Well I have spent far more time than I would like to admit trying to make a good wiper cover and still ended up with something that I will be looking to replace in time but I do now have one that will do and I am happy enough with for now until I find a good quality replacement. I ended up with two wiper covers one which had been hacked about and had holes dirlled through it, and one that was very very rusty so I set about making the two into one.



The first thing I did was remove the foam vinyl covers which was far easier than I was expecting it to be so I was able to easily reuse the good cover that had not had holes drilled in it.




This then allowed me to begin the laborious task of drilling out the spot welds. I had initially though I might weld them back together but quickly gave up with that idea so used a 5mm drill so I could rivet back together the pieces.



This then gave me a top piece that was complete and had not been hacked about, and a lower corner piece that had not completely rusted though.



A coat of paint and some rivets later and I had a complete shell that I could recover and not have gaping holes everywhere and the plastic trim piece to cover the wiper rack would fit into.



I then refitted the foam cover and glues the edges only down with impact adhesive. This should hold well enough for the length of time that I will have it in the vehicle as I will be looking to replace with a better one when I find one. On fitting there is a slight gap between the flat side and the lower dash/heater duct, and the little lug does not appear to be long enough to engage, but I do not know if that is because I am mixing parts form lots of different vehicles or because my repair work was not quit accurate enough. either way it will do for now and is secure enough I am not worried. I now am just waiting for delivery of the top plastic rail and the dash is complete.

Currently my handbrake warning light is not working. I need to check and/or replace the bulb, and I also need to check the switch (although I have a new switch the handbrake I am using came with one fitted so I left that for now). The first thing I plan on doing is disconnecting the switch wire and running it straight to earth, am I correct in assuming that with the ignition on this should illuminate the warning light?

Can I also check that the handbrake warning light is "(P)" and not the one that says "park brake"?
(pic from google)

dag019 said:

Currently my handbrake warning light is not working. I need to check and/or replace the bulb, and I also need to check the switch (although I have a new switch the handbrake I am using came with one fitted so I left that for now). The first thing I plan on doing is disconnecting the switch wire and running it straight to earth, am I correct in assuming that with the ignition on this should illuminate the warning light?

Can I also check that the handbrake warning light is "(P)" and not the one that says "park brake"?
(pic from google)
View attachment 286875

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Seperate thread link

I have checked it with new bulbs, and known good bulbs from other illuminating warning lights. I have directly earthed the handbrake cable and still no warning light illuminated. I have measures the voltage at the switch and am getting 6V, is this correct? It is not the end of the world as I have survived my land rover ownership up until now without a handbrake warning light but as it is fitted and all of the wiring is there and is new I would like it to work as it is supposed to.

No, 12V .... mines giving me grief too, it's permanently on, unless i go over a bump when it flickers.

Some more pictures of progress as I am actually nearing the end and the list of jobs is no longer growing faster than I can tick them off.

I have fitted the rear light protectors/mudflaps. Once again similar to the fronts these have been cut out of a piece of old conveyor belt. I made them longer than the originals so they will offer some protection to the rear cross member which although galvanised and now covered in a thick layer of dinitrol still needs all the protection it can get. The added bonus of this is that the conveyor belting is much more flexible than the foam original (of which I only had one fitted) so it makes getting in behind it to access light connectors etc much easier.



I also have all of my additional lights now working

As the keen eyed among you will have spotted on my previous post I have also now fitted the doors so I am beginning the struggle of trying to get them aligned correctly (sperate thread link). I have managed to get the drivers door adjusted so that it closes nicley and sits flush with the side. It is not perfect but it is a good as can be expected form a defender in my opinion. The passenger door however I am having issues with. although it closes it required a fair amount of force to close enough to latch and then has a large gap at the rear edge where it is not even touching the seal. I have tried spacing the hinge out a little form the bulkhead and this improved it slightly but still has a large gap. Can anyone enlighten me for which direction i need to move or adjust to improve the fit?

dag019 said:

As the keen eyed among you will have spotted on my previous post I have also now fitted the doors so I am beginning the struggle of trying to get them aligned correctly (sperate thread link). I have managed to get the drivers door adjusted so that it closes nicley and sits flush with the side. It is not perfect but it is a good as can be expected form a defender in my opinion. The passenger door however I am having issues with. although it closes it required a fair amount of force to close enough to latch and then has a large gap at the rear edge where it is not even touching the seal. I have tried spacing the hinge out a little form the bulkhead and this improved it slightly but still has a large gap. Can anyone enlighten me for which direction i need to move or adjust to improve the fit?

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Well I had another go this opening and have something I am now happy with. I spaced out the hung by another spacer and reshaped the door with some brute force and twisting. I think part of the problem was the door top as mentioned above by @v8250 but just unbolting the top and loving out was not enough. Door not closes a lot tighter although still not fully flush it is better than it was before the rebuild. And the gaps all around are not too bad either.

This is definitely a nearly finished update as thing are fiddly finishing jobs rather than large mechanical ones! Today I finished wiring in the electric fan, I just have a couple of aluminum brackets to bend up to finish the mounting and it will be complete.

I have very nearly finished the doors, I am happy with their alignment and I have now drilled the holes for the passenger door card so as soon as the little plastic clips arrive the military door card can be fitted straight on. It only needed a little trimming to fit around the older style door handle and none key lock, and again a little trimming on the front edge where there is a price of aluminum angle to activate the door switch for the interior light as the thinner series door and retaining straps do not go in far enough. I also took the time to dinitrol the inside of the door frames, Although these are galvanised so should not need it the galv process does mean there are nice holes everywhere for easy access.



I also finally got around to finishing the dash instillation with the top trim strip and end handle now fitted so the interior is fully complete



The only thing left on my list of jobs other than painting wheels and fitting new tyres is to fit and align the bonnet and fit the bonnet catches. Then I will need to speak to the insurance company again to work out how to change it form project to vehicle so I can go and get an MOT to get it back on the road an no longer written off.

I hvae now fitted the door card. I know it needs a thorough clean but getting it fitted is more important than being clean atm. most importantly and the reason it has been fitted (I prefer plain doors) is it has a grab handle on it so inconsiderate passengers will stop using the window lock as a handle to swing the door shut.

I am at the point of fitting and trying to adjust the bonnet but have hit new problme. dedicated thread link: here. I have fitted the bonnet and got it to a point where I am happy with the catch alignment and how it closes. However when I fit the bonnet stay (scissor type) the stay then jams the bonnet shut. If you force the bonnet open the stay moves towards the centre of the vehicle and is beginning the bend at the the slot at the bottom which connects to the wing bracket. I assume this is because something on the stay is not long enough to make the arc required and instead it is moving inboard to try and shorten the distance. What do I need to adjust to get this working correctly as it is not an issue I have come across before.

Some very good news, some good news, and then followed by some not very good news.

Very Good news:

I have an MOT!



Passed the MOT on Thursday, although there were no advisories recorded there were a couple of little things mentioned to to sort out Thursday afternoon. the coolant hose to reservoir was toughing the steering arm and the handbrake needed adjusting.

The good news:
After fixing the advisories and tensioning the fan and alternator belts (more to come on that) I successfully made the 300 mile trip on Friday to Duns in Scotland. This highlighted a couple of again minor issues.

The temperature gauge is not working correctly - I anticipated this and stopped enroute to pick up a defender temperature sender this is because I know the disco and defender one are not the same and the disco ones are not compatible with the defender gauge. However after being assured by two different suppliers (first was out of stock) that the defender one is a direct fit for the disco engine, when I arrived and came to change it it is not. One is a fine thread and one is a course thread. So I need to find the correct sender. I think I will bite the bullet and pay the expensive steve parker prices to get one that I know will work.

The speedo over reads by a lot - I have not changed anything mechanical. From memory I am running a blue cog speedo drive which worked fine (3ish mph over at 60) with the original TD speedo, and 265/75 BFG AT's. I am now running new BFG AT's in the same size and a replacement speedo which I believe is out of a 300tdi. I am now over reading by about 10mph at 60 so need to do some calculations and see what is any speedo drive will help rectify those issues.

The fan belt and alternator belt do not hold tension - I know they are new belts and they will stretch but I tensioned them when I fitted them, they have run a little in the barn and to move around the farm yard and were re-tensioned before the MOT, they were then re-tensioned again on retuning home from the MOT (about 40miles), on arriving in Scotland they were very very slack and had been slipping towards the end of the journey. I re-tensioned the belts, fitted some new spring washers behind the bolts to try and prevent the pas pump moving and was ready to head home.

Not very good news!
About 250 miles into the journey home the fan belt began slipping again and then it threw the belt. I usually carry spare belts (along with a few other spares) but had not yet put my box of parts back in the vehicle so was stuck. 2200 on a bank holiday Sunday is not the time to break down and aa could not organize a home relay until 0700 the following morning so I had a very cold night in the car at trowell services!

it is now home and I have dug out the spare belt I have on the shelf and will fit that for the time being. Looking at the pulleys they are rust pitted so I am going the change them out and see if that improves things. This still eaves me with the issue of not holding the tension however. I have had this problem previously with the alternator and just need to order some high tensile nuts and bolts along with some star or wedge locking washers. It is the pas pump I have not had fail to hold tension before. I will try similar with some high tensile bolts and some star or wedge locking washers but it is only into an ali bracket so cannot put too much toque through it before the threads will fail. This may also already be the issue as it did not feel as good as it could have done when tensioning. If the locking washers do not help with the pas pump I will look to either replace or helicoil the bracket, but will start a new thread on the belt tension problems as now I have an MOT I feel the rebuild is complete and other issues are just the follow on of owning a land rover and things are back to normal.

dag019 said:

Not very good news!
About 250 miles into the journey home the fan belt began slipping again and then it threw the belt. I usually carry spare belts (along with a few other spares) but had not yet put my box of parts back in the vehicle so was stuck. 2200 on a bank holiday Sunday is not the time to break down and aa could not organize a home relay until 0700 the following morning so I had a very cold night in the car at trowell services!

it is now home and I have dug out the spare belt I have on the shelf and will fit that for the time being. Looking at the pulleys they are rust pitted so I am going the change them out and see if that improves things. This still eaves me with the issue of not holding the tension however. I have had this problem previously with the alternator and just need to order some high tensile nuts and bolts along with some star or wedge locking washers. It is the pas pump I have not had fail to hold tension before. I will try similar with some high tensile bolts and some star or wedge locking washers but it is only into an ali bracket so cannot put too much toque through it before the threads will fail. This may also already be the issue as it did not feel as good as it could have done when tensioning. If the locking washers do not help with the pas pump I will look to either replace or helicoil the bracket, but will start a new thread on the belt tension problems as now I have an MOT I feel the rebuild is complete and other issues are just the follow on of owning a land rover and things are back to normal.

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Glad to hear you finally got home and sorted.