Highlander in Yorkshire · Mar 12, 2020

I wasn’t getting any heat out of the drivers window vent, nothing at all. A quick check and I could feel hot air coming from underneath the lower dash. Removed the parcel tray etc and took off the lower dash. It was so rotten (especially the corner near the hole for the heat exchanger) that no air was making it the full length of the lower dash. Figured I would never want air to my feet so.....
rebuilt the square hole that mates with the heat exchanger (old metal, some rivets and some araldite). This worked really well and we then had a good mating structure for the exchanger. I laid a bit of 40mm waste pipe in the dash and basically filled the rest with expanding foam; air destined for the drivers side had to go through the pipe; all other routes were blocked by the foam. The only problem now was that all the hot air basically blasted straight out of the passenger vent. So, a home made flap valve inside some more waste pipe (slightly oval wooden ‘flap’, connected to a wooden dowel, operated by a radiator knob). The line on the knob represents where the oval flap valve is. Bit gash looking I know but did the trick. I’ll tart it up when I’ve fixed more pressing stuff.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 7, 2020

Finally got a coat of paint on the roof today so, my thoughts turn to the roof lining, in prep of getting tropical back on. Both interior roof liners were pretty manky with lots of wee rips throughout. Patched up the rips by glueing similar coloured cloth on the reverse. Bought some spray after googling Vinyl flexible spray and got to work. It’s not a perfect job but wanting to keep the original liners, I reckon they look not bad... well the front one does. Currently, rear liner (hanging up) being bleached to dull the most severe marks. Will give it a good scrub tomorrow and start spraying the next day.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 10, 2020

Here is the result of several days spraying.... just 5 mins a time.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 10, 2020

The weather warming up a bit this week I thought, let’s get a coat of paint on the roof.... the roof roof, not the trop roof, which has been finished for months now, waiting to be put back on. Soon as I started on the first day, wind picked up so had loads of wee seed type things stuck to the wet paint. Next day no

wind so started painting with gusto. No wind meant flies.... thousands of the wee buggers. But cracked on regardless. I left all the flies etc to their fate until the paint was proper dry and just wiped all the stuck on things with a rough sock over my hand. Honestly, hardly any bits remained stuck and I’m quite happy with the result. Hell, most of it’ll be under the trop roof anyway.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 13, 2020

It was time to get the trop roof back on. Most of the original spacers were shot, mostly split. Rubber washers perished beyond use. Looked up new replacement spacers but way too expensive so just went online (ages ago) and ordered nylon spacer washers, some m8 black bolts and some basic rubber washers. Of all the new kit, wish the rubber washers were a bit firmer but still, they did the job, looks ok and it was cheap.

JJKM · Apr 14, 2020

Lots of nice work here. Like your electrical mods.

dag019 · Apr 14, 2020

Highlander in Yorkshire said:
It was time to get the trop roof back on. Most of the original spacers were shot, mostly split. Rubber washers perished beyond use. Looked up new replacement spacers but way too expensive so just went online (ages ago) and ordered nylon spacer washers, some m8 black bolts and some basic rubber washers. Of all the new kit, wish the rubber washers were a bit firmer but still, they did the job, looks ok and it was cheap.
View attachment 205560 View attachment 205561 View attachment 205562 View attachment 205563

Looking good. I would just keep an eye on the black bolts. They do not tend to last very long, in my experience, before they start rusting. It may be worth looking for some stainless replacements.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 15, 2020

dag019 said:
Looking good. I would just keep an eye on the black bolts. They do not tend to last very long, in my experience, before they start rusting. It may be worth looking for some stainless replacements.

Bugga..... I maybe should’ve given that more thought; thinking more of the aesthetics than practicality there. Cheers though... I’ll keep an eye on that.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 15, 2020

Finally got all my trop roof rivets done, once I bought a long handled rivet gun; my original gun gave up the ghost half way through doing the 45 trop roof rivets. My new gun is good, easy to use but a hell of a shock/bounce when the mandril snaps. .
Decided to get the inside roof linings done, just to free up some space in the garage. Some before and after shots.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 15, 2020

While getting some decent jobs done I’ve been sanding and roughing up ready for some paint. I have the bonnet off and all panels (bar rear and doors - going to treat them as separate projects) ready for a lick of paint. I would dearly love to get a decent spray job done but don’t have the money for that amount of luxury right now. So, I’ll be rolling on enamel again, deep bronze green.... I hope.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 15, 2020

With the bonnet off, going to strip that right back to metal.... it’s in a right state. After this Covid19 lockdown is done I’m going to treat myself to some new top hat sections for the underside.... they’re pretty rotten right now.

dag019 · Apr 15, 2020

Highlander in Yorkshire said:
With the bonnet off, going to strip that right back to metal.... it’s in a right state. After this Covid19 lockdown is done I’m going to treat myself to some new top hat sections for the underside.... they’re pretty rotten right now.
View attachment 205745 View attachment 205746

What are you planning to do with the spare wheel dish? When I did mine I removed it and used a blow torch to get it back to the galv is should be after someone had painted it. This Also allowed me to properly paint the bonnet rather than paint around it. I then refitted I used cap screws to refit mine rather than solid riverts but that was because at the time I did not have a rivet hammer for the compressor. Now I do I would have used solid rivets.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 16, 2020

dag019 said:
What are you planning to do with the spare wheel dish? When I did mine I removed it and used a blow torch to get it back to the galv is should be after someone had painted it. This Also allowed me to properly paint the bonnet rather than paint around it. I then refitted I used cap screws to refit mine rather than solid riverts but that was because at the time I did not have a rivet hammer for the compressor. Now I do I would have used solid rivets.

I was just going to paint round it to be honest. My main concern is the rotten top hat sections underneath but hoping to replace them in the future with bits from YRM Metal. As for getting the paint off the bonnet. Tried a heat gun but was not great ( don’t have a blow torch yet) so using a belt sander to break up the paint and then the orbital sander to get down to metal. I have a good Bosch multitool but the sanding head is buggered.... need to get another one on order.

Dippypud · Apr 16, 2020

Highlander in Yorkshire said:
I was just going to paint round it to be honest. My main concern is the rotten top hat sections underneath but hoping to replace them in the future with bits from YRM Metal. As for getting the paint off the bonnet. Tried a heat gun but was not great ( don’t have a blow torch yet) so using a belt sander to break up the paint and then the orbital sander to get down to metal. I have a good Bosch multitool but the sanding head is buggered.... need to get another one on order.

Unless it's a steel bonnet try not to get it too hot, they distort badly ...

Chemical pastes/liquids maybe the way ...

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 16, 2020

Dippypud said:
Unless it's a steel bonnet try not to get it too hot, they distort badly ...

Chemical pastes/liquids maybe the way ...

Indeed. When I stripped the trop roof my father in law was warning me of this..... using the example of a garage door that distorted under heat. I’m going ok with the sander for now, messy but quick.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 28, 2020

Well, got the bonnet stripped back, taking a few hours of dirty work with sanders and brushes. Treated the underside with hammerite rust beater (it’ll do untiI replace top hat sections.. post lockdown) and then primed the top with hammerite special metals primer. Pleased with the results but going to wait until I get the vents back on before I put the bonnet back on.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 28, 2020

I was dreading taking the rear door of but, it needed doing. Pretty much every screw holding on the door card was rotten and I had very little success in getting them out - drilling or otherwise. As such, a fair bit of damage to the door card was done. I know I could’ve knocked up another one but materials are in short supply right now. So, I repaired all the damage with filler and gave the card a good sanding. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do. The bottom of the door is fairly knackered but, I am hankering after a tailgate door so, just some tarting up for now. There were various spare wheel plates fitted, all with lots of rust, so I had a good couple of hours with a angle grinder brush to get all the rubbish off. You can see in the bottom picture the strange sandy line that was hidden by the door card. I suspect there was a dunking in the sea at some point.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Apr 28, 2020

With the rear door off, decided to take out all the rear windows, so I can get a clean line between glass and frame. Bought some butyl tape from eBay so, once I get some paint on, I will get them refitted.

John S · Apr 29, 2020

Highlander in Yorkshire said:
Oh yeah.... and while we were at it, we took off the tropical roof..... it was well scabby looking and someone had tried to paint the actual roof and made a mess of it. So, in for penny in for pound. Took most of the paint with a heat gun a scraper and when I could do that, used the angle grinder with a brush..... right back metal. Coat of hammerite special metals primer and then two coat of rollered enamel. I’m really surprised how well this came out although time will tell how well it lasts. If found that leaving the paint for ten minutes after rolling then rolling again with the lightest touch (and quite speedy - long roller strokes) got rid of all bubbles and blemishes. PS. The paint I used was £20 including delivery... a lot cheaper that some other suppliers out there and it went on better... in my humble opinion. View attachment 201718 View attachment 201719 View attachment 201720

I like that. I've just taken off my hard top safari to change to a canvas tilt for the summer and intend to refurb it when it's at a proper height. I might just consider using roller enamel as it's straightforward and I've got no spraying equipment.

Highlander in Yorkshire · May 3, 2020

With the rear door sat in the garage with paint drying, time to strip everything of old and scabby paint, several layers, several colours. Took the spare wheel plates back to metal and coated the lot in rust beater. Tidied the rear Door glass retainers and then thought, in for penny in for pound. Out came the angle brush again for the hinges. Gave them a coat of rust beater as well so hopefully get some black Rustins gloss on them tomorrow.

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