Disco 1 Project: All Fun, Good Times, No Drama

Ola!

Hello all good people of the Land Rover World!

Thanks for stopping by! Welcome to my project and I'm planning something different (hopefully) from the other threads... This will be all about the enjoyment and fun as opposed to focusing on the negatives! In part because the latter would be too boring and it's a life choice at the end of the day, we all chose our cars and we should ALL be enjoying them!

So on to the positives!

1. It's my third car (as in one of three)
2. I don't need to use it for work
3. I got it dirt cheap
4. It's the first one I've ever had, so it's an exciting new thing
5. It's slow, which is a good thing compared to the other cars
6. Lastly, it's a classic!

So background: I'm Tom, work as an I.T. contractor, live in Totteridge and Whetstone (don't worry, no one's heard of it either) in North London. I cut my teeth originally on aircooled VW's moved onto watercooled VW's and more recently moved onto Jap cars in the pursuit of speed/function.

Here's a couple of the previous cars/projects etc:



















Here's the current stock:

Evo 6:



R33 Skyline:



And introducing, the new entrant!



She's (yes, she's a female) a 98 300 TDI, bought as a relief valve for the other cars more than anything, but it'a mad how much I'm loving the whole experience already, slow and ponderous at first on the road - the massively flat tyre wasn't helping my first motorway experience in her on the way back from picking her up but aside from that all is good, even Pepper is enjoying the new home (looking very regal I must sayin her new travelling home!)



Plans... Not 100% sure at the moment - it's still going to be very much a road car, but it would be nice to be able to use it for what is and get it a little muddy, rather than use it as a Chelsea tractor, plus the Evo is about to under go quite an expensive period of spending (new turbo, ECU, wheels, wider bodykit etc) so the spending might have to take a back seat for a while, but it'll be a nice slow burner of a project.

So there we are! Welcome! It's all in the name, "all fun, good times, no drama", so that'll be both the name of the thread and the mantra throughout owning it.

Hello and Welcome to the loonyzone.

Looks a clean Disco, what is the steelworm status?

Cheers

neilly said:

Hello and Welcome to the loonyzone.

Looks a clean Disco, what is the steelworm status?

Cheers

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Hello!

Thanks for the kind welcome Sir!

Well I had a decent look round it before buying and it didn't look too bad at all, it had a couple of bits taken care for the MOT with a few advisories of under body corrosion, so I'm planning on taking out the interior tonight and having a bit more of closer look tonight and I'll get my eye in for how bad it really is and what's lurking below the surface, fingers crossed it won't wind up like this...



I'm sure I'm in for a surprise, but it's only cutting away and repair panels at the end of the day, the Kurust, grinder and MIG are on standby

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/new-sills-and-sliders-made-today-pic-heavy.223454/

Just an idea of the sills are rotten

I have another thread on rear cross member too if you need it.

That disco is now laid up waiting for a rebody into a series/defender/disco hybrid frankenrover current one is a v8 with desperate engine rebuild needs but still plodding on.

DiscoPol said:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/new-sills-and-sliders-made-today-pic-heavy.223454/

Just an idea of the sills are rotten

I have another thread on rear cross member too if you need it.

That disco is now laid up waiting for a rebody into a series/defender/disco hybrid frankenrover current one is a v8 with desperate engine rebuild needs but still plodding on.

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THAT'S AWESOME!!! LOVE THAT! How long did that take you to make can I ask? That's amazing! Is that an idea that's been done before or is that all your own making and such?

And yeah, I'm fully in sponge mode at the moment, so anything else I can hoover up in terms of knowledge the better dude!

Thomas Lenthall said:

THAT'S AWESOME!!! LOVE THAT! How long did that take you to make can I ask? That's amazing! Is that an idea that's been done before or is that all your own making and such?

And yeah, I'm fully in sponge mode at the moment, so anything else I can hoover up in terms of knowledge the better dude!

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It is a mash up of a few other ideas, but the beauty of these things is you dont mind trying something a bit different seeing as they were never really pretty to begin with, what harm can it do.
time wise there is a full day at least in the sliders and about the same in the crossmember, good long summer days when you can enjoy being outside and getting on with it, i always prefer doing the welding outside as the light is better than working in my garage, even with flood lights and work lights its either too dark or blindingly bright.
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/pics-of-new-box-section-rear-crossmember.222729/

that is a rear crossmember in the same vein, Im guessing that these and rear wheel arches and boot floor with possibly the front inner arches are what you might just have in store for you with your new purchase, sadly all well know rot traps.

Hey all,

Managed to get out of work on time yesterday, so decided to have a little tear-down and see what delights await me within my first week of Land Rover ownership under the carpets of doom... I should probably admit at this point that while twirling the trim removal tools between my fingers I wasn't feeling that confident and was already in part typing "repair pan.." into eBay...

So wind back to about a week ago when I first picked her up, I knew she had had a little of the rust taken care of for the M.O.T. (whether this was a Stevie Wonder M.O.T. I wasn't 100% but took it anyway). I was always curious about what lay beneath as I could have started taking the whole thing apart in front of the poor guy but decided against it, opting for the cross your fingers and hope option.

So onward... I started with the boot floor as this can one of the worst areas (que bead of sweat running down my forehead...)

Plastic/carpet thing off...



Carpet and sound insulation off:









Pretty bloody good I think you'll agree....

Passenger footwell/sill:








Second worst overall, but still nothing to write home about, the Evo was worse than this when it got imported...

Passenger side rear sill:



Driver's footwell/sill:



Driver's side rear sill:



First place in terms of the rust bug is the driver's side rear arch, looks like a full replacement is in order me think - but still, could be a heck of a lot worse!







Few random underneath shots seeing as I covered in crap already, I thought I might as well take a gander:























So coinciding rather spectacularly with my "you haven't run away screaming yet" award (lol - btw) all is looking very promising indeed and even got a free roof rack thrown in for free as well! Whether it's actually for this car and fits I don't know, but overall it's a win!



...Leaving Pepper a very happy girl and ready to enjoy Summer!



More updates coming soon, probably around servicing and keeping her fit for long run!

#teamoptimism

That's a dog guard you plonker, not a roof rack. But overall it looks like you may have got off very lightly. I hope you don't find too much more, good luck to you.

DiscoPol said:

That's a dog guard you plonker, not a roof rack. But overall it looks like you may have got off very lightly. I hope you don't find too much more, good luck to you.

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haha, I did honestly mean dog guard, but I was in the middle of writing down a separate list of things I want to buy haha.

Yeah, it looks like I got off pretty lightly! Plan is to take all the interior out and then start converting the rust that's there to something a little less aggressive - am I alright to just use Kurust or something similar? Then re-finish it and pop it all back in!

My current faves are the Buzzweld products.
Owner is a Landy guy I believe

http://buzzweld.com/products/comprehensive-chassis-kit-internal-external-rcp-cio-cci-lance

This service looks pretty good from these people - CSK Automotive (and not too far away)

http://www.cskautomotive.co.uk/waxoyl-dinitrol-rust-treatment/

Thomas Lenthall said:

This service looks pretty good from these people - CSK Automotive (and not too far away)

http://www.cskautomotive.co.uk/waxoyl-dinitrol-rust-treatment/

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Go for Dinitrol over Waxoyl. Waxoyl can allow water through and trap it against the chassis because it doesn't self heal like Dinitrol.

I am looking forward to watching this thread. Like you my D1 is my first Landrover, only owning German cars prior to that. It's also my 3rd car, but was bought to travel European countries on short 3 week adventures once a year.

You may find this build thread interesting:
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/auf_wiedersehen_pets-build-thread.206921/
I certainly enjoyed reading it and I think you will find that it's probably akin to some of the things you have planned.

KNine said:

............
You may find this build thread interesting:
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/auf_wiedersehen_pets-build-thread.206921/
I certainly enjoyed reading it and I think you will find that it's probably akin to some of the things you have planned.

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Oooohh Thomas,
similar themes are "harmful" for bank accounts.
.... always makes you smile, .... going to be nice theme ( there will be photos ).