Project Mud Monkey!!

Well It's about time I put up a project thread now I have ordered a few parts and decided she is sticking around and getting serious work done. It would be much neater on the forum if I ask all question in here than elsewhere.

So looking to get a family car over the BMW I had, my father-in-law at the time was always going on about getting a 4x4 so I looked round wanting a defender 110, Noticed the prices of these where way way way out of my budget for a decent one I looked towards the rrc-p38 Disco 1-2 range to get what I wanted. This beautiful black V8 came up close by, But a guy rang 20 mins before me and brought the damn thing, I then hunted for another V8 LPG joined this forum while googling what to look out for in a discovery and rust being the main one with LPGs making V8's weak, So now I turned towards Non LPG V8's. Found a tidy looking one gave the guy a bell and just said don't sell the fooking thing I'm a 2 hour drive away my father-in-law is on his way to pick me up. So impulse and fear of missing out again I had just bought it without seeing it in the flesh and off Ebay of all place's. So 2 and a bit hours later me and my father-in-law arrive in a narrow street with the landy parked right at the end. My god she looked good, But what about the important stuff the realization I had bought this without seeing it first hit me and I worried if it was a complete dog. So 20 mins of coffee polite chit chat and poking around the landy and the worst of it seemed some bubble on rear bumper and boot floor, After grilling you guys and good on line research I felt this was OK for a discovery I now know it's spotless compared to some fookers I've seen.
So I went from this:


to this:





She has a full going over when brought and a fluid/leak/damage check and we went out and got her muddy and by the look of the servicing and condition she hadn't seen a spot of dirt before so was a christening of sorts





So after some personal issue's she came off the road, Now I have just bought some new tyre's, Exhaust, Bumper lights, A bar with spot's and lastly a 5th freestyle alloy!!

Removed rear bumper and wire brushed all the rust off and brush painted with Hammerite black satin same as the roof bar I got off Pikey!! Both waiting for a rub back with 2500 grit and top coat of rattle can Hammerite black satin. Going to give her a good once over so will update later with pics of work done and questions Thank you for reading I hope you enjoy the follow tails of the Mud Monkey!

First question! What size tyres will fit my discovery?
Secondly how the hell can I get the stereo out.

SnowmanV8 said:

First question! What size tyres will fit my discovery?

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How much do you want to spend and how much work do you want to do?

Price and time is the only limiting factor otherwise the standard 235/70/16 is the max without lifts, arch trims, etc.

SnowmanV8 said:

Secondly how the hell can I get the stereo out.

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Halfrauds do removal tools.

auf_wiedersehen_pet said:

How much do you want to spend and how much work do you want to do?

Price and time is the only limiting factor otherwise the standard 235/70/16 is the max without lifts, arch trims, etc.



Halfrauds do removal tools.

Click to expand...

Haha first question had to be in there. Yeah I found the covers hiding the pin holes

37s will fit

So actually spent the time to play with my landy.
So first off I painted the back up a bit to make it look clean.



Secondly I fitted the new Abar :-D thanks to Dr Evil I didn't #### about cutting the bumper.


Then I went back and put the rear bumper back on now its all fixed up nice.



As you can see the spare alloy turned up it would be nice to get my tyres tomorrow. Need to wire up the spot lights, fix the plug on the back bumper indicator, sort stereo out, fit light bar and move CB ariel, and sort out the damage caused by the ****e wheel cover

Got paper and primer here just hope the paint turns up so I can get on with the polish.

Told you it worked

Dr_evil said:

Told you it worked

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Yeah I took numberplate part off put bar on and forced trim back in place tightened screws and it was job done.

A question for everyone should these look like this.

dust shields or the swivels ?

Nah your tyre is flat

They look ok to me, mine are the same bit more oily/black than that but generally the same.

My V8 that my dad got was bought the same way, first time he saw it was when I delivered to his house.

So working out wiring for spots, I want it on a 3 way switch so that I can have them on Auto(High Beam) Off and Manual(Always on).

My plan so far is to splice into light wiring for full beam in dash somewhere, Anyone with an idea for the best place to do this? Use an ignition live from my cigarette lighter. the lives out from the switch will head into a relay running the main power from the battery to the spots. There will be 2 relays one for the Auto circuit and one for the manual circuit.
Will this work as I have planned or have I made a mistake missed anything? Car will be back in use by this time and I don't want to start cutting and messing around till I'm sure I can finish the job.
What have you guys done with yours?

Wire them into the headlights, fit the breaker switch in that circuit and then do a separate circuit for always on and hook that up to the 3 way switch, all you need for that other on setting is a new live. Tbh I'd do it as two circuits rather than wiring them in as one set, manual breaker on the full beam circuit then wire them up to the old fog light switch or cruise control etc if theres a slot free. I ended up using the old radio button, ripping that out and fitting a rear wiper switch instead so it was always on (radio only works when held)

Full beam on should be a white wire on the back of the drivers head light unit (or it was on my last two but they may have been pre-wired)

wont wiring them direct into the head lights overload the system? I was going to run 2 complete circuits. The high beam - switch - relay - spots. Ignition live - switch - relay - spots.

no because you're only using the headlight wiring as a live to switch the relay on, the power comes from the other pin on the relay which is direct to battery

Right a small sideways move today Has any-one got a lockup local to bristol where I can hide the landrover?

Cheers John

SnowmanV8 said:

Right a small sideways move today Has any-one got a lockup local to bristol where I can hide the landrover?

Cheers John

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You do a drive by shooting or rob a bank?

Thor1950 said:

You do a drive by shooting or rob a bank?

Click to expand...

HAHA Something like that

So ran into a roadblock my 48mm socket ain't big enough to remove the hub nut! Will be getting on with the caliper painting tomorrow will post pics once all 4 are done!

Having fun and games with the rear brakes. Learning as I go and finding some nuts a real bastard to undo!!:fighting2::fighting2:
Got all the drivers side off and cleaned up, I made sure caliper was free and cleaned and pained that:



With the wheel fitted:


New hobby tool made the whole job nice and easy:



Stripped down the hub to removed the disc. Wow what a pain in the arse after you have removed hub and disc together you then need to removed the 5 bolts holding them together :fighting2::fighting2:
Had a plan though


Made it nice and easy to kneel on and break the bolts then spin them off without risk to my alloy :bounce: :bounce:!!! Then came time to put little on in bed. More about my engine tomorrow but heres a little taster

She will be at the bristol and west. Even if it's in an urn!!

Well all is almost set just have 1 plug that was cross threaded or over tightened. Letting fanatic have a look before I #### it all up.

You got a goodun there, keep the pics coming