Tag Archives: future

Toms Car : More Progress

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Well today included more progress on Tom’s car, we have now removed the front end bodywork from the car.  We are now in the process of removing all the other body to chassis fixings and the other connections such as wiring and heater controls.

Hopefully we will be able to make more progress over the rest of the weekend and also taking and uploading some more photos.
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Next steps will include lifting the body as well as fitting some new parts to replace some of the more… delicate… parts of the car. Updates to follow!

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Tom’s Car : Started

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Well last night we finally got round to starting work on changing Tom’s chassis.  This time round we are going to try and take the body off the car in one piece so that we haven’t got to worry about lining all the panels back up at the end of it.

To do this we have got 3 editions of Land Rover Monthly, which handily show the the process using a 2 post ramp to remove the body.  while we are reliant on human power we think it can be done.

So last night we carried out the following steps:

  • Removed the 10 M8 x 20 bolts from the rear of the tub to cross member tabs
  • Removed the 4 screws holding the filler neck to the tub
  • Removed the Gear lever
  • Removed handbrake cable
  • Removed front bumper

The next steps will be undoing the other connections between body and chassis such as fixing bolts electricals and ancillaries then looking to remove the wings and bonnet to make the body work removal easier.

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Start of a journey

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Well Tuesday 9th June marked the start in our next journey, the delivery of the chassis for the 300tdi 90.

Over coming months we are going to be doing the chassis swap on this car and hopefully documenting it the blog.

Keep an eye out for progress and photos.  The plan for this one might be to lift the body off in one go so we all need to hit the gym a bit.

A long needed update

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Well things have been a bit manic recently so updates were last thing on the mind.

But alas here we are April 2015 and here is an update on how things are going.

Ian’s Car – 200tdi 90

Well 12 months since the rebuild finished, its MOT time again.  Car went in for its test Tuesday 7th April.  It failed 😦  The issues were headlights weren’t bright enough, the drivers door wouldn’t open from inside the car.

So all in all not too bad, but the worst item was down as an advisory but actually caused the end of the test.  A UJ in the rear prop had failed to the point where the tester wasn’t willing to carry out deceleration tests.  The prop was unbolted and the UJ’s purchased and replaced.  the prop then bolted back on and boy did it make a difference.

The door not opening was a case of adjustments on the mechanism for the handles just shortened them a bit and opening now much easier.

The headlights were the biggest concern.  As I have high performance bulbs fitted to the car when the tester said they didn’t register on the testing machine.  So reading around the subject points at a burnt out light switch causing poor performance.  The solution is to put a relay feed to the lights.  I purchased a Red Bison Boomslang from Paddockspares for £30 it was a bargain for the entire kit.  I had it fitted in no time and made a massive improvement, its a product I would recommend to anyone.

MOT Retest 18 April 1pm.  Result: Car passed

Jordan’s Series II

Well not much work has been done on the car since November, panels are now painted but not yet fitted to the car.  The accelerator has now been refitted and the car can be driven around.

The main reasons for this is we have been busy working on Jordan’s Discovery 2, which since november has had a number of coolant hoses as it has been loosing coolant and the pressure build up has popped them.  We have now replaced the suspected cause of the coolant loss and so far so good.

Nick’s Discovery

It has been plodding along as normal.  We had a bit of fun while jet washing it ready for MOT when the jet wash smashed the sun roof.  so that has been replaced and the alpine windows have been taken out and covered over.

Matthews Series.

As Matthew has decided he isn’t friends with 2 / 3 of us working on Land Rovers there will be no further updates about his car as we dont see him any more.

New Cars:

Yes we have been joined by two more land rovers that we can enjoy working on.

Daisy The Defender is a 2006 TD5 90, owned by some friends we have had a little bit of work to do on the car already including replacing a failed fuel pump and then adding some new bits such as chequer plate wing tops and a new bumper.  With being such a new car there shouldnt be that much to do on it for now.

Tom’s 300tdi 90, this is going to be our next big project, Toms car is in need of a new chassis, due to the amount of rust it has, we could go down the route of repair pieces but Tom fancies doing a chassis, so one has been ordered so big project ahead for the summer.  There should be plenty of updates on this one.

Car 2 : 6 Weeks on

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Well car 2 has been on the road for 6 weeks now, with no major mechanical issues to report there are just some minor things we are wanting to look at.

Air Filter

We have recently taken out the air filter housing finished making little changes to the feed pipe and painted.  we went with a spray version of ht Gentian blue the car is painted in and we are happy with the finish.

Thermostat

The car is currently without a thermostat, with it fitted the temp gauge goes very high and was causing concern to us.  The thermostat was taken out and tested on the cooker and opened fine, so we think we need to refit and find out how to bleed the 200TDI cooling system.

Steering

We have some concerns over the steering, we are getting a bit of movement while driving along and your never sure about how much steering to put in when going round corners.

We have spoken to the company that provided the suspension kit and discussed the issues, and the outcome was, the movement while driving might be a side effect of the 50mm lift on the coil springs, making the panhard rod be changing the alignment of the front and rear axles so the car is essentially crabbing along the road.

The vague steering might be caused by the castor of the front axles being out with the lift.

So we are currently looking at the solutions,

Option 1 : fit castor correction arms and adjustable pan hard rod – approx cost £420 allows to keep the new TF201 kit intact

Option 2 : fit standard height springs that should solve the castor and pan hard rod issues – approx cost £80 means working to change the springs all round.

Will update the blog when choices are made.

 

Car 2 : Interior Light Upgrades

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Well after looking at a few sites talking about lighting upgrades I decided its a route i would go down for the rebuild.

For the dashboard I purchased a pack of 8 XENON WHITE SMD LED 501 T10 W5W WEDGE CANBUS ERROR FREE SIDE LIGHT BULBS from eBay  after watching this video on youtube decided it was a 5 minute job so off I went.

Undid 4 screws holding the binnacle, disconnected the speedo cable and then twisted the bulbs out and slotted in the new LED’s checking as i went that they worked.  Reconnecting the speedo and putting the screws back in, then waited for it to go dark to check the result.

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It’s much improved over the original!

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I have also wired in strips of LED lights to the interior lighting which is an improvement on the original light.  I will get a picture of this over the next couple of days.

One final touch I made was to feed a string of blue LED’s in to the chassis and connect up to a switch that highlights the Richards Chassis logo, this is the result.

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Car 2 : Next Steps

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Well now the car is taxed, tested and insured, the post rebuild job list is building:

Body Work – Need to find the part number of the clips that secure the front door galv trims so they can be put back on.

We now have the part number just need to go about fitting them.  Part is MUC3186.

Fuel Gauge – Not working, will replace sender as one of the spades snapped off.

Speedo Cable – Didn’t give accurate reading on way to MOT, tried resitting in to the dial, if this doesn’t solve the problem I will replace cable.

Resolved – The refitting has solved it and now getting an accurate reading.

Thermostat – Replaced during rebuild but wasn’t opening at temperature so will replace again.

Exhaust – Is causing vibrations through the car so want to fit a small length of flex to the down pipe to help reduce vibration.

Air Intake – The position of the air filter meant that with the bonnet shut it was being pressed against the alternator and bonnet causing engine vibration to transfer to body work. We are going to look at a couple of options for this so that the air intake is as waterproof as we can get it.

Rocker Cover – There is a small leak from the rocker cover, I think a britpart component was fitted last time so will look to replace with a genuine item and hopefully sort that advisory out.

PAS Box – The leak on the return pipe i think is down to a missing o ring, so we are going to try and fit one see if that solves the problem, if not spend the money on the correct pipe for the job.

Audio – Need to refit the cars radio for entertaining on trips.

Off Road Prep – I still have a steering and 2 diff guards to fit back to the car, which should help protect when I go off road again.  Also have a CB radio to fit to the dashboard

Security Devices – we have a couple of security devices fitted to the car already, we will be looking to add more to this for extra peace of mind.

Towing Equipment – at the moment no towing equipment has been fitted to the car so this is something that will be looked at.

Slightly longer term items will be:

Winch bumper – while purchasing parts a couple of months back I tempted myself into buying a Huskey winch, so in time we will be looking to make a suitable winch bumper for the car.

Interior – One thing i didn’t look at during the rebuild were the seats.  they could do with re trimming as the backs have split, also the frames could do with painting.  We are also going to look at seating ideas for the back of the car.