My Disco Progress - Pic Heavy!

Hi all,


I've decided to start a thread to track the progress of my Discovery. It's not likely to be the most exciting thread - but I thought it would be a nice way for me to be able to look back at the changes it's gone through. Apologies if I ramble...


I bought my Discovery in late February this year as a weekend toy for green laning and the occasional trip to work.


I was initially in the market for a green one, I had seen several which were all dogs. By chance, I decided to have a look at this one which turned out to be so much cleaner than the rest. There is no major rust, only paint beginning to bubble on the inside of one of the rear arches inside the doors which have never been repaired - and the sunroofs don't leak
That alone was enough to seal the deal!

It is a 1998 300TDI Manual and it's a GS


Here are some pictures as I picked it up. It had spent 9 years with the last owner who had clearly never been off road. I was starting to feel guilty about buying this for green laning!












First trip out!





It's got mud on ...




I was loving it, but after a week or so - It let me down, the battery was dead. I ordered a new battery but the issue came back.
Eventually after a bit of help from the forum I tracked it down to a small outdoor thermometer which was interfering with the immobiliser!!




Once that was sorted, I started on making it look nice ... and naturally, things got out of hand

Machine polished - this took AGES but brought the paint up to the original deep Rioja Red - rather than a strange Salmon pink!


You might have noticed the gear gaiters were ripped. I bought a kit off ebay to replace them (seen here SET 3 LEATHER GEAR GAITER FITS LAND ROVER DISCOVERY MK1 MK2 | eBay)
Very cheap and really tidied the interior up.

A few other bits:
Tailored carpet mats and rubber boot liner
Replaced tatty sun visor with duct tape on
Shampooed the rather grubby interior and carpets
Wind deflectors
Aero twin wipers (so that they actually clear the windscreen!)

Here are a few pics after all that effort!












Still awake?




As charming as the radio was, I wanted to connect my phone - so I fitted a Kenwood bluetooth radio, some decent speakers and a chavtastic subwoofer which I had in the garage. The original bass speakers in the back door were causing a lot of rattles so they had to go.

Leather steering wheel cover (had to use my non existent sewing skills!)


Under the bonnet / Mechanical stuff -

I was getting a bit tired with the lack of power so i've done the usual stuff to improve it.

Removed EGR and flushed intercooler
Silicone hoses
Tweaked fuel pump

Cam belt, aux belt, tensioners, water pump, alternator etc
Oils, fluids and filters changed
Brass radiator bleed screws
Rear a-frame ball joint
Rear shocks
Prop dougnut


Other bits -


Pre-facelift Disco 2 headlights, I decided to have a go at making mine look just the same with a tin of hammerite it didn't go too badly!

Front bumper with fog lights and rubber/foam a-bar with spots.

The mud flaps were all gradually dropping off, so I have replaced them along with the brackets.




Cream Leathers - My Discovery hadn't got any provision for electric seats, so I was lucky to get all the wiring and switches with the seats. I also got a centre console at the Peterborough LRO show which I drilled holes and fitted the seat controls to. It's from a Disco 2 but fits fine - I intended to change the leather lid, but it matches the piping on the leather so i've decided to leave it.

They took a lot of cleaning up, but it was well worth it Land Rover Leather Seats - Detailing World







And proof it still gets messy (same ford as before)






So if anyone has made it all the way through - thanks for reading! I'll keep this updated with any little bits I do in the future.

Looking good

It still looks too clean in the last photo I think I needs to see some proper mud


Good work anyway. It's definitely a looker.

Looks just like mine! But shinier! Nice work.

What seats did you use? Are they d1 or d2 seats

Looks good. mine needs a shine what polish did you use.

Thanks for the comments

Neildisco300 said:

What seats did you use? Are they d1 or d2 seats

Click to expand...

They are from a disco 1, but it was an ES Premium. You don't see as many of those. TD5 seats don't fit IIRC which is a shame as there are some nice ones and most disco 1 leathers are knackered by now.

cambridgecockney said:

Looks good. mine needs a shine what polish did you use.

Click to expand...

I have a machine polisher, so I used specialised polish for that. Menzerna I think was the brand. Such a better finish than hand polishing and much less effort!

LOOKS Nice, if I get mine anything close to as good as your's I'll be very happy!!
Will Disco 2 Seat controls plug and play with my Disco 1...already has leather and the seats do work, well back and forth, knob missing on both for the back adjustment..if I stick a screwdriver into the control the passanger one works the drivers does not so guess knacker inside?
Anyway it not a priority, MOT is before I start spending on the little finishes...but did notice they look very similar on ebay...
Rossy

Yeah I knew d2 seats did not fit, just your seats don't look like the normal d1 seats. I want to find some nice good leather for mine. My cream leather is all perished and cracked.

Rossy said:

LOOKS Nice, if I get mine anything close to as good as your's I'll be very happy!!
Will Disco 2 Seat controls plug and play with my Disco 1...already has leather and the seats do work, well back and forth, knob missing on both for the back adjustment..if I stick a screwdriver into the control the passanger one works the drivers does not so guess knacker inside?
Anyway it not a priority, MOT is before I start spending on the little finishes...but did notice they look very similar on ebay...
Rossy

Click to expand...

Ahh thanks!

I don't know about disco 2 controls - see if you can find a picture of the back of them to see if the pins are in the same layout. Buying new controls should be a last resort as they're very expensive and most likely on their last legs too!


Have you tried stripping the controls down as per the guide on here? I think the ball bearings slip out of place which causes them to stop working properly.
Finding the little buttons which you push for the backrest control could be tricky

Good luck!!

Neildisco300 said:

Yeah I knew d2 seats did not fit, just your seats don't look like the normal d1 seats. I want to find some nice good leather for mine. My cream leather is all perished and cracked.

Click to expand...

I hadn't seen these seats until I spotted them on eBay. I think they were only fitted to the ES premium which was produced very late on (1998 or so). But could be wrong there. The contrasting piping adds a touch of Range Rover I think

Very nice, miss mine.

Little update -

Got some headlight guards fitted over the weekend. I've been trying to track them down on eBay for a while - I ended up buying the two separately. One was brand new (seller buys discontinued stock) and to my surprised they included an original fitting kit with it for both guards, with instructions.
The other one was used and required a quick sand and paint with hammerite spray.

Big thanks to Discool for info about these.






I've fitted some brighter interior lights too - they are SMD panels in 'warm white' so they aren't a harsh white like normal LED's. Here's a comparison of how much brighter they are!!!




Had a bit of an incident when taking my old bed to the tip - I had the front seat folded flat with the longer pieces running the length of the disco. I had to brake sharply for a car coming the other way when I tried to pass a parked car - this happened!




I've replaced the glove box, but I'm now tempted to move over to a beige dash to match the interior better.


I went down to my Landy man at the weekend to track down the cause of the backlash in my drivetrain. After a lot of looking and moving things, the only obvious thing was some play in the CV joints and hub flanges (the bits with 5 bolts round and splines) so they will be getting changed at some point to see if that helps.



Also, would any friendly moderators mind moving this to the members vehicles forum? Thanks!



Thanks for looking!

Check the splines on the output shaft of the gearbox, that's what the backlash was on my dads 110

Greenmanj08aw said:

Check the splines on the output shaft of the gearbox, that's what the backlash was on my dads 110

Click to expand...

I don't think it was too bad on mine. He reckoned there was a little bit of play in the bits you would expect but not enough to worry about and not enough to be causing considerable backlash.

There did seem to be a bit more play in the CV's so we are going to replace them and see what happens.

I'm not in much of a rush yet as it's not got any worse since I got it. Just thought as it's a tidy Disco then it might as well keep it nice.

Shame it wasn't just a UJ!

Great looking disco mate, gorgeous!
Must say I've got a thing for standard-looking discos...looks like it's from a 90s LR brochure!
Josh

Nice few touches you have done to that!

Very nice looking disco.
Love the new seats and the transformation they've made to the interior.....matching dash would be nice too

You lot are making me blush

I've started on some DIY sound deadening (flash strip and camping mats) around speakers and wheel arches etc. I'll update when that is done.