My brief car history, and my Range Rover 4.6
Discussion
Evening. I'm new to Pistonheads, so hello! I've been reading pistonheads in my lunch breaks for ages, there's a really
nice range of machinery and projects going on to keep my beady little eyes happy, far more interesting than the range off
oddball and british tat I've had over the years....however I'm sat waiting on a delivery at work so I'm going to reel them
off anyway lol.
When I passed my test I looked for a "first car" for ages. My old man had bought a 1.0 Corsa so he could insure me on it,
but there's no substitute for your own car when you're desperate to start fiddling. I browsed the trader determined not to
get a clio/nova/corsa/saxo and told my old man I was off to look at a Rover 214, landing back a few hours later with an
empty wallet and this:
I had that for about 8 months, and spent nothing on it apart from petrol, it was a pretty bobby basic XJ6 3.2, even had
steel wheels, but it had leather, and loads of toys, electric seats, sunroof. Plus I was 18, and it was awesome.
8 months down the line my grandfather died. I didn't know him well, well enough to know he'd had some truly hideous cars
(mostly bad capri's) over the years, but about 2 months before he died, he bought a Daimler. I had to have it, and so I
bought it without thinking.
It's still I think the best car I've had. It was sublime to drive, and dripping with options. However, I wasn't earning
Daimler money, and at 19, I was also paying £265 a month for the privilege of insuring it, not to mention actually running
the ultra economical 4.0 V8. I had it 6 months, and then had to part with it. I got a really good deal, and so I paid off
what I owed on it and bought something cheap and different. Another itch I had to scratch though..
Enter my first Range Rover Classic. I've always loved the look of the Classic, and it's still one of my favourite looking
cars. This was a 3.9 Vogue Automatic. I bought it with a "new" MOT, and upon further inspection, a considerable lack of
inner sills. By now I was fairly spanner happy, and taught myself to weld, sorting the sills for it's next MOT. It was
however, truly horrendous on fuel, and I missed my Jag, so I jumped at a low mileage late 80's Daimler I spied for sale in
Birmingham. Unfortunately, this was one of those "spied in the morning, got a train down and bought it that evening in the
dark" buys. It turned out to be full of holes, and a bit of a mess.
I was bored thougg, and wanted to learn some new skills I suppose, so I pulled it to bits in my old man's garage:
I had 2 sills made as they were no longer available, Keith Parrington from XJ Restorations made them and shipped them to me.
I also patched the floor, changed the rectangular lights to quad lights, and added some Daimler Six wheels from a newer
car. It passed its MOT first time, and looked like this when I was done:
But...... when I'd finished it I was bored, and I missed my Range Rover. So I swapped the Daimler for this:
This was a 3.9 Vogue, but a rarer manual. I removed all of the exhaust silencers, added a 12" cherry bomb and hooned about
for a few months. The problem with having a manual and a very throaty exhaust, was that I got even worse economy.
Inevitably moving out and other stupid growing up things got in the way of it, so I sold it and decided to get a bit
sensible, and stop bouncing between Jags and Range Rovers.
The obvious choice then was a 1991 Toyota Supra Turbo. So I bought one of a mate. It didn't have an MOT, and it
overheated. Perfect then.
It cleaned up really nice, and was great fun, but it really wasn't me, so I sold it. But not before the wheel fell off.
My next car was a lager induced "I've always fancied one of those in a odd way, I'll lob a cheeky bid in" late night buy.
As you always nearly do, I won it, and ended up driving from Northumberland to Cardiff for a £255 Volvo 740 Estate. As you
do. I had a bit of a laugh with it, I painted the wheels and bonnet black, fitted a push button start, stuck some daft
stickers on it and bombed about for a bit.
Then I sold it for £300, can't really complain.
Next I really did go sensible, and I bought a stupidly clean 1995 Peugeot 106 1.0 to commute and hoon about in.
However, that left me with an empty space in the carport, and plenty of pennies as I was getting silly mpg's from the
pug....
Doh.
I bought this 1997 Jaguar XJ Executive, and lobbed some Daimler Super V8 alloys on it. I had that for about 8 months, and
then sold it for £250 more than I paid for it.
That pretty much brings me up to my present chariot of choice. I'll make a second post for that, bear with me.
nice range of machinery and projects going on to keep my beady little eyes happy, far more interesting than the range off
oddball and british tat I've had over the years....however I'm sat waiting on a delivery at work so I'm going to reel them
off anyway lol.
When I passed my test I looked for a "first car" for ages. My old man had bought a 1.0 Corsa so he could insure me on it,
but there's no substitute for your own car when you're desperate to start fiddling. I browsed the trader determined not to
get a clio/nova/corsa/saxo and told my old man I was off to look at a Rover 214, landing back a few hours later with an
empty wallet and this:
I had that for about 8 months, and spent nothing on it apart from petrol, it was a pretty bobby basic XJ6 3.2, even had
steel wheels, but it had leather, and loads of toys, electric seats, sunroof. Plus I was 18, and it was awesome.
8 months down the line my grandfather died. I didn't know him well, well enough to know he'd had some truly hideous cars
(mostly bad capri's) over the years, but about 2 months before he died, he bought a Daimler. I had to have it, and so I
bought it without thinking.
It's still I think the best car I've had. It was sublime to drive, and dripping with options. However, I wasn't earning
Daimler money, and at 19, I was also paying £265 a month for the privilege of insuring it, not to mention actually running
the ultra economical 4.0 V8. I had it 6 months, and then had to part with it. I got a really good deal, and so I paid off
what I owed on it and bought something cheap and different. Another itch I had to scratch though..
Enter my first Range Rover Classic. I've always loved the look of the Classic, and it's still one of my favourite looking
cars. This was a 3.9 Vogue Automatic. I bought it with a "new" MOT, and upon further inspection, a considerable lack of
inner sills. By now I was fairly spanner happy, and taught myself to weld, sorting the sills for it's next MOT. It was
however, truly horrendous on fuel, and I missed my Jag, so I jumped at a low mileage late 80's Daimler I spied for sale in
Birmingham. Unfortunately, this was one of those "spied in the morning, got a train down and bought it that evening in the
dark" buys. It turned out to be full of holes, and a bit of a mess.
I was bored thougg, and wanted to learn some new skills I suppose, so I pulled it to bits in my old man's garage:
I had 2 sills made as they were no longer available, Keith Parrington from XJ Restorations made them and shipped them to me.
I also patched the floor, changed the rectangular lights to quad lights, and added some Daimler Six wheels from a newer
car. It passed its MOT first time, and looked like this when I was done:
But...... when I'd finished it I was bored, and I missed my Range Rover. So I swapped the Daimler for this:
This was a 3.9 Vogue, but a rarer manual. I removed all of the exhaust silencers, added a 12" cherry bomb and hooned about
for a few months. The problem with having a manual and a very throaty exhaust, was that I got even worse economy.
Inevitably moving out and other stupid growing up things got in the way of it, so I sold it and decided to get a bit
sensible, and stop bouncing between Jags and Range Rovers.
The obvious choice then was a 1991 Toyota Supra Turbo. So I bought one of a mate. It didn't have an MOT, and it
overheated. Perfect then.
It cleaned up really nice, and was great fun, but it really wasn't me, so I sold it. But not before the wheel fell off.
My next car was a lager induced "I've always fancied one of those in a odd way, I'll lob a cheeky bid in" late night buy.
As you always nearly do, I won it, and ended up driving from Northumberland to Cardiff for a £255 Volvo 740 Estate. As you
do. I had a bit of a laugh with it, I painted the wheels and bonnet black, fitted a push button start, stuck some daft
stickers on it and bombed about for a bit.
Then I sold it for £300, can't really complain.
Next I really did go sensible, and I bought a stupidly clean 1995 Peugeot 106 1.0 to commute and hoon about in.
However, that left me with an empty space in the carport, and plenty of pennies as I was getting silly mpg's from the
pug....
Doh.
I bought this 1997 Jaguar XJ Executive, and lobbed some Daimler Super V8 alloys on it. I had that for about 8 months, and
then sold it for £250 more than I paid for it.
That pretty much brings me up to my present chariot of choice. I'll make a second post for that, bear with me.
So, my Range Rover. I'm a bit of a Range Rover fan anyway, and I always had a bit of a P38 scratch. I'm very clued up about all the problems, roughly:
Weak Blocks / Slipping Liners
HEVAC systems
Electrics generally
BECM Problems
Economy
Air Suspension
etc
So I bought one. Best not to be bored anyway, if it breaks it breaks. I looked for a good while, and bought what (touch wood) has been a brilliant example.
Toys wise, it's a 4.6 HSE, nicely specified, and came with these options:
Full Lightstone Leather interior, with black piping.
Heated Front Seats
Electric seats inc headrests
Sports mode gearbox *chortle*
Cruise Control
Harman Kardon 12 Speaker Surround Sound with 2 subwoofers and 5 amps and a 6 Disc Changer
Electric Mirrors
Electric Windows
Tilt and Reach Steering wheel
Multi-function steering wheel
Electric Sunroof
Air Conditioning
Dual Zone Climate Control with the LCD control screen.
Side Steps
18" Mondial Alloys with Pirelli Scorpions
2001 Light Upgrade kit to clear lenses
Towbar
Heated Front Screen
Heated Rear Screen
Memory Seats
Remote Central locking and alarm
Privacy Tints
The only thing that let it down were the alloys, which were pretty badly corroded:
So I had them all powdercoated:
A few pictures of the car itself:
This car has also had a replacement engine fitted at a Land Rover dealer 30K ago with a reciept to prove (ouch), so no nasty liner problems, and it also has a BRC Sequential Injection LPG system fitted, which goes a little way to improving the truly horrifying fuel economy.
Since then, I've added some 8mm High Performance HT Leads, LED sidelight and numberplate bulbs (not DRL's!) and I've just started upgrading the brakes, with some EBC Turbo front discs, and EBC Green Stuff Heavy Duty 4x4 pads. I'll stick some pictures up of those tomorrow maybe.
Weak Blocks / Slipping Liners
HEVAC systems
Electrics generally
BECM Problems
Economy
Air Suspension
etc
So I bought one. Best not to be bored anyway, if it breaks it breaks. I looked for a good while, and bought what (touch wood) has been a brilliant example.
Toys wise, it's a 4.6 HSE, nicely specified, and came with these options:
Full Lightstone Leather interior, with black piping.
Heated Front Seats
Electric seats inc headrests
Sports mode gearbox *chortle*
Cruise Control
Harman Kardon 12 Speaker Surround Sound with 2 subwoofers and 5 amps and a 6 Disc Changer
Electric Mirrors
Electric Windows
Tilt and Reach Steering wheel
Multi-function steering wheel
Electric Sunroof
Air Conditioning
Dual Zone Climate Control with the LCD control screen.
Side Steps
18" Mondial Alloys with Pirelli Scorpions
2001 Light Upgrade kit to clear lenses
Towbar
Heated Front Screen
Heated Rear Screen
Memory Seats
Remote Central locking and alarm
Privacy Tints
The only thing that let it down were the alloys, which were pretty badly corroded:
So I had them all powdercoated:
A few pictures of the car itself:
This car has also had a replacement engine fitted at a Land Rover dealer 30K ago with a reciept to prove (ouch), so no nasty liner problems, and it also has a BRC Sequential Injection LPG system fitted, which goes a little way to improving the truly horrifying fuel economy.
Since then, I've added some 8mm High Performance HT Leads, LED sidelight and numberplate bulbs (not DRL's!) and I've just started upgrading the brakes, with some EBC Turbo front discs, and EBC Green Stuff Heavy Duty 4x4 pads. I'll stick some pictures up of those tomorrow maybe.
strangehighways said:
Your taste is just superb. I am sure many (a few) young people say "Oh I'd love to Lord it around in a Jag" but you actually did, a few times! It is really refreshing to see people in cars that break the stereotypes.
Those Jag interiors look incredible. I much prefer them to the techy/cold types nowadays.
You're too kind Those Jag interiors look incredible. I much prefer them to the techy/cold types nowadays.
I know exactly what you mean about the interiors. To be honest, that's what attracts me to the cars I tend to buy really. You spend most of your time inside the car, it should be a nice place to be. For me, that's in a big fat leather armchair, with lashings of walnut and nice dials. I like to be comfortable. I like speed, but not at the cost of comfort. I really really fancy a Daimler Super V8, the same shape as my Daimler V8. They're getting cheaper as well....
Thanks for all your replies :-)
In nearly all the photo's of the Range Rover, it's sat right down in "Access" mode as mentioned above. The air suspension is great I find, the springs look easy to replace, I was fortunate in that all of mine were replaced before I bought the car, along with the compressor.
Few video's: one of my cherry bombed Range Rover Classic and one of my current P38 4.6
I'll lob a few other photo's up today.
In nearly all the photo's of the Range Rover, it's sat right down in "Access" mode as mentioned above. The air suspension is great I find, the springs look easy to replace, I was fortunate in that all of mine were replaced before I bought the car, along with the compressor.
Few video's: one of my cherry bombed Range Rover Classic and one of my current P38 4.6
I'll lob a few other photo's up today.
ambuletz said:
...lapping it in luxury in a car that cost less then everyone else to buy
You've sort of hit the nail on the head for my reasons there. The most I've ever spent on a car was £8,000. That was for the Daimler V8 I had. It was still about £1,000 less than a new Corsa at the time, it was 8 years old and with the options it had, would have been an eye-watering £96,000 new. To my mind that's a hell of a bargain. It was quick, but obviously it was a cruiser and not a B-Road thrasher. That said, it had stupid amounts of toys which I would never have got on a corsa or new car I could afford. Off the top of my head the Daimler had electric memory seats, mirrors and steering column, heated seats, lambswool rugs, electric sunroof, cruise control, dual climate, heated screens, a fantastic sound system, steering wheel controls, PAS, sports mode auto box, auto dimming mirrors, you could open the boot and turn the lights on from the key, it was like a spaceship to me lol.I still fancy another one, it's the last really elegant XJ to me. I love how low the profile of the car was, they just look stunning. The later XJ looked very large and "american" to me, and the new one just isn't really an XJ. The company has to move forward and be profitable, and the target market for gentlemans club spec interiors has clearly disappeared, but it just doesn't look like an XJ at all to me.
I've had a soft spot for Jag's just because they're British, it's plenty of car for what I want, and to me they're obscene value for money. The dark green XJ I had in the above photo's, that I added the Daimler Super V8 alloys to, I bought with a years MOT and 6 months tax from a garage for less than £1,000. Ridiculous.
How about that?! Yeah I bought it from a guy called Leigh in leicester, absolutely lovely fella, I still keep in touch with him now. The original registration for the car is R293 YLE, he had it on a private plate L60 GHC when I bought it. The LPG kit was fitted for £2,250.
Is this your old car then? Do you have any other photographs of it mate?
Is this your old car then? Do you have any other photographs of it mate?
Spoof said:
Plate now uncensored.
Yup. I was at Uni with Leigh many moons ago. The car originally belonged to my in-laws who basically don't have much car knowledge, but have more money than sense, so it was extremely well looked after mechanically.
I'll see if I've any more pictures, good to see it's gone to someone who's enjoying/looking after it.
Fantastic :-) Yeah the bills for work are pretty impressive, it's definitely not wanted for anything. It had a pretty serious number plate on it back then as well from the paperwork, EGS 3 or something. Yup. I was at Uni with Leigh many moons ago. The car originally belonged to my in-laws who basically don't have much car knowledge, but have more money than sense, so it was extremely well looked after mechanically.
I'll see if I've any more pictures, good to see it's gone to someone who's enjoying/looking after it.
Thanks for the input, it's always interesting to find out about your cars past! I've got Leigh on my facebook, I don't think I've ever felt like I've bought a car from a more honest and decent fella. I drove down on a sunday morning with a mate of mine, he had already snowfoamed and waxed the car when I got there, it was bang on as described, he made us a brew, snowfoamed my little pug we'd driven down in, and filled the LPG tank for my drive home, truly a gent.
I got this photo of it recently lol:
I've always kind of fancied a photo like that lol, but still gutted, I've got a completely clean licence and try hard to keep it that way. Luckily I got offered the speed awareness course and missed out on acquiring the 3 points. At least it was clean for the photo lol.
Spoof said:
The plate was EG5, think my brother in law has that on his Lexus now.
Did you get to see the Ducati and the Westfield? Leigh has some pretty cool toys
I got to see the Westfield, he's got some nice toys indeed! Did you get to see the Ducati and the Westfield? Leigh has some pretty cool toys
Just spied your comment about the arch extensions before, couldn't agree more. I hardly see any with them fitted, but I think it transforms the look of the car. With the side steps as well, it looks far more muscular I think, normal P38's without them look really skinny in comparison.
had ham said:
Great write up fella, and some great cars there - what a great way to start your driving career!
BTW we share much the same taste Whilst I've been fortunate to drive some great cars over the years (maxing out at a Gallardo for a wee while), my favourite time was when working for FoMoCo and I got to choose 2 company cars from the (then) Ford family - had 11 XJs of 3.2/4/4SC types for me and everyone was superb, and Mrs HH typically had an LR/RR. Absolutely fabulous cars, every single one!
On a separate note, you're not a resident of Rothbury/Alnwick or environs are you
? One of the picccies looks like it could have been taken in Alnwick...
I am indeed fella, my folks now live up Whittingham way so I'm through Alnwick fairly often, and I've lived in and around Rothbury since I was about 9. You from the area? Sounds like you've had some lovely motors mate, I've always fancied a shot of a supercharged Jag, I've been lucky enough to drive some pretty varied machinery but I've never had the pleasure of a supercharged V8 yet.BTW we share much the same taste
Whilst I've been fortunate to drive some great cars over the years (maxing out at a Gallardo for a wee while), my favourite time was when working for FoMoCo and I got to choose 2 company cars from the (then) Ford family - had 11 XJs of 3.2/4/4SC types for me and everyone was superb, and Mrs HH typically had an LR/RR. Absolutely fabulous cars, every single one!On a separate note, you're not a resident of Rothbury/Alnwick or environs are you
? One of the picccies looks like it could have been taken in Alnwick...I'm going to have to sift through the photo's now and look for the Alnwick-esque one!
had ham said:
Thought so 
. Looking at it again, I think the photos of the last XJ were taken in Rothbury and that it was me that was getting confused - the signs in the background to the camping and Cragside give it away I think - perhaps taken down the bottom of the village beside the newsagents?
Alas, we're living down South now in rural Herts, but my mam and dad have lived in Rothbury for many years, at the top of the village on the valley shoulder with their garden heading down to the river... so we're often up that way.
I'll look out for you the next time we're up - if I'm in the IS-F you'ld be more than welcome to a quick test drive if you're interested - although we normally travel in Mrs HH's 4x4 or fly and pick up a Volvo XC70 at Ncle airport
That's bang on with the Jaguar shots. Our office used to be on the main street just there, along from the Queen's head pub. I wonder if I know your folks, I lived on hillside with my Mrs for some time. (I'm guessing you mean the North side of the village, turning right as you leave the village and heading up the bank) That's a very kind offer, if you're up this way I'd definitely take you up on at least a passenger ride, I've only seen a few IS-F's, but they sound sublime!. Looking at it again, I think the photos of the last XJ were taken in Rothbury and that it was me that was getting confused - the signs in the background to the camping and Cragside give it away I think - perhaps taken down the bottom of the village beside the newsagents?Alas, we're living down South now in rural Herts, but my mam and dad have lived in Rothbury for many years, at the top of the village on the valley shoulder with their garden heading down to the river... so we're often up that way.
I'll look out for you the next time we're up - if I'm in the IS-F you'ld be more than welcome to a quick test drive if you're interested - although we normally travel in Mrs HH's 4x4 or fly and pick up a Volvo XC70 at Ncle airport
had ham said:
No problem !
They live on the left of the main road (well, down a little alley off the main road) almost as you reach the end of the village at the top of the hill as you head out towards Thropton. Beside what used to be the hospital, their house sits on the shoulder and the garden goes right down to the river bank.
It's lovely there, have sat in their conservatory looking out across the valley/golf club/new hospital and gotten very
a few times. My kids love it, I love it, my wife loves it. Fabulous people also. If it weren't for the job, I'd be back there in a flash (or Corbridge - another old haunt of mine)...
I'm sure you would recognise, if not know, my mam and dad, they do stuff in the village a fair bit. My mam was just behind the wonderful little lady (Cynthia???) who got covered in snow that fell off the awning in the now famous BBC news clip from earlier in the year!
Anyway, sorry for the digresion!
No problem :-) I know where you mean, the views will be lovely. Thanks for all the replies, it's re-stoked my enthusiasm. Over the past week I've been having problems with a local chap damaging my car. Started off with my wing mirrors getting knocked in, until last week when it smashed the glass in the drivers door. I sat and waited for him in the car last sunday night and caught the guy red handed doing it again, so I've reported him to the police now. Sadly he didn't actually damage the car when I caught him, just knocked the mirrors in. !They live on the left of the main road (well, down a little alley off the main road) almost as you reach the end of the village at the top of the hill as you head out towards Thropton. Beside what used to be the hospital, their house sits on the shoulder and the garden goes right down to the river bank.
It's lovely there, have sat in their conservatory looking out across the valley/golf club/new hospital and gotten very
a few times. My kids love it, I love it, my wife loves it. Fabulous people also. If it weren't for the job, I'd be back there in a flash (or Corbridge - another old haunt of mine)...I'm sure you would recognise, if not know, my mam and dad, they do stuff in the village a fair bit. My mam was just behind the wonderful little lady (Cynthia???) who got covered in snow that fell off the awning in the now famous BBC news clip from earlier in the year!
Anyway, sorry for the digresion!
Miraculously, the day after I reported him to the police I woke up to find my bonnet dented and keyed on the drivers corner
I suspect there's not really anything the police can do, and I'm hoping it just passes over now he's had a caution, I guess next step is infra-red camera's if he persists.
Anyway, I'll get it sorted soonish and it'll be back to pristine. I'm looking into getting it machine polished shortly to get rid of a few swirls in the paintwork.
wackojacko said:
Curious to know how the EBC's are fairing so far ?
Jacko
Personally, I find them brilliant. They're easily as good as the standard brakes doubled. They have far more bite, don't seem to fade, and the pedal is a lot stronger. I think the discs may be slightly larger than the stock ones width wise as the clearance between the caliper and wheel has reduced from about 9-10mm to 1mm. I actually had to fire the car up and stand on the brakes to get the caliper contracted enough to refit the wheel. No rubbing issues at all since though. Jacko
That's fantastic Kamil, best of luck with your car. XJ40's are good fun to work on, I really enjoyed mine. Keith Parrington of XJ Restorations is a good guy to contact if you need any parts or advice, his dad used to break them and supplied me with all kinds.
Update on the Range Rover, it's dead lol. I think it's split a head gasket between the cylinder and air, so I need to sort some time to pull it apart and see. In the meantime.... I decided it was time to tackle a few odd jobs that bug me. The ones that don't affect the functionality of the car so you never get round to :lol:
My sunroof slide panel has been screwed since I got the car, the trim material has all come away and scrunched up inside the sunroof so it'll only pull half way forwards and it looks really tatty and drops old dried glue dust everywhere. Despite advice to the contrary from a few forums, I can now say it's impossible to remove that panel without pulling the sunroof out.
Good news is it's a doddle to do.
I started removing the pillar trims, these are easy to do, they just have pull clips on them, a firm pull away should see them all come loose:
You need to remove the top mounting bolts for the seat belts to pull the trims clean away, I guess you could let them hang loose but it's easier to take them off imo. Then I removed the interior light, this should just pull down, and has a connection to undo for the light. Don't pull the loom to much as the wiring for the rear view mirror is spliced from it and it hasn't got much give.
The sun visors are easy to remove, 3 philips screws in each one:
And the visor clips are located by a screw that presses a clip apart, they should just pull free after you've removed the screw:
The Interior Grab handles have covers over the screws that flick off with a knife if you're careful. Then just unscrew them, and pull down and away to release them from the clips:
The rear interior lights are screwed into place, you need to lever the lense off with a knife, and then undo the screws and pull them away. There is a connection for the lights to undo behind them:
The alarm sensors just pop out with a pull:
The sunroof trim just pulls off:
At which point the headlining is only held in by the door seals, and 2 trim screws in the rear D pillars:
I found it easiest to remove the door seals at the front working back, and lower the headlining onto the headrests, undoing the trim screws at the back last. It should then just pull out from the back of the car, you need to be careful as it has to bend slightly to pull free, but it's a pretty tough headlining, the upperside is fibreglassed to give it strength. That should leave you with this:
and this:
You can see here the sunroof panel trim is shot.
Removing the sunroof is fairly straightforward. First off I opened it upwards to make it easier to maneouver out, this turned out to be a necessity later to across some crossbar screws, so do it. Then there are 8 bolts holding the assembly to the roof. Undo the two bolts at the motor bracket first, as the bracket is flimsy, and will just bend if the weight of the sunroof is resting on it as you undo it:
The sunroof drain tubes also need to be popped off, slide the cable ties away, and then slide the drain tubes off and out the way:
You need two people at least to lower the sunroof assembly out, as it's heavy and you can't position yourself in the car with access to all 6 bolts left to remove it. I got Tom to hold it while I undid the last 6 bolts, 1 in each corner and 2 in the middle, and then it just drops out, hopefully not literally:
Typically at this point it started to rain so I lashed the cover back on the car to stop it filling with water and took the sunroof assembly indoors to remove the trim panel:
You need to remove the crossbar below, there are 2 screws in each side:
and then remove all 4 of these small spring clips that press the panel onto the rails:
After that, you can push the panel to one side and lift it out of the runners, ready for re-trimming. I didn't get out for material at the weekend so that's stored ready to be done and I've just bolted the sunroof back in to the car for now until it's done.
More progress over the weekend on the head gasket side of things, another post for that though while the pictures upload :lol:
Update on the Range Rover, it's dead lol. I think it's split a head gasket between the cylinder and air, so I need to sort some time to pull it apart and see. In the meantime.... I decided it was time to tackle a few odd jobs that bug me. The ones that don't affect the functionality of the car so you never get round to :lol:
My sunroof slide panel has been screwed since I got the car, the trim material has all come away and scrunched up inside the sunroof so it'll only pull half way forwards and it looks really tatty and drops old dried glue dust everywhere. Despite advice to the contrary from a few forums, I can now say it's impossible to remove that panel without pulling the sunroof out.
Good news is it's a doddle to do.
I started removing the pillar trims, these are easy to do, they just have pull clips on them, a firm pull away should see them all come loose:
You need to remove the top mounting bolts for the seat belts to pull the trims clean away, I guess you could let them hang loose but it's easier to take them off imo. Then I removed the interior light, this should just pull down, and has a connection to undo for the light. Don't pull the loom to much as the wiring for the rear view mirror is spliced from it and it hasn't got much give.
The sun visors are easy to remove, 3 philips screws in each one:
And the visor clips are located by a screw that presses a clip apart, they should just pull free after you've removed the screw:
The Interior Grab handles have covers over the screws that flick off with a knife if you're careful. Then just unscrew them, and pull down and away to release them from the clips:
The rear interior lights are screwed into place, you need to lever the lense off with a knife, and then undo the screws and pull them away. There is a connection for the lights to undo behind them:
The alarm sensors just pop out with a pull:
The sunroof trim just pulls off:
At which point the headlining is only held in by the door seals, and 2 trim screws in the rear D pillars:
I found it easiest to remove the door seals at the front working back, and lower the headlining onto the headrests, undoing the trim screws at the back last. It should then just pull out from the back of the car, you need to be careful as it has to bend slightly to pull free, but it's a pretty tough headlining, the upperside is fibreglassed to give it strength. That should leave you with this:
and this:
You can see here the sunroof panel trim is shot.
Removing the sunroof is fairly straightforward. First off I opened it upwards to make it easier to maneouver out, this turned out to be a necessity later to across some crossbar screws, so do it. Then there are 8 bolts holding the assembly to the roof. Undo the two bolts at the motor bracket first, as the bracket is flimsy, and will just bend if the weight of the sunroof is resting on it as you undo it:
The sunroof drain tubes also need to be popped off, slide the cable ties away, and then slide the drain tubes off and out the way:
You need two people at least to lower the sunroof assembly out, as it's heavy and you can't position yourself in the car with access to all 6 bolts left to remove it. I got Tom to hold it while I undid the last 6 bolts, 1 in each corner and 2 in the middle, and then it just drops out, hopefully not literally:
Typically at this point it started to rain so I lashed the cover back on the car to stop it filling with water and took the sunroof assembly indoors to remove the trim panel:
You need to remove the crossbar below, there are 2 screws in each side:
and then remove all 4 of these small spring clips that press the panel onto the rails:
After that, you can push the panel to one side and lift it out of the runners, ready for re-trimming. I didn't get out for material at the weekend so that's stored ready to be done and I've just bolted the sunroof back in to the car for now until it's done.
More progress over the weekend on the head gasket side of things, another post for that though while the pictures upload :lol:
Onto the head gasket then, first off get your tools handy:
I started off removing the MAF, air recirc gubbins and intake hosing to the throttle body:
My car has a sequential injection LPG system fitted, so the next thing I needed to do was disconnect the LPG feed to the injectors, I have 2 banks of 4:
Then I unplugged the harness for the fuel injection system to give a bit more freedom in moving the wiring about:
Also the water temp sensor on the thermostat housing:
And after disconnection the throttle and cruise cables and unbolting the transmission dipstick, I undid the 6 bolts holding the plenum onto the intake manifold, and removed this. It's not necessary to remove this to remove the intake manifold, but it makes life far easier, and I'm nosey.
Time to drain the coolant system now if you haven't already, there's a handy drain plug in the bottom of the radiator:
Then it's a case of starting to get access and unbolt the inlet manifold, the wiring looks a bit of a mare but it's fairly simple, there are 10 bolts holding the inlet manifold down, 8 are easy to get to, the far front and back are more of a mare:
To get at the rear two, you need to unbolt and remove the coilpacks, and disconnect the fuel supply lines, as below:
The only real snag of the day, during this process I had to move my LPG injector hosing out of the way, and one has snapped, so I'll need to drill it out and get a new hose, gah.
With that done you can unbolt the coilpacks at the other side as well before removing and getting access to the rear 2 inlet manifold bolts:
The front two, to access these you need to remove the alternator and air con and powersteering pumps. Undo the serpentine belt tensioner, and release the belt, then the alternator just pulls out, and I decided it was easiest to just unbolt the bracket holding the air con and power steering pumps and set them down in the engine bay out the way, least hassle.
The inlet manifold should then lift off after you remove the last 2 bolts.
The inlet manifold gasket will still be present in the valley, I just removed it for a look at the cam, which thankfully appears to be in great order. I wanted to visually inspect it for scoring as the cams can wear causing poor running and performance. Although mine is a replacement engine and has very low mileage, I wanted to check anyway.
Next it's time to unbolt the exhaust manifold, the heatshield is a bit of a mission to remove, and I think I may choose to heatwrap the manifolds instead when I refit, my experience of Rover V8's is that they can eat exhaust manifold gaskets quickly, and it's a 2 hour job for both sides with the heatshields in place, or 15/20 minutes without them.
Next I removed the rocker cover, and unbolted the rocker assembly. Undo the bolts in sequence to even the load as you remove it:
Next I unbolted the 10 head bolts in sequence, and pulled the head. It's clear straight away that the gasket has cracked / disintegrated around Cylinder 3:
Ouch:
Ran out of time to pull the other side, so I packed the bores with cloths and covered everything up till I can spend some more time on it:
Going to try and sort time to pull the other side tonight :-)
I started off removing the MAF, air recirc gubbins and intake hosing to the throttle body:
My car has a sequential injection LPG system fitted, so the next thing I needed to do was disconnect the LPG feed to the injectors, I have 2 banks of 4:
Then I unplugged the harness for the fuel injection system to give a bit more freedom in moving the wiring about:
Also the water temp sensor on the thermostat housing:
And after disconnection the throttle and cruise cables and unbolting the transmission dipstick, I undid the 6 bolts holding the plenum onto the intake manifold, and removed this. It's not necessary to remove this to remove the intake manifold, but it makes life far easier, and I'm nosey.
Time to drain the coolant system now if you haven't already, there's a handy drain plug in the bottom of the radiator:
Then it's a case of starting to get access and unbolt the inlet manifold, the wiring looks a bit of a mare but it's fairly simple, there are 10 bolts holding the inlet manifold down, 8 are easy to get to, the far front and back are more of a mare:
To get at the rear two, you need to unbolt and remove the coilpacks, and disconnect the fuel supply lines, as below:
The only real snag of the day, during this process I had to move my LPG injector hosing out of the way, and one has snapped, so I'll need to drill it out and get a new hose, gah.
With that done you can unbolt the coilpacks at the other side as well before removing and getting access to the rear 2 inlet manifold bolts:
The front two, to access these you need to remove the alternator and air con and powersteering pumps. Undo the serpentine belt tensioner, and release the belt, then the alternator just pulls out, and I decided it was easiest to just unbolt the bracket holding the air con and power steering pumps and set them down in the engine bay out the way, least hassle.
The inlet manifold should then lift off after you remove the last 2 bolts.
The inlet manifold gasket will still be present in the valley, I just removed it for a look at the cam, which thankfully appears to be in great order. I wanted to visually inspect it for scoring as the cams can wear causing poor running and performance. Although mine is a replacement engine and has very low mileage, I wanted to check anyway.
Next it's time to unbolt the exhaust manifold, the heatshield is a bit of a mission to remove, and I think I may choose to heatwrap the manifolds instead when I refit, my experience of Rover V8's is that they can eat exhaust manifold gaskets quickly, and it's a 2 hour job for both sides with the heatshields in place, or 15/20 minutes without them.
Next I removed the rocker cover, and unbolted the rocker assembly. Undo the bolts in sequence to even the load as you remove it:
Next I unbolted the 10 head bolts in sequence, and pulled the head. It's clear straight away that the gasket has cracked / disintegrated around Cylinder 3:
Ouch:
Ran out of time to pull the other side, so I packed the bores with cloths and covered everything up till I can spend some more time on it:
Going to try and sort time to pull the other side tonight :-)
Holy update batman! It's fixed :-)
So, from where I left off then, I continued stripping down the drivers side bank, and removed the Cylinder head. Anyone who's done one of these on a P38
will know what a mission it is getting the lower exhaust manifold bolt out from Cylinder 8. It's difficult enough to get access anyway, but with the
steering column in the way so you can't get a ratchet in cleanly, and the manifold preventing easily getting a knuckle in, it's a right mission, never mind
with all the gas gubbins there. I reckon it took me about 2 hours to get that bolt out, and 10 minutes for the others :lol:
one stripped block:
I started cleaning the decks of the block up ready for new gaskets:
And while I was on thought I might have a bit of a basic tidy up. So, I started cleaning down the cylinder heads:
Then painted them and lacquered them with high temperature engine paint and lacquer:
You can see the old plugs in there still, I left them in during painting to keep the plug holes safe and masked off.
I also decided that during the strip down process, and having had classic's before that eat exhaust manifold gaskets regularly, there was no way in hell
the standard heatshields were going back on, they're a nightmare to fit and refit and just hold the job up. So I set about tidying up the manifolds for
refit, and ordered some heatwrap to use in place of the heat shields.
Manifold after tidy up:
Then I set about wrapping them with the heatwrap:
Thanks to a postal cock up I only ended up with enough heatwrap to do one and half manifolds, so I wrapped the drivers side bank as it's under the gas kit,
and hardest to remove, and I'm waiting on more for the passengers side, which is pretty easy to remove and wrap at a later date.
Carrying on with a basic tidy up, I started cleaning up the plenum chamber as well, as it was pretty mucky and corroded:
Looking a bit better:
Next up were the rocker covers, which were really tatty.
I nitro morsed them down, and removed all the old paint and crud:
That left me with these, which already looked better:
A few coats of primer lashed on:
And some crinkle effect red high temperature paint tidied them up nicely:
Next I started to re-assemble the engine, bolting the heads back to the block with new stretch bolts and composite gaskets.
Test fitted the rocker covers:
Then I refitted the passenger side cylinder head and rocker cover:
Then it was pretty much just a case of refitting connectors and bolting everything back up. I fitted a new inlet manifold gasket, as well as new rocker
cover gaskets, stainless inlet manifold and rocker cover bolts, and fully serviced the car, fitting the correct NGK plugs, and doing an oil flush before
fitting new oil and fuel filters, and firing it up. Fired up a treat first time, chuffed was I :-)
Shamefully, I've just realised I've not actually got a picture of the completed engine bay, I'll grab one later on. It's looking a bit better anyway. The
car is completely transformed, I suspect the head gasket has been slightly blowing since I bought the car, as it's far smoother and quieter now than it's
ever been. The idle is back to perfect as well, whereas before I was having problems with random high idle issues.
So, from where I left off then, I continued stripping down the drivers side bank, and removed the Cylinder head. Anyone who's done one of these on a P38
will know what a mission it is getting the lower exhaust manifold bolt out from Cylinder 8. It's difficult enough to get access anyway, but with the
steering column in the way so you can't get a ratchet in cleanly, and the manifold preventing easily getting a knuckle in, it's a right mission, never mind
with all the gas gubbins there. I reckon it took me about 2 hours to get that bolt out, and 10 minutes for the others :lol:
one stripped block:
I started cleaning the decks of the block up ready for new gaskets:
And while I was on thought I might have a bit of a basic tidy up. So, I started cleaning down the cylinder heads:
Then painted them and lacquered them with high temperature engine paint and lacquer:
You can see the old plugs in there still, I left them in during painting to keep the plug holes safe and masked off.
I also decided that during the strip down process, and having had classic's before that eat exhaust manifold gaskets regularly, there was no way in hell
the standard heatshields were going back on, they're a nightmare to fit and refit and just hold the job up. So I set about tidying up the manifolds for
refit, and ordered some heatwrap to use in place of the heat shields.
Manifold after tidy up:
Then I set about wrapping them with the heatwrap:
Thanks to a postal cock up I only ended up with enough heatwrap to do one and half manifolds, so I wrapped the drivers side bank as it's under the gas kit,
and hardest to remove, and I'm waiting on more for the passengers side, which is pretty easy to remove and wrap at a later date.
Carrying on with a basic tidy up, I started cleaning up the plenum chamber as well, as it was pretty mucky and corroded:
Looking a bit better:
Next up were the rocker covers, which were really tatty.
I nitro morsed them down, and removed all the old paint and crud:
That left me with these, which already looked better:
A few coats of primer lashed on:
And some crinkle effect red high temperature paint tidied them up nicely:
Next I started to re-assemble the engine, bolting the heads back to the block with new stretch bolts and composite gaskets.
Test fitted the rocker covers:
Then I refitted the passenger side cylinder head and rocker cover:
Then it was pretty much just a case of refitting connectors and bolting everything back up. I fitted a new inlet manifold gasket, as well as new rocker
cover gaskets, stainless inlet manifold and rocker cover bolts, and fully serviced the car, fitting the correct NGK plugs, and doing an oil flush before
fitting new oil and fuel filters, and firing it up. Fired up a treat first time, chuffed was I :-)
Shamefully, I've just realised I've not actually got a picture of the completed engine bay, I'll grab one later on. It's looking a bit better anyway. The
car is completely transformed, I suspect the head gasket has been slightly blowing since I bought the car, as it's far smoother and quieter now than it's
ever been. The idle is back to perfect as well, whereas before I was having problems with random high idle issues.
Next on the agenda, cosmetic tidying up a bit. Over the winter I acquired a nasty scratch down the drivers side rear door. It's really obvious with the car being a dark colour, and I've been wanting to have it painted for some time. Seeing as it needed painted anyway, I decided to have a go at wet sanding the scratch out, and polishing it up.
The scratch originally:
During the wet sanding process:
And after 2 passes with some rubbing compound, and a good dose of SRP, it's now looking like this:
It's slightly duller, I reckon it'll need another polish, but it's far better than it was, I'm happy with it for now.
Next modification:
It's now cleaned and polished and all the residue is removed, I prefer it tbh, a bit cleaner and I never really liked the green and gold of the Land Rover badge against the blue.
Then I wanted to clean up the front end a bit, there is a wealth of plastic trim on the front of the car, both the lights have lips underneath, the lower half is colour coded, the upper being black plastic. The grille is also black plastic, and I'm forever trying to keep it black and stop it from fading.
I removed the front grille and light assemblies:
Next was removing the lower lips from the lights, and the light wipers, for painting, a quick rub down and then some filler primer:
followed by a few coats of plastic primer:
AGA's are well handy for quickly drying coats of paint :lol: :
Lash on a few coats of colour, I got the paint matched and mixed by Ashington Autospares:
Also I was rubbing down and priming the wipers and grille:
After lacquering, the light lips had a fair bit of orange peel having been rattle canned:
I started wet sanding these down, took this pic halfway through:
and then brought them up using rubbing compound and SRP:
I chose Land Rover Java Black for the grille and wipers, I wasn't sure whether to go with a dark grey or black, but I've chosen black. I'd like to get the bumpers colour coded in the future, so I think the black will look better then.
All the painting of bits finished left me with enough time to give the car a quick wash off ready to refit the newly painted bits:
And fitted:
Took a quick trip over Alnwick moors and grabbed this picture:
It's nice to have it back in one piece and looking half decent again
I think the only other thing I've been doing is to start replacing the old amber / yellow interior lights with fresh white LED's, it's hard to get a good picture of what it looks like, but they're really nice, a bit softer than the old lights.
The scratch originally:
During the wet sanding process:
And after 2 passes with some rubbing compound, and a good dose of SRP, it's now looking like this:
It's slightly duller, I reckon it'll need another polish, but it's far better than it was, I'm happy with it for now.
Next modification:
It's now cleaned and polished and all the residue is removed, I prefer it tbh, a bit cleaner and I never really liked the green and gold of the Land Rover badge against the blue.
Then I wanted to clean up the front end a bit, there is a wealth of plastic trim on the front of the car, both the lights have lips underneath, the lower half is colour coded, the upper being black plastic. The grille is also black plastic, and I'm forever trying to keep it black and stop it from fading.
I removed the front grille and light assemblies:
Next was removing the lower lips from the lights, and the light wipers, for painting, a quick rub down and then some filler primer:
followed by a few coats of plastic primer:
AGA's are well handy for quickly drying coats of paint :lol: :
Lash on a few coats of colour, I got the paint matched and mixed by Ashington Autospares:
Also I was rubbing down and priming the wipers and grille:
After lacquering, the light lips had a fair bit of orange peel having been rattle canned:
I started wet sanding these down, took this pic halfway through:
and then brought them up using rubbing compound and SRP:
I chose Land Rover Java Black for the grille and wipers, I wasn't sure whether to go with a dark grey or black, but I've chosen black. I'd like to get the bumpers colour coded in the future, so I think the black will look better then.
All the painting of bits finished left me with enough time to give the car a quick wash off ready to refit the newly painted bits:
And fitted:
Took a quick trip over Alnwick moors and grabbed this picture:
It's nice to have it back in one piece and looking half decent again
I think the only other thing I've been doing is to start replacing the old amber / yellow interior lights with fresh white LED's, it's hard to get a good picture of what it looks like, but they're really nice, a bit softer than the old lights.
Thanks for your comments :-)
Imran, it is better on LPG. It has a sequential injection system, so there really is no discernible difference in running between gas or petrol. Petrol is very slightly quicker.
On LPG this morning on the way to work I got 22.3mpg average out of it. That's the best I've ever had, it seems far better, and far smoother since the rebuild. At 73p a litre for gas I think it works out at 15p a mile "ish"?
Imran, it is better on LPG. It has a sequential injection system, so there really is no discernible difference in running between gas or petrol. Petrol is very slightly quicker.
On LPG this morning on the way to work I got 22.3mpg average out of it. That's the best I've ever had, it seems far better, and far smoother since the rebuild. At 73p a litre for gas I think it works out at 15p a mile "ish"?
Spoof said:
Bloody hell, it's looking fantastic now.
Cheers Chris Got a few other bits and bobs to sort over the next month or so, but it's getting there. I'm starting to gather bits for a suspension overhaul as well now, bottom ball joints, bushes, and some new Bilstein Shocks.
Just takes time!
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