I've had to put in to get to an MOT pass, but its a lot and its highlighted a few things that I need to buy to make working on the LR easier. The main thing is a compressor. Watching my mate undo bolts with ease really did cement that. I also want a compressor so I can re-paint it at some point.
So far I have spent approximately £1100 on it on top of the purchase price and I'd say, I've still got another £500 to £1000 to go to get it in a good state and £300 of that should go towards a rebuild of the gearbox. However, I'm aware that I could also put that money into buying a 90 which would have luxuries such as power steering and a 5th gear and will be much more comfortable. Even with new parabolics and shocks, the ride is still quite bad.
As for the near future, I am hoping to take it off road and sort the doors so they shut properly
if you stayed with me this long, thanks for reading
I’ll do another update when I've done more to the vehicle.
So its been nearly 6 years since I purchased the Series 3 from a garage owner in Kings Lynn.
At the end of 2016 I decided that I was going to have to make it more appealing to roll out the garage or I was going to have to sell it. I decided to to take a dive into the unknown and re-paint the bodywork using a compressor and a gun. Some people just roller the paint and get some good results. It’s quicker, but I wanted to learn a new skill. It was much harder than I expected. My Dad also bought me a compressor for Christmas and that helped! Only £118 delivered for a 2.5bhp 50Ltr, which is pretty good.
I bought a pair of window side panels approximately two years ago. They are from a series 2 and ended up needing some modification to work with the later seals. I have to grind off a lip for the rear doors seals to still work.
I bought these panels for £18 a pair and they were pretty scruffy. At least three to four coats of paint. You had two shades of camo, primer and the original marine blue, but they had been hand painted very badly. I originally attacked them with a normal sander, but then had a go with a angle grinder flap disc. That turned out to far too aggressive and it took chunks out of the ali. I also used a heat gun and scraper. Just wanted to get rid of as much of the bad paint as possible.
I then wiped them down with panel wipe and sprayed them with etch primer, then normal primer and some Land Rover Limestone white, which is basically cream. This was one of many purchases from PaintMan who are well known in the LR community for series enamel paints.
I didn’t end up with a glossy finish, but they were considerably better than what was there before. I only paid £18 for the window panels and I’ve since been offered four times that for them. I even managed to sell the van sides for £80.
I scraped out the old window seals and replaced with new items and fitted them in the channels using Polyurethane sealant (Messy stuff).
There were also a random hole and the top of the panels, so I just replaced it with a dome bolt and cut off the bolt part and glued it in with gorilla glue. Worked well as there are rivet. heads all over the panels anyway
Sorry about the quality of some of the images. I've been looking back at all the images and its a reminder of how much work went into this car!
|https://thumbsnap.com/TYg7tDKU[/url]
[url]
Adding these panels make the inside of the car much brighter and I've never liked van look. More updates to come...
At the end of 2016 I decided that I was going to have to make it more appealing to roll out the garage or I was going to have to sell it. I decided to to take a dive into the unknown and re-paint the bodywork using a compressor and a gun. Some people just roller the paint and get some good results. It’s quicker, but I wanted to learn a new skill. It was much harder than I expected. My Dad also bought me a compressor for Christmas and that helped! Only £118 delivered for a 2.5bhp 50Ltr, which is pretty good.
I bought a pair of window side panels approximately two years ago. They are from a series 2 and ended up needing some modification to work with the later seals. I have to grind off a lip for the rear doors seals to still work.
I bought these panels for £18 a pair and they were pretty scruffy. At least three to four coats of paint. You had two shades of camo, primer and the original marine blue, but they had been hand painted very badly. I originally attacked them with a normal sander, but then had a go with a angle grinder flap disc. That turned out to far too aggressive and it took chunks out of the ali. I also used a heat gun and scraper. Just wanted to get rid of as much of the bad paint as possible.
I then wiped them down with panel wipe and sprayed them with etch primer, then normal primer and some Land Rover Limestone white, which is basically cream. This was one of many purchases from PaintMan who are well known in the LR community for series enamel paints.
I didn’t end up with a glossy finish, but they were considerably better than what was there before. I only paid £18 for the window panels and I’ve since been offered four times that for them. I even managed to sell the van sides for £80.
I scraped out the old window seals and replaced with new items and fitted them in the channels using Polyurethane sealant (Messy stuff).
There were also a random hole and the top of the panels, so I just replaced it with a dome bolt and cut off the bolt part and glued it in with gorilla glue. Worked well as there are rivet. heads all over the panels anyway
Sorry about the quality of some of the images. I've been looking back at all the images and its a reminder of how much work went into this car!
|https://thumbsnap.com/TYg7tDKU[/url][url]Adding these panels make the inside of the car much brighter and I've never liked van look. More updates to come...
I removed the roof. That was fairly easy, but not something you can do on your own. It’s not heavy, but it’s quite unwieldy. Used a couple of jacks to help get it off.
I sanded it down using wet and dry and normal DIY Sander. I also filled a few of the nics along the way. I attempted to etch prime the roof using the gun and the compressor, but I really struggled with runs. Looking back on it now, my guess I just didn’t get the mix right and it was just too cold. I ended up finishing it with rattle cans from PaintMan. The roof was taking up
so much space, I just needed to get it finished and bolted back onto the vehicle. Looks pretty good though, but I need to finish the edges at some point. There is a lot of paint on that roof. Original primer, original paint, two/three coats of etch and a couple of top coats.
Long term plan is to remove it again and add sound deadening, lights and a roof lining. Should be able to manage that in the new workshop at the bottom of the garden.
I sanded it down using wet and dry and normal DIY Sander. I also filled a few of the nics along the way. I attempted to etch prime the roof using the gun and the compressor, but I really struggled with runs. Looking back on it now, my guess I just didn’t get the mix right and it was just too cold. I ended up finishing it with rattle cans from PaintMan. The roof was taking up
so much space, I just needed to get it finished and bolted back onto the vehicle. Looks pretty good though, but I need to finish the edges at some point. There is a lot of paint on that roof. Original primer, original paint, two/three coats of etch and a couple of top coats.
Long term plan is to remove it again and add sound deadening, lights and a roof lining. Should be able to manage that in the new workshop at the bottom of the garden.
Muddle238 said:
Very nice indeed. I would guess the love for old series Landies extends beyond just PH and into the wider public. I seem to meet at least one stranger every time I take mine out, interested I how old it is, what's it like to own etc.
Definitely an icon not only for those of us who grew up around them, but the kids nowadays who see them as a British style icon (yeah I know that's the only time Land Rover and stylish come close).
Good to see yours is getting some TLC, I really ought to do a bit on mine, waiting for things to warm up a bit first though! Plus it seems to be too busy working all the time, earning it's keep!
Good to see that yours is out and working. Mine used to be used for tip runs. Was really good for taking tree cuttings or similar as you could just sweep it all out. I'm now using my D3 for tip runs and the interior is getting wrecked because of it. I keep thinking that a 110 would be better for what I use them for. Definitely an icon not only for those of us who grew up around them, but the kids nowadays who see them as a British style icon (yeah I know that's the only time Land Rover and stylish come close).
Good to see yours is getting some TLC, I really ought to do a bit on mine, waiting for things to warm up a bit first though! Plus it seems to be too busy working all the time, earning it's keep!
The first colour coats were the rear door. I chose that as I could easily remove it from the vehicle and rest it on trestle tables. I filled a few dings and filled and smoother some of the corder dents. On reflection, they look pretty good now and I can’t even tell where the repairs are.
The first coat of etch looked like oil was getting mixed in with primer, so I drained the tank and after a few attempts it looked ok, but not great. I ended up using rattle cans on some of the last of the offending areas.
The ribbing was actually in quite a good state for a series land rover. I filled some on the pin prick sized holes and some of the dents (Probably where the door has been closed on something)
Any rusty areas of metal was painted with red oxide and then etched primed. Looking back, painting some with ribbed sections can hide bad spraying as the paint pools and can’t run very far! I was fairly happy with the cour coats on the inside and the outside of the door, but looking at layer efforts on the car, its not as glossy as I would have liked and I know I’m capable of.
The door then sat on trestles for about 8 months before I refitted. I’m now in the process of trimming the rear door with sound deadening and a custom trim panel. More of that later.
The first coat of etch looked like oil was getting mixed in with primer, so I drained the tank and after a few attempts it looked ok, but not great. I ended up using rattle cans on some of the last of the offending areas.
The ribbing was actually in quite a good state for a series land rover. I filled some on the pin prick sized holes and some of the dents (Probably where the door has been closed on something)
Any rusty areas of metal was painted with red oxide and then etched primed. Looking back, painting some with ribbed sections can hide bad spraying as the paint pools and can’t run very far! I was fairly happy with the cour coats on the inside and the outside of the door, but looking at layer efforts on the car, its not as glossy as I would have liked and I know I’m capable of.
The door then sat on trestles for about 8 months before I refitted. I’m now in the process of trimming the rear door with sound deadening and a custom trim panel. More of that later.
Painting the rest of the car was very difficult and made harder as I didn’t do it all in a single hit, which was a massive mistake. I really only ever worked on the car in 2-4hr blocks.
I spent a lot of time filling and and sanding the front wings. Should have just replaced the bloody things with plastic panels. The passenger side also had issues with different paints reacting with each other and I tried some isolator, but that didn’t work either. I struggled so much with the paintman etch primer, I moved to some cheaper tetrosol etch primer from Ebay. Was easier to apply and seemed to get a better finish. Getting consistent pressure out the gun was also an issue, which I struggled to get to grips with throughout the entire project.
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The rear ¾ panels were also a bit of a mess. I didn’t like the aftermarket square plastic fog lamp, so I removed the lamp and filled the hole. To provide a backing, I used chicken wire glued to the bodywork with polyurethane sealant. I was still using relatively thick filler, but I moved to thinner stiff later on, which was much easier to work with.
The bodywork round the rear number plate was damaged and had several holes, but I managed to fill and sand that so it actually looked quite decent.
I replaced all the lights with new ones as LR lights are cheap as chips at £2.50 each. I didn’t paint the body cappings as I think it looks naff.
The passenger side rear wing has received quite a thump at some point and been reshaped to a reasonable standard, but I managed to improve it and sanding it back down and filling the smaller cracks. Took a long time!
I used to apply a coat of etch primer as a guide coat so I could see how the bodywork was looking. I think it helped, but it did mean that I was using a lot of paint. Despite hours of filling and sanding and priming, the wings still have several imperfections. Series LR wings are single skin and that means that thye bend alot, which makes it trickeier to sand down.
The Bonnet was actually in quite good shape. Once again the ribs can rot out. Mine were all fairly solid with only surface rust. I sanded the ribs down and treated it to a coat of red oxide and then etch primer.
Bonnet looked pretty good after painting, but once again, it took several coats to get right and I’m still not 100% happy with the finish. The whole car would benefit from a machine polish.
I spent a lot of time filling and and sanding the front wings. Should have just replaced the bloody things with plastic panels. The passenger side also had issues with different paints reacting with each other and I tried some isolator, but that didn’t work either. I struggled so much with the paintman etch primer, I moved to some cheaper tetrosol etch primer from Ebay. Was easier to apply and seemed to get a better finish. Getting consistent pressure out the gun was also an issue, which I struggled to get to grips with throughout the entire project.
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|https://thumbsnap.com/h143wAoN[/url]The rear ¾ panels were also a bit of a mess. I didn’t like the aftermarket square plastic fog lamp, so I removed the lamp and filled the hole. To provide a backing, I used chicken wire glued to the bodywork with polyurethane sealant. I was still using relatively thick filler, but I moved to thinner stiff later on, which was much easier to work with.
The bodywork round the rear number plate was damaged and had several holes, but I managed to fill and sand that so it actually looked quite decent.
I replaced all the lights with new ones as LR lights are cheap as chips at £2.50 each. I didn’t paint the body cappings as I think it looks naff.
The passenger side rear wing has received quite a thump at some point and been reshaped to a reasonable standard, but I managed to improve it and sanding it back down and filling the smaller cracks. Took a long time!
I used to apply a coat of etch primer as a guide coat so I could see how the bodywork was looking. I think it helped, but it did mean that I was using a lot of paint. Despite hours of filling and sanding and priming, the wings still have several imperfections. Series LR wings are single skin and that means that thye bend alot, which makes it trickeier to sand down.
The Bonnet was actually in quite good shape. Once again the ribs can rot out. Mine were all fairly solid with only surface rust. I sanded the ribs down and treated it to a coat of red oxide and then etch primer.
Bonnet looked pretty good after painting, but once again, it took several coats to get right and I’m still not 100% happy with the finish. The whole car would benefit from a machine polish.
Like many series LRs, mine was ex farm owned and the load bay was a mess. Lots of bare ali and hardly any blue paint left. I’ve never liked it. Some people will argue that the general patina is better, but I’m not in that camp.
I started out with standing it down using an electric sander then rubbing it down with wet and dry. Didn’t bother with filling any of the scrapes as my plan was to paint it and then put some matting down.
I had used the gun enough now to know that I didn’t want to spray inside the cab, so just rolled the etch primer and top coat on. Worked pretty well, but there is some blue where there isn’t meant to be any blue and thats annoying. Looks much better than before and it was much easier to do than the outside of the car. New paint also keeps the dust down too.
Fast forward several months and I put down some basic 6mm sound deadening and load mat with a defender door seal and load mat retaining strip. Finished it off quite nicely. The plan is to use better quality sound deadening on the arches and the trim with matching rubber matting. Main bulkhead will probably sound deadened and then trimmed with automotive carpet. I’m just trying to quieten the vehicle down a bit.
I started out with standing it down using an electric sander then rubbing it down with wet and dry. Didn’t bother with filling any of the scrapes as my plan was to paint it and then put some matting down.
I had used the gun enough now to know that I didn’t want to spray inside the cab, so just rolled the etch primer and top coat on. Worked pretty well, but there is some blue where there isn’t meant to be any blue and thats annoying. Looks much better than before and it was much easier to do than the outside of the car. New paint also keeps the dust down too.
Fast forward several months and I put down some basic 6mm sound deadening and load mat with a defender door seal and load mat retaining strip. Finished it off quite nicely. The plan is to use better quality sound deadening on the arches and the trim with matching rubber matting. Main bulkhead will probably sound deadened and then trimmed with automotive carpet. I’m just trying to quieten the vehicle down a bit.
I never really had any plans to paint the interior, but I was getting so frustrated with the outside of the car, I just gave it a light sand and wiped it down with panel wipe out and painted the doors and the interior with a brush. The front was simialr to the load bay. Back to bare ali places and pretty scruffy. I did use some red oxide in places and then just painted over it with top coat.
It really needed more sanding, but it looks much better than it did before.
I will eventually paint the gear sticks and the handbrake in gloss back. Dashboard also needs a clean with shoe polish.
It really needed more sanding, but it looks much better than it did before.
I will eventually paint the gear sticks and the handbrake in gloss back. Dashboard also needs a clean with shoe polish.
There was some overspray on the rear cross member, which was proving to be difficult to get off, so I bought some Buzzweld CIO (Chassis In One) and just masked up the bodywork and sprayed it straight on. Buzzweld are relatively new to chassis coatings, but it really is good stuff. Car looked immediately much cleaner.
EggsBenedict said:
Sent me off to the classifieds....
Good effort!
Is it still running the 2.25 diesel?
My old one had a 2.25 petrol and that was hideous enough - your local rice puddings won't be too scared.....
I had a disco 2 with a TD5 engine in it - that was a good engine!
Yes, mine is still running the original 2.25 diesel. Its pretty slow and only had 55bhp when new and it was mated to a gearbox that limits the car to about 60mph and the overdrive doesn't add a lot of speed. Good effort!
Is it still running the 2.25 diesel?
My old one had a 2.25 petrol and that was hideous enough - your local rice puddings won't be too scared.....
I had a disco 2 with a TD5 engine in it - that was a good engine!
The TD5 is a nice lump. My other LR is a DIscovery 3 and sometimes I wish I had bought a D2 instead. Much simpler and less things to go wrong.
Below are the photos from when I moved it from my garage to parents house. Was expecting my OH to take the boy out somewhere, but they both stayed and the little guy enjoyed being part of the land rover loading team. I like the photo of him driving it and when asked what he enjoyed about his day he said, he got to drive daddy's land rover.
This is the first time that I had seen the car in daylight.
Some of the colours are a bit off, but it still looks much better than when I bought it in 2012
Little bit of an update.
Rear door now has insulation and a new trim panel added, which cleans up the look nicely. Its just 6mm ply board which has been stained and then wrapped in vinyl (Leatherette).
The top handle is an original Land Rover item that has been sanded down, treated with red oxide and painted gloss black. Didn't want to buy a new one and I got the old one for a tenner on ebay.
I'm not that happy with centrally mounted net pocket. I looked at various options including an old Mini door pocket, but being plastic they take up valuable space and could get broken by what ever I end up carrying in there.I struggled to find two net pockets that fitted side by side, so I thought I would mimic the single net pocket that features on modern defender rear doors.
The door check stay snapped off years ago, so I have replaced it with a cheap leather belt bolted to the door trim panel and the arch. Both sides have a 50mm square 2mm steel plate acting as a large one piece washer.
Trim panel will eventually feature a fire extinguisher, 600mm breaker bar and a LED torch. Its just need some extra bits on it to make it look less plain.
Last night, I bolted up the seat belt mounts and also polished the upper and lower dash and that has made quite an improvement to look of the interior. Will eventually paint the gearstick handbrake and the pedals. The original dash was pretty filty and I recon it will need a couple of goes with the polish, but its starting to look pretty good.
Rear door now has insulation and a new trim panel added, which cleans up the look nicely. Its just 6mm ply board which has been stained and then wrapped in vinyl (Leatherette).
The top handle is an original Land Rover item that has been sanded down, treated with red oxide and painted gloss black. Didn't want to buy a new one and I got the old one for a tenner on ebay.
I'm not that happy with centrally mounted net pocket. I looked at various options including an old Mini door pocket, but being plastic they take up valuable space and could get broken by what ever I end up carrying in there.I struggled to find two net pockets that fitted side by side, so I thought I would mimic the single net pocket that features on modern defender rear doors.
The door check stay snapped off years ago, so I have replaced it with a cheap leather belt bolted to the door trim panel and the arch. Both sides have a 50mm square 2mm steel plate acting as a large one piece washer.
Trim panel will eventually feature a fire extinguisher, 600mm breaker bar and a LED torch. Its just need some extra bits on it to make it look less plain.
Last night, I bolted up the seat belt mounts and also polished the upper and lower dash and that has made quite an improvement to look of the interior. Will eventually paint the gearstick handbrake and the pedals. The original dash was pretty filty and I recon it will need a couple of goes with the polish, but its starting to look pretty good.
eggchaser1987 said:
Very nice, I miss mine so much. It was my first car I had and I learnt so much driving it.
It got used and abused when I drove it and never let me down until it failed an mot with a rotten chassis.
The obligatory picture, when I first got it and about 18 months later
That looks very nice. I've never seen those rear windows before. I've since been told that finding genuine station wagon rear panels is quite hard now and mine were in a very bad state when I collected them. Three or four layers of paint, which I spent ages sanding down. Also made the mistake of taking out the rear windows and its been difficult to get them back in. It got used and abused when I drove it and never let me down until it failed an mot with a rotten chassis.
The obligatory picture, when I first got it and about 18 months later
eggchaser1987 said:
Thanks bakerstreet, I think I can confidently say that the windows were not original and the previous owner added them in. I was lucky and didn't really have to look for any panels.
Front bumper after driving into a rock on a competition on the other hand, but I did wait a few months as I managed to straighten it almost by reversing with a tow rope around a tree and the corner of the bumper.
The bumper on mine is original and actually in quite a good state apart from small part where it has been used to pry something against it. Just ordered some silver paint in an attempt to tart it up, as now all the paintwork is done, the bumper looks pretty out of place and scruffy, so the plan is to remove my freshly stuck on number plate and camel trophy sticker, give it a light sand with some wet and dry, etch primer and them some silver paint. Front bumper after driving into a rock on a competition on the other hand, but I did wait a few months as I managed to straighten it almost by reversing with a tow rope around a tree and the corner of the bumper.
Going with autotek spray paint, as I have used it several times on other areas of the car and seems pretty good. Also got some more sound deadening to add to the arches then its rubber mats on top of that and hopefully I will be able to mats stick to the sound deadening (shiney surface)
Went to the British Motoring Museum Land Rover show at Gaydon at the weekend and this has given me a bit of encouragement.
sanded down the front bumper with a it of wet and dry and sprayed it with some autotek etch primer. Will be finished off in AutoTek alloy wheel paint hopefully this week.
Looking back at some of the photos, I really need to do something with the tub cappings. If I like the look of the alloy wheel paint that I'm using for the bumper, then I may use that on the cappings. If not, I will try some galvanised effect spray paint, but will use the same etch primer that I'm using for the bumper.
On the same night that I did the bumper, I also applied some more sound deadening to the arches. Used Silent Coat this time, which had smaller sheets than the last stuff I bought, but the Silent Coat feels much better and that is just based on me tapping the arches with my knuckle.
I'm still undecided on what material to finish the arches in. Part of me thinks I should use rubber matting to match the floor, but then I think I would like carpet. I also have a roll of carpet that I bought for something else....decisions decisions.
Going to spend a solid week working on it in the next month or to. A close friend of mine gets married in October and I would like to take it to that.
sanded down the front bumper with a it of wet and dry and sprayed it with some autotek etch primer. Will be finished off in AutoTek alloy wheel paint hopefully this week.
Looking back at some of the photos, I really need to do something with the tub cappings. If I like the look of the alloy wheel paint that I'm using for the bumper, then I may use that on the cappings. If not, I will try some galvanised effect spray paint, but will use the same etch primer that I'm using for the bumper.
On the same night that I did the bumper, I also applied some more sound deadening to the arches. Used Silent Coat this time, which had smaller sheets than the last stuff I bought, but the Silent Coat feels much better and that is just based on me tapping the arches with my knuckle.
I'm still undecided on what material to finish the arches in. Part of me thinks I should use rubber matting to match the floor, but then I think I would like carpet. I also have a roll of carpet that I bought for something else....decisions decisions.
Going to spend a solid week working on it in the next month or to. A close friend of mine gets married in October and I would like to take it to that.
Stayed overnight at my mums last night, which allowed me to spend more time working on the car.
Made a decent amount of progress. Applied a couple of top coats to the bumper. Fairly happy with the finish. Towing eyes don't match up that well, so will spray the same colour as the bumper at later date. Didn't realise how out of place they looked until I took the tape off them.
Looks much better than before.
The body and tub cappings looked pretty tired when compared to the new paint, so I masked and taped those up. Used proper blue bodywork masking tape this time and its much better than the normal beige stuff that you get from Screwfix or B&Q. More expensive though as you get less tape for the same money.
Used brown paper roll for the larger sections and old land rover mag pages for smaller sections. Always surprised by how long masking takes. Yes, you can remove those corner pieces, bet the passenger side is in a bit of a state as it was in a shunt, so I fear whats underneath it. New paint should improve the look of it.
Rubber the cappings down with 1200 and 2500 grit wet and dry, wiped down with panel wipe and add then applied two coats of autotek etch primer. To eliminate contamination issues, I used autotek alloy wheel paint. (matches the bumper) Bit too shiney for the cappings and the purists would say I dictate that I should have removed the cappings and had them re-galvanised. However, I don't have the time or the inclination to do that. Few in progress shots.
Interior cappings also had 30 years of weathering and farm use. Rubbed them down with some 2500 grit wet and dry and gave them a wipe with panel wipe.
Did think about spraying them, but masking up would have been a real pain, so decided to go a bit old school and just use some hammerite silver smooth paint. Its coming up quite well, but will need a couple of coats. Some could argue its a bit bright, but it was letting the side down when you look at it against the new blue paint.
Will post up some more pics when I have finished the interior and exterior cappings. Doing top coats on the driver side external cappings tonight as I don't want to leave the tape on for a week whilst I'm on holiday.
Gear lever and pedals have always looked a bit past it. Gave them a light sand and painted them with Whickes gloss black paint (what i had in the cupboard) Probably not the right product for the job, but they are looking much better for it. Having looked at the pedals, they would probably look better in matt, so may re-paint those.
Sorry about the poor pics. It was getting dark and I was working using a torch light, so taking photos was a little challenging.
Going to get some plastic all in one paint from buzzweld and paint the floor mats. They are covered in overspray from painting the bodywork. Should have removed them, but its a lesson learned.
Once I have finished the cappings, I'm moving onto carpeting the arches, then I shall paint the external windscreen surround. Slowly getting there, but there is argument that it may never be finished...
Made a decent amount of progress. Applied a couple of top coats to the bumper. Fairly happy with the finish. Towing eyes don't match up that well, so will spray the same colour as the bumper at later date. Didn't realise how out of place they looked until I took the tape off them.
Looks much better than before.
The body and tub cappings looked pretty tired when compared to the new paint, so I masked and taped those up. Used proper blue bodywork masking tape this time and its much better than the normal beige stuff that you get from Screwfix or B&Q. More expensive though as you get less tape for the same money.
Used brown paper roll for the larger sections and old land rover mag pages for smaller sections. Always surprised by how long masking takes. Yes, you can remove those corner pieces, bet the passenger side is in a bit of a state as it was in a shunt, so I fear whats underneath it. New paint should improve the look of it.
Rubber the cappings down with 1200 and 2500 grit wet and dry, wiped down with panel wipe and add then applied two coats of autotek etch primer. To eliminate contamination issues, I used autotek alloy wheel paint. (matches the bumper) Bit too shiney for the cappings and the purists would say I dictate that I should have removed the cappings and had them re-galvanised. However, I don't have the time or the inclination to do that. Few in progress shots.
Interior cappings also had 30 years of weathering and farm use. Rubbed them down with some 2500 grit wet and dry and gave them a wipe with panel wipe.
Did think about spraying them, but masking up would have been a real pain, so decided to go a bit old school and just use some hammerite silver smooth paint. Its coming up quite well, but will need a couple of coats. Some could argue its a bit bright, but it was letting the side down when you look at it against the new blue paint.
Will post up some more pics when I have finished the interior and exterior cappings. Doing top coats on the driver side external cappings tonight as I don't want to leave the tape on for a week whilst I'm on holiday.
Gear lever and pedals have always looked a bit past it. Gave them a light sand and painted them with Whickes gloss black paint (what i had in the cupboard) Probably not the right product for the job, but they are looking much better for it. Having looked at the pedals, they would probably look better in matt, so may re-paint those.
Sorry about the poor pics. It was getting dark and I was working using a torch light, so taking photos was a little challenging.
Going to get some plastic all in one paint from buzzweld and paint the floor mats. They are covered in overspray from painting the bodywork. Should have removed them, but its a lesson learned.
Once I have finished the cappings, I'm moving onto carpeting the arches, then I shall paint the external windscreen surround. Slowly getting there, but there is argument that it may never be finished...
Attempted trimming one of the arches in marine carpet. I was expecting it to be easier…
I was fairly happy with the carpet fit, but I made the mistake gluing the entire carpet and arch and that made it a pig to fit the carpet. Will do it bit by bit next time.
I also added double sided tape in an attempt to stop the carpet liftinng over time. That was a daft idea as I had to pull the carpet off several times before finally pushing it down and it just ruffled the tape. Won’t bother on the other arch.
Did the carpet trimming by eye and I think it could have done with about 5mm off the length, but I don’t think anyone will notice when all the seats are eventually fitted.
I have enough carpet to do the other arch, but not enough to do the bulkhead, so I may pause at that point and revisit the re-trimming in a few months
New roller shutter is being fitted to the garage in the next few weeks, so Land Rover will be moved by the end of November and that means changing the door mirrors to Defender mirrors as it really will be quite tight to get it in on the old series mirrors. Also the old series mirrors are pretty useless and you can’t really see anything out of them. Not expecting removal of the doors to be an easy task.
Once the carpet is fitted to the other arch, I shall move onto painting the windscreen frame.
Many other things to do, but I’m getting there.
I was fairly happy with the carpet fit, but I made the mistake gluing the entire carpet and arch and that made it a pig to fit the carpet. Will do it bit by bit next time.
I also added double sided tape in an attempt to stop the carpet liftinng over time. That was a daft idea as I had to pull the carpet off several times before finally pushing it down and it just ruffled the tape. Won’t bother on the other arch.
Did the carpet trimming by eye and I think it could have done with about 5mm off the length, but I don’t think anyone will notice when all the seats are eventually fitted.
I have enough carpet to do the other arch, but not enough to do the bulkhead, so I may pause at that point and revisit the re-trimming in a few months
New roller shutter is being fitted to the garage in the next few weeks, so Land Rover will be moved by the end of November and that means changing the door mirrors to Defender mirrors as it really will be quite tight to get it in on the old series mirrors. Also the old series mirrors are pretty useless and you can’t really see anything out of them. Not expecting removal of the doors to be an easy task.
Once the carpet is fitted to the other arch, I shall move onto painting the windscreen frame.
Many other things to do, but I’m getting there.
Windscreen surround is now painted. Doesn't look like a factory finish, but its much better than what it was and I used the same alloy wheel paint thats been used on the bumper and the body cappings so at least it matches other parts.
As per usual it took longer to mask everything up than it did to spray it. Rubbed it down with 800 grit wet and dry and then gave it two goats of etch followed by two coats of colour. It's come up quite well, but it the windows need a decent clean.
Drivers side load bay arch has now been trimmed with carpet and sound deadening. The fuel filler panel was quite tricky and needed a few small pieces added to fill out the gaps. Used proper high temp automotive contact adhesive and it works really well. Much better than the Screwfix no nonsense stuff I was using before.
Really pleased with the finished product. The end goal is carpet the bulkhead as well, but that can wait till another time. Lights have also been fitted, so its look quite car like now.
I also painted the dasj air vents and the drivers door mat. Not the greatest finish, but better than mat being covered in marine blue overspray.
My mum has offered to pay for a full servicec on the engine as a birthday present, but the engine is such a dog, I'd rather have a donation to brakes as they are in real need of attention and I wont have the space at the new garage to do them and drive way has too much of a slope.
Next visit will be painting the dash metal work and trying to sort the lights.
More sound deadening to be added to the under seat storage.
Going to try and start the car up so I can roll it out the garage and fit the Defender mirrors.
I have set myself a deadline of 5th of Jan so I can drive my eldest to his 4th birthday party. Still a few things to do, but I think its achievable.
As per usual it took longer to mask everything up than it did to spray it. Rubbed it down with 800 grit wet and dry and then gave it two goats of etch followed by two coats of colour. It's come up quite well, but it the windows need a decent clean.
Drivers side load bay arch has now been trimmed with carpet and sound deadening. The fuel filler panel was quite tricky and needed a few small pieces added to fill out the gaps. Used proper high temp automotive contact adhesive and it works really well. Much better than the Screwfix no nonsense stuff I was using before.
Really pleased with the finished product. The end goal is carpet the bulkhead as well, but that can wait till another time. Lights have also been fitted, so its look quite car like now.
I also painted the dasj air vents and the drivers door mat. Not the greatest finish, but better than mat being covered in marine blue overspray.
My mum has offered to pay for a full servicec on the engine as a birthday present, but the engine is such a dog, I'd rather have a donation to brakes as they are in real need of attention and I wont have the space at the new garage to do them and drive way has too much of a slope.
Next visit will be painting the dash metal work and trying to sort the lights.
More sound deadening to be added to the under seat storage.
Going to try and start the car up so I can roll it out the garage and fit the Defender mirrors.
I have set myself a deadline of 5th of Jan so I can drive my eldest to his 4th birthday party. Still a few things to do, but I think its achievable.
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