Update time. Managed to get some more of the bodywork on but it seems lately that everything is a battle to fit. Always start out with a list of things to get done in a day and end up not doing half of it because everything takes twice as long to fit as I think it will.
Got the Tdci seat tub altered to work with the lt77 tunnel and bulkhead plate. Coated the underneath of it in Dinitrol and seam sealed all the joins before fitting it.
Next up was to try and fit the bate and Dixon tow bar. This turned out to be a right mission. When assembling it to the chassis it soon became clear that the two sections that stretch back and bolt to the fuel tank cradle section of the chassis were miles away from where they needed to be, no matter how I jiggled it to try and get it to fit.
Didn't like the idea of not having those sections bolted to the chassis so I decided to fab up some 45 degree brackets to join the chassis to the tow bar.
Tow bar on and I love it. Gonna need a padlock through the one pin hole I think though to stop some scumbag pinching the hitch plate.
Next up was fitting the front wings and bonnet.
Having the full width intercooler threw up the next problem. The fitting instructions call for you too remove the two slam panel supports and replace them with two brackets that bolt from the intercooler the slam panel. So I drilled two holes in my freshly powder coated slam panel as per the instructions.
With bolts fitted here though it made it impossible to fit the front panel that the grill screws too as the bolt heads stop it sitting back far enough to screw it too the slam panel. Had to make up some nut plates to rivet to the slam panel to give the brackets something to bolt too without getting in the way.
Next up was relocating the handbrake to the top of the seatbox with a range Rover lever. Decided to do this to try and improve the usability of the Landy for my wife. She's only short and it's a struggle for her to reach the handbrake and pull it on and off easily.
Started off by separating the nut from the plate that bolts to the seat tub.
Then welded this nut to the bottom of the new lever which I could then screw the cable into.
Next I positioned it up on the seatbox and drilled the holes before bolting it in.
Getting it attached to the trans box was a bit trickier. I have replaced the box with 1:2 box from a discovery. I didn't realise that the discovery box has a different mechanism that bolts to it for the handbrake. This mechanism brings the cable in from the opposite direction to the defender mechanism. I couldn't bolt the defender mech on as the disco box doesn't have the two front bolt holes drilled into the casing.
. However all this means is that now my cable does a lazy loop the loop rather than a u turn underneath. Had to improvise a bit with the cable connection to the mech as well but it all works well once together
Last thing to do was to wire in the switch on the lever so it throws up the warning light on the dash when it's pulled on. There was a spare connector in the loom next to gear box which I think is for a gearbox oil temp sensor. I pinched a wire from this to take a feed to the dash.
