bankz5152 said:

yeah guna go down see what I can get.

Feels very strange knowing my engine, brakes and parts are or someone elses car. Least they havnt been scrapped

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yep must be spooky weird, looks like a few bits might be worth taking to put on yer new one, sentimental and all that, heater matrix, wiper motor etc looks ok, and ton of scotch clips lol

your recall of the accident got any better or still a bit of a blank spot?

Couple bits this morning before the family awake for Christmas!

Put the A Bar on, marked, drilled and fitted a stainless M10 rivnut.



Also give that this bumper is a very slight difference in design to the old D44 one I had I needed to weld some tabs on the back to support the A Bar. Drawn and laser cut at work so nice being able to cut little brackets so easily.

Welded from the back side in a big V fillet. Not bothering with the top, save on grinding flush.


Ready for paint tomorrow!

Nearly finished painting, one coat left to do.

Bare metal parts, NAS Step & A Bar where coated with x3 coats of Buzzwelds Rust Encapsulator.


Everything else was dont with 2k Raptor thinned 15% @30psi and run through a 1.5mm HVLP gun. First coats on!

For some reason decided to spray my arches at 9 at night

All rubbed down and cleaned, took ALOT of cleaning!

2 coats of plastic adhesion promoter
2 coats of Buzzwelds solvent based Java Black
2 coats of Buzzwelds 2k Resin+ Lacquer with glass flake.

Used 1.5 rattle cans if anyone ever needs to do the same!

Should be tough as nails and flex with the arches!

Will let everything dry for 3 - 4 days in the warm garage before fitting!

Very busy and long day today!

Started with the trailing arms. Gywn Lewis cranked HD with superpro bushes. Easy enough to do, everything came apart and went back together fine




Moved onto the front radius arms, not quite as easy! While the 30mm buts came off the rest did not. Axle nuts all had to be cut off. What do I expect with a 20 year old land rover

Onto my favourite task of all the A Frame. Never had one go well and today was no exception! Not one bolt came off! Main bolts started to undo the seized and wouldnt budge. So went about taking the crows feet off, sheered, rounded, seized. Trust Irwin nut removers and a grinder. All off.

Shockingly the A Frame axle nut came off fairly easily! However the balljoint would not move from the axle. Managed to wedge a crowbar in and used a trolley jack to pop it out. Took a lot of force!!

Luckily I built up the a frame ahead of time.

New and old, should last a very long time, pig of a job!



Couldnt bring myself to do the panhard rod today, maybe tomorrow.

Finally went about finishing the brake line job I started a couple months ago. Not a fun job. The union on the chassis side had rounded over, preempted this and bought some stainless unions.

Cut the old one off, not realising it was a double flare , did a single and of course it leaked. Did a double, it leaked, again it leaked. 5th times the charm and doing it up very tight no more leaks!

Then fitted the axle flexi lines. Makes future work considerably easier being able to put a caliper down and not worry about breaking a copper line.



All bled up, brakes well!

Quick pic of everything I painted yesterday, all stacked up by the radiator to dry.



Tomorrow got some more fun jobs, like heated mirrors, reverse camera, bit of wiring and some speakers!

More after dinner jobs!

Side demisters, massively needed. Never realised how I relied on them in my old 110!

Not too bad of a job really.




While the dash was out fitted a new CSI washer jet, which was lucky as mine fell apart on removal!

Center consoles out and sprayed black, ready for the Raptor dash plate.

Also started fitting the new Focal speakers with dash tweeters! Hopefully the only time the dash comes out.

Disaster has stuck!!

Just about the fit the D44 bumper only to realise I bought the wrong one

Its a non AC bumper! So much wasted time effort and money!

Anyone wanna buy a D44 bumper?

Final bits of the xmas work.

Raptor dash is in, decided to keep the OEM switches this time for a more OEM + feel rather than changing every switch to Carlings like before. Added some USB fast charges and audio inputs for the head unit, left the din cage at home so tomorrow...

None of the upper switches are wired in yet as theres nothing to wire in. Fun fact one of the only things I managed to salvage from my old 110!




Glossy mirror covers because im a tart



Britpart wide arches. OEM fit, OEM flex. Look brilliant. New windscreen blocks too. Starting to look relatively tidy! Just needs a good bath but no point in winter




Just driven home and the ride is considerably and noticeabley different with all the Superpro bushes in. Body roll is better, harness is better just better.

Focal Speakers are good but lacking bass, no comparison to the Infinity speakers I had before. Honestly wouldnt recommend, much better out the from JBL and Harmon Kardon for around the same price. That said 10x better than the stock LR....

Been chasing a small vibration through the steering wheel for a while. Slowly going through everything bit by bit.

Swivel bearings cant feel any play same for wheel bearings. However the swivel ball seal retainer rings have rusted through in multiple places so will need replacing.

TREs no play which is always good.
Only the usual play in the steering column UJs.
Minimal slop in pas box too

So far so good!

Given the state of the other bushes the panhard rod bushes will need doing and are probably contributing to it. Got Superpro to replace.

Last thing to check... Steering damper, certainly seen better days

Bushes are rock solid, perished and collapsed This one i cant even split the washers from the rubber



Replaced with an OME. Massive improvement. Vibration is 90% gone, the rest I will put down to panhard rod and big tyres.

Also D44 bumper sold. Correct Air Con model on the way

Master Cylinder today, gears have been tricky to select recently but improve when pumping the clutch, suggests master failure.

Definitely some fluid leaking passed the seals.



Managed to change the Master without removing the pedal box! Massive bonus.

Just involves wedging a 13mm ring spanner in from the footwell and a 13mm ratchet spanner from the engine bay.





Large improvement but still a bit sticky, need to look at Bias adjustment next.

Then for fun





£20 and an hours work, got underglow, *cough* sorry rocklights

Been a trying few days. Noticed a huge puddle of oil on Monday and a very oily engine bay



First thought was f*ck the HG is leaking! Queue panic mode....

Pulled the rocker cover off. Checked all the head studs, just incase one had worked loose. All tight as the should be.

Checked every bolt, nipped them up a touch for good measure.

I did notice the whole front of the engine was oily so thought I would reseal the cam cover.

Still leaking, panic increasing...

After cleaning up yet again, no oil from the cam cover, however I did see a fair leak from the chain tensioner screw.

Excuse the very messy RTV...



Put a dab of RTV over it and hey presto! Leak sealed! Was dripping out and dripping down the exposed HG edge



So very glad I dont have to do another HG!

What I did find however is I need a new belt tensioner...

bankz5152 said:

Master Cylinder today, gears have been tricky to select recently but improve when pumping the clutch, suggests master failure.

Definitely some fluid leaking passed the seals.
View attachment 307594
View attachment 307595

Managed to change the Master without removing the pedal box! Massive bonus.

Just involves wedging a 13mm ring spanner in from the footwell and a 13mm ratchet spanner from the engine bay.

View attachment 307596

View attachment 307597

Large improvement but still a bit sticky, need to look at Bias adjustment next.

Then for fun

View attachment 307598

View attachment 307599

£20 and an hours work, got underglow, *cough* sorry rocklights

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Which rockies did you go for? amazon cheap's or spensive ones ? I used a set of cheap marine lights worked a treat

KISSMYAURA said:

Which rockies did you go for? amazon cheap's or spensive ones ? I used a set of cheap marine lights worked a treat

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The finest aliexpress £60 for the same ones off Amazon/Ebay. £20 from Aliex.

Tell you been extremely helpful this week locating all the oil leaks

Rear diff pinion seal needs doing, TX rear output seal too

bankz5152 said:

The finest aliexpress £60 for the same ones off Amazon/Ebay. £20 from Aliex.

Tell you been extremely helpful this week locating all the oil leaks

Rear diff pinion seal needs doing, TX rear output seal too

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yep a good led super bright really show up stuff etc LEDS are so cheap nowadays result, and the build quality is not really that bad etc.

Loved your double cab but 110 csw is by far my favourite defender. For some stupid reason I bought a 90 when I had mine as I thought a 110 was too big, my main car now is a big old pick-up which is about same size .
Good to see that you’re also doing a job which keeps the tinkering and fabrication alive.
Nice work

Cheers dude!

Went for a CSW this time as I thought the extra space would be a benefit. There where a few pitfalls having a DCPU that I had to overcome. Not the same with a CSW.

Though the wife preferred the pick up even asked if I could convert it when I brought it home!

It is indeed nice to fabricate things. Also nice having built 3 Defenders previously and worked on many others over the last 12 years I know exactly what im doing this time. Ive got all the tools, I know all the parts and I know whats going to fail.

I also know what works and what doesnt. Which has already saved me a huge amount of time, not so much money because the cost of everything has shot up

Just means everything is more focused and thought out.

Still a loads to do but a fair chunk is sorted.

I did finish drawing the bi-layer wing tops as well. I have lasercut them from 2mm stainless.

Just need the edges rounding over and shot blasting. Then ready for paint!



Ignore the mismatched hole in the middle

Had an exciting drive home last night. Hit a pothole, well sinkhole so hard i almost broke my neck again

Steering went very funny, queue immediate panic as my steering wheel did this

Wheels are straight btw...



Crawled underneath to find a very bent track rod



Rang Gywn Lewis straight away sadly cant get parts before the weekend

But on the way, doing the D2 conversion same as my old one. Basically replaces the tiny weak Defender ball joint for a standard HD track rod end. Much easier to replace, set tracking and greaseable.

So went about "repairing" the old one as I can tell you driving with a bent rod is an interesting experience

First squash with forklift



Second now semi straight welded a 19mm stainless bar across it. Far from neat but it will do until Monday when the proper parts arrive from Gwyn!



TREs are also shagged, boots are split, one has play, others fairly gritty so either way the job needed doing!

I believe what happened is the track rod was bent slightly a while a go, 2 trips to salisbury didnt help and the pothole killed it!

In other news got sick of my interior light, even with an LED bulb so swapped out for a Mudstuff unit. Not exactly cheap but its bloody good! Lightbar vs stock headlights Also got red for those Amsterdam vibes



So impressed ill probably buy another 2 for the rear and second row, eventually....

In even more fun news managed to get an Ashcroft ATB center for £250! So will be off to Nige at Xcess4x4 for an Ultrabuild for the rear and kept the ATB diff from the D2 which ill fit after the rears done and eventually get rebuilt when funds allow!

People often ask why I drive a 20 year old Land Rover built by a man, with a hammer in the North everyday and I always reply with price you pay for an icon and happiness

I even ask myself sometimes but at the end of the day it brings my joy, gives me something to do, something to build. Teaches me new processes, skills constantly. Its access to adventure and fun!

And because of LR ownership ive met some of my best mates, I have the job I do now, where 12 years ago I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. So forever grateful for the ridiculous money spending and long weekends it brings

Normall weld a piece off angle iron on the rear of the tube. It was always easier.
Good to see you are still tinkering with the motor.

Are you missing the disco yet?

Hicap phill said:

Normall weld a piece off angle iron on the rear of the tube. It was always easier.
Good to see you are still tinkering with the motor.

Are you missing the disco yet?

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Ayee angle would have been easier just didnt have any!

I do love to tinker

Not missing the Disco in the slightest, apart from maybe the leak free interior